„Name Me“ vs. „My Name Is“

[McKenna H.]

Hello! I am new to sign language and very new to this forum. I have a question about a sign I learned in a „More About Me“ learning module on SignSchool. I will upload a video but in case I‘m not clear enough in signing it, it‘s basically the sign for „name“ but without tapping the fingers of the two hands together, and bringing the hands either towards oneself or towards the other person. For the former it’s supposed to mean „Name Me“ and with the later it’s „Name You“. I have the feeling that this is different from „My name is...“ or an unnecessary „your name is...“ but SignSchool doesn’t provide further context or clarification for the signs it teaches. Needless to say this forum will be very helpful to me.

Thank you kindly!

- McKenna

[Cody Hartjes]

hi McKenna, for this sign, it is different from, "my name is" as the signs and movements are different from "Name You" which is what is signed in the video. However there is little context for the given video so it is hard to determine the meaning. For instance when you ask for someone's name, normally you would furrow your eyebrows as if you are asking them a question and tap four fingers twice for the sign "name" maybe even tilt your head slightly as indicating the question. This sign"Name You" entitles a different meaning. I hope this helps! 

[McKenna H.]

On 12/12/2020 at 10:03 AM, Cody Hartjes said:

hi McKenna, for this sign, it is different from, "my name is" as the signs and movements are different from "Name You" which is what is signed in the video. However there is little context for the given video so it is hard to determine the meaning. For instance when you ask for someone's name, normally you would furrow your eyebrows as if you are asking them a question and tap four fingers twice for the sign "name" maybe even tilt your head slightly as indicating the question. This sign"Name You" entitles a different meaning. I hope this helps! 

Thank you for your response! I know that the two signs are different. What I want to know is why they are different. I‘m wondering why someone would sign „Name you“ instead of „what is your name“. I imagine that they have two entirely different meanings. The reason I didn’t use the facial expressions is because I‘m new to sign language and I don’t really know yet how to make the proper facial expressions. In the video I saw, however, the person furrowed their brows and tilted their head forward. Hopefully this helps!

[Cody Hartjes]

So, as an example, lets say we were talking about a website and I want to know the name of the website. In context, it would be appropriate to use the sign similar in your video. Because the sign used in your video can also be used to express, "it is called..." because i want to know the name of the website and you sign "name you" the translation can be expressed as such. So if we were talking about a person, and you ask for their name it would be the normal sign for name which is "U" handshape and are crossed like an x over one another tapped twice with the corresponding facial expressions. I hope this helps!