Name signs for deaf people It's like a trademark.

So the way they use their name, it's who they are.

In general, ASL rule is that you would finger spell your name first, and then do the name sign after that.

My name is I S A B E L L A (name sign) Isabella My name is D A R R E L L S H U L A R (name sign) Darrell S T E L L A In general, there are three types of name signs.

The first is according to your personality, your tendencies or what you do.

My name is (name sign) Isabella, and my name sign is because I have dimples.

My name sign is Stella because Im sweet.

Like my mother, she grew up with this name sign because she loved to play with zippers.

The second type is called lexical.

If you can spell the name, that becomes a sign.

So like my name, Ida is only three letters.

And I don't sign Ida.

(name sign) Ida And then the third type is family tradition.

Both my parents are deaf.

I also have deaf children, which makes them third generation.

My son, his name is B O D E. I always wanted to name my son after my father.

My fathers name was N E W T O N My sons name is B O D E My dads name sign is (name sign) Newton.

But now they have the exact same name sign.

So sometimes people would get confused thinking it's the same name, but it's just the same name sign.

After my dad passed away a few years ago, we can all still recognize that name sign.

The deaf community might give someone a name sign if they have a lot of deaf friends and they're immersed in the deaf community.

Then a deaf person will look at them and find out what their identifying feature is and usually give them a name sign based on that.

When I went to church one time, I had a hearing friend, and I would go to her house.

Her name was Brooklyn, and she didn't have a name sign, so I gave her this because she has blue eyes.

If a name sign is used in a community setting very frequently, then the community will adopt that sign, and that becomes part of the collective understanding.

We play Ninja Turtles.

So like this is the sign for karate, but then I guess this could be part of that, so Ninja Turtles.

And people did come up with this sign for Colorado, but it didn't last because the community didn't accept it.

There are others like the mountains.

So there's still a debate here about how to sign it.

Name signs are our identity really.

And that's important to us.

I think in the 80s, when you went to school, a lot of the teachers would assign all the students the same name sign changed only based on the first letter of their name.

to deaf culture or ASL at all.

The deaf community typically gives out those name signs after they know the person pretty well.

We want to make sure that their name fits their personality.

I've been here so many years.

and Ive seen many different name signs.

And sometimes some students go to a mainstream school or theyre just in a small class, and then they transfer here, and they might have a name sign thats based on their being deaf, and we think, “Let's change that, and give you a name that really matches who you are, and your personality.” at CSDB is just incredible for that.

It's a rich deaf experience here, and so those names should reflect that.

Your name sign, it's embedded in who you are.

Like with kids, if you ask them about changing their name signs, they go, “Why?” I want to keep my name sign (name sign) Isabella.

I like it.

Its who I am.