BJD Sculpt Names Discussion

Yes, I remember this discussion here on DoA!

 

I love Japanese names, even if they are very common, like "Ryoma" *g*, meaning "horse" or "dragon". Least favorite are old-fashioned German names, like "Hansel" for example... ugh. EDIT: But I'd rather go for "Hansel" than "Penis" of course !

 

Heh. Yeah. Penis! ... I really wondered if they'd done it on purpose! (Innocent eyes: Oh, really? But it means something else, like beautiful flower, in our language! /// Really thinking: We can pretend it was a mistake to call our doll Penis! Mwaaaahhhhhahahahahaaa! We got lots of people to say Penis!)

I'm actually quite surprised at most of the names. They really aren't bad at all. And many of them are names I'd want to keep, even if it isn't the most original. I will sometimes only change the name slightly--so it is easier to name my dolls and remember the sculpt! There are a few sculpt names that I prefer to any name I can think up!

 

I love how Soom name their Super Gems after actual gems and minerals. Some are very obvious (Beryl, Garnet), but a lot are much more obscure (Vesuvia, Chrom). I also love how all the Rosette School of Dolls girls are named after flowers. It took me a long time to realise it, even though Violet and Sakura were very obvious. I'd never heard of Armeria or Camillia, and it wasn't until another poster mentioned the flower naming scheme that I went to look them up!

 

As soon "Sculpt Names You Don't Like" appeared, I instantly thought Yder.

My brain seems to dream up a new, weirder way to pronounce it every time, and I'm pretty sure not one of them has been correct yet.
But yes, mostly ones I can't think how to pronounce get to me, haha.

 

I find that a lot of the Chinese companies actually do exactly what the other companies have done - they have named their dolls after real life historical characters. Some of them are so legendary that they can appear to be somewhat fictional. Loongsoul's "Da Qiao", "Diao Chan" and "Xiao ZhouHou" are all named after historical women famed for their beauty. It's just that the historical references are not so easily accessible to an international market. On the other hand, I guess they are trying really hard to promote the Chinese cultural references to the world.

Least favourite? Some companies use female names on a male doll and male names on female dolls. Those are really confusing. Doll Love's "Beata" is a boy... but "beata" is usually a female name that means "beautiful". Doll Zone's "Silvia" is actually a boy. That just drives me batty!
... and while we are talking about Doll Love... what kind of a name is "God-enjoy" anyway?

 

Chamillia, I agree about the asian companies' choices. I like when people choose names carefully, include some feelings and meanings.

Hallowie29, agree, too! I usually like how VOLKS choose names. And LAtin is a very good choice, too.

And just for me, I like Japanese names in general. Also I like how Doll Chateau name their dolls. With real names, and very elegant. Especially I like Erica, 'heather' from Japanese, which means 'loneliness'.

 

Once at a meetup I was asked what's my brownie's sculpt name, she's a Haha... and they were all like WTF XD
I joked saying maybe that's because it's a smiling sculpt but I really don't know.

Personally I really like Spirit Doll's flower names, like Freesia.

 

My doll's sculpt name is Calliope. She's a Doll Surreal. I rather like the sculpt name. I have yet to see a sculpt name I didn't like. Maybe one or two that didn't seem to match the look of the sculpt, but I usually like the given sculpt names.

 

I have a God-Enjoy (as a boy) and I've no idea why they went with that name. Doll-Love also has a sculpt called Deep Lake so maybe it's a thing with them to have weird names that don't seem to relate to anything?

I'm not a fan of the number system for sculpts but I can understand why some companies would do that for simplicity sake. The male names for female dolls and vis-versa can be confusing but some names now that we think of as female/male started out being for the opposite sex like Merle, Meredith, etc. Abio Angel apparently named their sculpts 1, 2, 3, 4 in Chinese and unless you know how to count in Chinese, you'd assume that the names were just typical Chinese names.

I can't really cast stones on the naming of dolls though as some of my guys have names that trip people up or make people ask where that came from (Aischylos, Kysmirhea, Cynara, etc.).

 

I've also got God-Enjoy (default, but dyed dark tan, hopefully she can start appearing in photos soon...), and the more I've looked at her, the more I've started to think that maybe Doll-Love is doing roughly the same thing as every other Chinese company name-wise, except they're translating to English names instead of leaving them untranslated for us when they put them on English sites. Mostly I came to that conclusion because I've also seen God-Enjoy listed as God's Joy once or twice, and that feels like a difference in translations...

I can't really think of any sculpt names I truly hate, but like a lot of others have said, I'm not super fond of the numbered ones, if only because I can't remember them to find the sculpt again later if I really like it. Tossing a name on it just makes it easier to remember, even if it's just a name like "AAAAA" (which is definitely a weird choice). Or even if it's a choice that comes across very differently in another language, like Dong, Pupu, Caca, and of course Penis.

EDIT: and since it came up a few times upthread, I tend to pronounce "Siean" as "Shee-ahn." "Sean" is pronounced "Shahn" (Shawn), after all, so I just kind of... throw an "i" in there.

 

My absolute favorite doll sculpt name would be Ellana, from Cerisedolls. She seems to take her name after a beautiful and strong character from several books by one of my favorites fantasy writer. And the sound of this name is so sweet... As much as I love the doll now, it's her name that drawn me to her in the first place.
Otherwise, well, I don't really consider doll's sculpts names, exept when they really strikes me, good or bad. I'm not found of the realpuki's names for example, and I don't recall the chinese names really well (only because I don't speak or understand a word of chinese I guess, and especially since I can't pronounce it correctly). That said, I also have a thing for the celtic names Nanyalin from Magic Mirror Studio gave to her dolls, they sound so mysterious, fairy-like and beautiful !

 

I love it when companies name YoSD or other Tiny sized dolls after foods. Like, Asleep Eidolon has a tiny doll named Milkshake.

 

My God-Enjoy is dyed black *laughs*. God's Joy makes more sense if they're going for a theme, I think.

 

Awesome subject OP

I can only really speak about dolls I own but my favorites are:

SOOM Amber and Beryl - I just really like those names. I'm more partial to fantasy sounding names for fantasy creatures. Very pretty.

Dollmore Misia - I never knew this was pronounced meesha. Apparently its polish for teddy bear.

Batchix Mini Machina eta: really I like all of batchix sculpt names. They tend to be be pretty catchy.

My least favorite is probably:

SOOM Alex: such a regular name for an elvish warrior they could have gone for Alexandria and I would have been happier.

Resinsoul dog 038: Come on resinsoul name your sculpts! Your little doggies are so cute they deserve a real name!

 

I love Musedoll's Mousa series. Erato, Thalia, Clio, Polyhymnia and Calliope. They are named after the Greek Muses. I only wish they had been able to finish the set! Urania, Euterpe, Terpsichore and Melpomene.

 

I like it best when companies choose rather normal names which somehow still match the sculpt. E.g. if it is a spectacular sculpt, a name such as Nicolas is fitting. For a beautiful lady, I like names of flowers or gems. I do not like letters or numbers. It is always good if the sculpt has a somewhat interesting name, then I will most likely look the doll up.

What I do not like: If companies choose grand name such as Odin, Thor or Jupiter - and you look at a 15 year-old boy. Or if a guy called "Hercules" is presented to the audience in frilly pink. These are the names of gods, and the dolls should be rather impressive and have bodies and faces matching the names.

 

what a neat discussion i'm really fond of korean sculpt names, such as those from supia, crobidoll, and switch. i also really like DOD's sha!! it's just really fun to say and makes for cute nicknames, like shalalala > w <