Discovering your fursona

[Movian]

I have wondered for a long time how others have moved to discover a fursona.

How did you discover the aspects ? the name? how their personality differs from yours?

I have known for a long time I am a dragon, but I have struggled to discover any more (if there is any more)

hoping information on how others did so may help

[Kaiden]

I kind of just based my fursona on my personality.

I can run fast (ironically I can only run fast in short bursts now, stay in shape y'all!), plus I'm skinny.

That and you're the magic behind the mask, so it can be easy to discover your fursona.

Some furries get a little more artistic with it and make up a personality for their fursona, even if it's the polar opposite of theirs.

[Loc]

I just threw different species at a wall until one stuck. Or more than one. I've got my main sona and then a few minor ones. The minor ones tend to be RP characters with different personalities, while the main one is a reflection of me, but reskinned.

The exact details of my main and the name took several years to wind up as they are now - The name was originally much longer, but got shortened over time. And the physical details changed in response to my frustration at my nerve problems and the discovery of transhumanism.

So it can take years to work it all out. Or you might not ever have a fixed, final sona an they will just keep changing over time. And both of those are fine, because people in general keep changing over their lives, and we never really have everything worked out :p

[Firelight]

I went through two animals a wolf and a fox and decided to mash the two together and I ended up with Firelight.

[Old Rabbit]

Ever since I was little I have enjoyed stories and cartoons of
rabbit and animal characters. I was actually sad when I was
old enough to understand that Bugs Bunny was only fantasy.

About 35 years ago I started drawing, and still had a love
of rabbit characters. So when I joined "YERF" an art site
some may remember. I chose "Old Rabbit " since I am older
than most furries or artists drawing them.

I am generally a shy reserved person in RL. Not outgoing at
all. Over the years I have become more outgoing, but like
most rabbits I stay in the background listening to the world
around me.

I found furries online one day when looking for fake fur to
make a plushie. Where I found Furry Muck, and several
other text based roleplay games for furries.

[AwesomeToaster]

There wasn't much more to it for me than "I like cats"

I've been playing a nekomimi since long before I ever became a furry. Through IRC I met some friends in a channel for osu! who were, respectively, a fairy debt collector, a cat (also a witch), and a human who turned into a rabbit girl from the moon when exposed to carrots; and I'd had a number of friends who were furries from my time in the Transcendence community (which has quite a large overlap with the furry community, for some reason...); so it seemed only fitting that I should be some kind of creature! And so, in my infinite creativity, I became...myself, but with cat ears.

Recently I've been making a new character, a female anthro flying fox, currently named "Sam". She came about because I'd been wanting to try out something else for a while, but I didn't want to just be a canine or a feline (I was kind of worried of being unoriginal), and during a discussion with a guy I met at MFF about what I would be if I had the courage and bank account to be a fursuiter, the idea of me being a bat came up, I think because I'm quite small and thin also because being able to fly would be awesome :3

[Iara Warriorfeather]

I have wondered for a long time how others have moved to discover a fursona.

How did you discover the aspects ? the name? how their personality differs from yours?

I have had several fursonae over the years.

My first and most permanent fursona (without realizing it) was a Jurassic Park ripoff Velociraptor  named Raptor. I wrote stories about her adventures when I was 10-11 years old. Eventually Raptor's story changed, as did her appearance and name...she is now named Iara and her most recent story is Iara's Crossing (you can read it in my dA link, see my signature). I've always liked dinosaurs, so having a dinosaur fursona is no surprise.

My second fursona was a skunk named Selma. She had her own adventures in the Australian Outback with a ragtag team of rebels. She was loosely based on the character Geoffrey St. John from the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comic series. I started developing her from the time I was 14 until I was in my early 20s.

My third fursona was a Channel Islands vixen named Catalina. She was primarily for NSFW stories, and I developed her character in my mid to late 20s.

I started developing a final feline fursona in my mid 20s. She was initially a Maltese tigress named Xiaomao, but I began to rewrite Iara's Crossing during this time, focusing heavily on my old stories. In them, Iara had a jaguar mentor. The jaguar became a prominent part of my thoughts in my mid to late 20s, showing up in my meditations, hypnosis, dreams. I recalled just how much I enjoyed learning about jaguars in 4th grade, how much I liked them over other big cats. I kept seeing jaguars everywhere, and I took it as a sign that the jaguar was my fursona, who I was meant to be. I then developed the character Moongaze a couple of years ago.

The names...those come about randomly, I suppose?

Iara is named after a mermaid legend from South America. An Iara is a beautiful woman who lures men in the depths of the Amazon rainforest. She transforms into a sea monster and remains loyal to them, despite her appearance.

Some translate the word Iara into flower, but I associate it with mythos.

Selma was a name I just looked up in a dictionary ages and ages ago.

Catalina fit for a Channel Islands fox.

Xiaomao means kitten in Chinese.

Moongaze...that name just came to me. I like the phases of the moon, and I am rather moody at times. I like to gaze at the stars, birdwatch, all that kind of stuff. My mom chided me with the word 'mooncalf' growing up...Moongaze sounds a lot more pleasant and mysterious.

I hope this info helps...remember, fursonae are a part of you...as Loc said, when you go through phases in life, your fursona will change, too.

[Citr]

My sona hasn't always been a cat since at the very beginning I used to have a wolf character representing me in a furry context. Even though it now feels obvious that my sona is indeed a cat, it wasn't exactly easy to decide what kind of an animal would fit me the best back then. After the wolf there has been a rabbit hybrid, a fox and a deer and none of those stuck around for too long. I eventually came to the conclusion that a cat would fit me better than those so I made a new character, this time properly based on myself, at least personality-wise. Having two cats at home probably affected my choice of the fursona species too since a personally well-known, familiar animal that I also liked a lot felt like the best choice.

