Quote:
Originally Posted by Reba
There is a book by Samuel J. Supalla called The Book of Name Signs, Naming in American Sign Language (Dawn Sign Press, 1992) that explains name signs and their origins. The book shows illustrations of common name signs for each letter of the alphabet.
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The book was exactly what I thought of when I read this thread. If I'm not mistaken, the book also explains there are two different kinds of sign names: traditional and descriptive. There are many cultural and lingustic (ASL) rules about assigning and using name signs. My name sign is descriptive and it was given to me by my first teacher who was not deaf but a CODA (but the classroom aide, who was culturally Deaf approved of name sign) - since I loved to draw (and not pay attention to him), my name sign has to do with drawing on the palm. My traditional name sign is different - it has the first letter of my name on my upper left chest. I now use the descriptive sign name only.
