In Need of Ideas

[Chmera]

  I require a little help, possibly detrimental to you: I'm trying to break away from Lemmings a little and make the species I based on them my own, and I have a few ideas but remain a little stuck. I have the basics down (though these can change, and if you have any genuinely good ideas that conflict I may use them instead). For example, I have their sexual dimorphism worked out:

  The males are mostly scouts, gatherers and scavengers while the females mostly stay put, but hunt and dig when necessary, care for young, and lead the small clans that form in each 'warren'. So they're matriarchal, because I felt like it.

  Something I am figuring out, however is the sort of shape the head should be. They eat a mostly herbivorous diet, but eat meat readily when it's available.

  However, I'm trying to find a head shape that looks fairly aesthetically pleasing as well as 'accurate', feel free to sketch up anything unique and throw it my way. I've quite taken to the idea of them having fur, which at the moment is suede-like and transparent, but I'm considering changing the colour of it, and/or adding markings. I also added ears. The shape of them could change...

  Another is the paws. These have been driving me mad.

  I like the mittens because they sort of work since they're a burrowing species (no gaps for soil to get through) and they're easy to draw, but I feel like I ought to change them.

Last but not least, a new name. I'm having the most trouble with this one, as nothing I come up with fits at all. Any ideas on this front that sound even remotely right are very, very welcome, as are any other physiological details you can come up with that sound reasonable. Ready? Go!

[ccexplore]

I'm definitely the farthest thing away from an artist, so I'm afraid no sketches from me.

About head shapes, perhaps the different sexes could have different head shapes?  Similarly with young vs adults.

I have less opinion on paw shapes except I like the claws the least, but again, it may depend on how you want to present your creatures.  If you want to present them either as more aggressive, or in constant need of being able to defend themselves, then maybe claws would work.  If they are supposed to be more peaceful, docile, cooperative, then I would definitely stay away from claws.  But that's just how I see things of course, maybe other people feel differently.

I'm not even going to try naming because I suck at naming things [edit: let me rephrase that: "I suck at naming things using a single word"].  The first word that pops to mind from your pictures is "faun", but that word unfortunately have pre-existing mythological connotations that are not appropriate to what you have here.  I'm thinking one approach that might make naming easier is if you think of the animal(s) your creature most resembles, but then use the word for that animal(s?) from a foreign language for the name.  Yes it's a little bit of a "cop-out" so to speak to resort to foreign language, but keep that option open in case you need to.

[Dullstar]

Claws would be my way to go.

[Chmera]

  I've got a compromise between claws and no claws - ones that are slightly blunt and are retractable so they don't get in the way.

[Dullstar]

Retractable claws are good!

[Chmera]

  Here we have take 1, demonstrated by the infamous Ch'mera. =P

  The tail does, in fact, have a good reason for being. The fur on the white tip's highly reflective in the dark and has a distinctive texture, providing a high-visibility beacon in low-light conditions and something to take hold of that's well out of the way of any thrown back dirt in no-light conditions.
  That and I felt like it.