Since Citrine is pretty much just me as an animal, the personality aspects aren't any different. The only thing that doesn't resemble me is the outer look although even the clothes are most often based on what I wear myself. Oh and the name is also very different than my own - the name Citrine came to mind after thinking about different variations of Lemon, which is my most used internet nickname. My current sona was also originally going to be called Marie, which then became Marigold as a slight hint to my tendency of wearing a flower in my hair.

[Michen_S]

*sigh* Oh, I really love telling this story. Why don't you take a seat...

One night I was lying in bed thinking about what animal I would be if I was one. It would be a feline that didn't mind the cold that much. The first thought that popped in me was 'snow leopard'. A species I hadn't heard much of. One Wikipedia article later, I decided a snow leopard would be interesting to be, so I stuck with it. I especially didn't consider an other species anymore after watching the series "the snow leopards of leafy London". I saw to my surprise snow leopards can get along really well with humans in captivity (depending on several factors, of course). I know I saw this series well after I made my fursona I know and love, but it still plays a role in the story nevertheless.

Originally I was going to make a blue anthro, but that didn't go that well. Then I decided to make my fursona a normal-colored feral. It appeared to be a good choice, so I decided to keep that. I think my own animalistic tendencies might've helped with that as well. I kept them able to understand and use human speech to be able to have normal conversations with others, during RPs and outside. Their age, however, was meant to reflect a normal snow leopard's life expectation in captivity. Looking for the age of maturity and their life expectancy, I quickly found a way to get around the problem. If I took my age in months and divided it by 5.5 to get their age in months, I could get away with it easily. So that's what I did.

The sex of my fursona was a bit more complicated. It was either male or neither. I eventually chose for neither and found agender as gender identity in the process. I mostly decided this so they (and I) would not have any gender boundaries to work with (or at least less), and partly to stay out of trouble if I ever got into the dark side of the fandom. Turns out I never needed the last reason, but the first one has helped several times.

Now that I had a species and a sex I could decide on the fursona's name. I wanted a name that was sex-neutral, creative and based of Christianity, my personality and my species. Later I added Dutch as an additional classification, and that's how I found the name Michen Sneeuwhart. "Michen" was derived from the Christian name "Michael", and for the surname I combined "snow" and "heart". One Google later I discovered that Michen was only used as a surname before, so it would make for a great permanent name. A name I could use pretty much everywhere. By the way, I pronounce the first name as 'me-gun' rather than 'mitchen'. It's a mistake many people make if they don't the story behind the name.

I always wanted to base my fursona's personality on mine. In the beginning I just built the personality of my character, using my personality as a basis. However, whilst I was creating my fursona, I discovered animal/furry transformations. It intrigued me to no end. So, keeping transformations in mind, I decided I should do a brave attempt at making my character answer the following question: if I transformed into a talking feral tame-ish snow leopard, how would I think and act? I decided that if I ever made a backstory about my fursona that would definitely come back, but I haven't done anything about that so far.

The last thing are my fursona's markings and clothing. Originally Michen had a cross on their forehead, but that has disappeared by now. Michen has a scarf they almost always wear, which is a reference to my necklage. They also have a bandage around the lower part of their right foreleg, mostly to make my fursona better distinguishable. The bandage has no other use, except acting as leg support.

That was the story of my main fursona so far... I'm looking forward to time adding more. And I will save my secondary characters for later...

[Madam Glitch]

How I discovered Yana is kinda strange. You see, Yana was a role-play character that I used back in high school. After I graduated from high school, I didn't really use her at all. Back in 2013, I made the decision to make her my second fursona, because I really felt bad for throwing her to the winds after high school graduation. In 2014, I decided to make her my first fursona.

Her design has changed since I first made her in high school, but her current design is one that I'm keeping from now on.

[Varg the wanderer]

I've always loved wolves. I chose my name (debuted on this site, actually) because it simply felt right and because it's been prophetic I haven't changed it.

I recently switched my species to Malinois after having the pleasure of getting to know quite a few of them. I saw a lot of my own traits in many of them (both good ones and bad ones) and share their (very unwolf-like) attitude towards life: I enjoy serving and making people happy, I love doing things (constantly. I don't like movies/TV), I love solving problems (solutions may involve hitting things... the human equivalent of biting them), and I love protecting others. I can be tenacious, loving, loyal and an asshole all at the same time.

...and canines are awesome.

[Sling]

My concept for Sling, the gazelle/bird hybrid is a very new one for me. The name "Sling" came from my user tag ABWrenchSlinger I've began using, particularly for furry sites and social media. WrenchSlinger, of course, is a reference to my profession as an aircraft mechanic.

I used to identify my "fursona" as a ferret mechanic, which I suppose would have fit fine, being that I do climb through extremely confined spaces as part of my job, but it still didn't quite seem right. I felt like my personality was better fitted to something else.

Since I'm an adventurous type and a runner, a gazelle seemed suitable. A friend of mine also suggested a couple birds, such as an osprey or peregrine falcon. I figured both kinda fit that adventurous/free roaming archetype, so I combined them. So that's how I ended up with a hybrid gazelle character.

[Rocket T. Coyote]

Actually went with moose for a while and made a crude fursuit even before learning about furry. Never encountered any moose in my travels, plus the antlers are ponderous. After discovering the fandom, I settled on coyote because of the Roadrunner cartoons and my close encounters with RL coyotes and the good laughs had watching them.