Contentious doll names - gods and so on.

that'd be even better. lol on da a girl clicked my picture of him titled his name and had a giggle fit cause she was from greece and new exactly what it meant. lol

 

Jibril is the name for Gabriel in Islam... so I'm even more confused on why they changed it to that...

 

I think there shouldn't be any real problems with names.
I mean,naming a doll with some racial slur or just a curse word is definately uncool.I wouldn't get after someone about it though unless they clearly did it just to upset people and showed it.

As for religious names-Christian,Pagan,Nordic,Egyptian,whatever-there shouldn't be any sort of problem with those.People have named their children(and pets) after the figures of their religion for aeons.I've actually met two Thors and an Odin.They embodied their names to the fullest,strong,big,brazen men like their divine namesakes.
I can't even name every person I've met with the name of an apostle or saint...Not to mention those that really leave stains on those names.
Even if you don't have belief in the deities or figures,it's alright to use the names.So long as you recognise the origin of the name it's alright if you just like how it sounds.

Lucifer seems perfectly fine to me.That doll though,shouldn't have an evil personality or be cruel.Vain,narcissistic-those would suit a Lucifer.
A Satan/Beelzebub and every other version of post-fall Lucifer could be mean,it suits an angel whose been kicked out.
And(just because I think it would be cute,because despite being evil the kid in the omen was adorable)a child doll with a pouty face and dark hair would just scream Damien to me.A little brat.

Also,Adolf shouldn't be crossed off just because of certain evil men who thankfully ended up in a ditch covered in petrol on fire.It's still a fairly common name in both Germany and Austria(I know,you'd think they'd avoid it too...)I happen to have an Adolf in my own family who was a perfectly wonderful man.I associate it more with him than that lunatic.

I think personal problems with certain names based on people who've hurt you are understandable.Those names you ought to avoid just to keep you from hating one of your dolls and shunning them because of a poor name choice.

In all,for everyone-just choose a name that fits your doll,make sure it is exactly what you want.Don't choose a name that's completely wrong for your doll and don't choose one that seems right if it's a name that bothers you.

 

I name my dolls after godly/demonic creatures.
Megami means Goddess
Kyuuketsuki means Vampire
Akuma means demon
Kami means God

I wouldn't call them things like insults. I'm not a religous person, but if you name your doll after a god/goddess/prophet/and so on, I think it's okay as long as it isn't demeaning towards the original owner of that name.

 

My guess would be that because most people don't know that, and a lot of the ones that do know probably aren't reading Angel Sanctuary. Mostly because reading the back page summary and what people usually mention about AS is a huge turn off to quite an audience.

 

Just because someone believes in you, doesn't make you a owner of a name. I'm sure there were a lot of Jeasuses and Mohammeds before those 'big guys' were born. So to me it's just names.
But well, in these times people get offended by everything, especially when there is religion involved, so you might want to be carefull when naming your doll Satan or Muhammed.

 

I don't really care what people name their dolls. I mean, it's their doll, it's their choice. As long as it's not horrifically offensive, which in and of itself can be quite hard to define, I'll just smile and nod if I don't like the name.

I'll admit, I'm horrible when it comes to choosing names. The worst. But with a lot of time (and I mean a lot of time) the 'right' name just jumps out at me. I've not neglected trying on names of gods and the like, but none of them seemed right, they just didn't fit with my doll and the personality I was going for.

Plus there is something to be said when you come across a really pretty and unique name. It's just really striking and I think adds something. Something you can't get when you choose a name that is shared by 100 other dolls and probably 100 times that many users in their screen names. That said I will still try on some names just because I would like to see if it fits, I won't discount it out of hand because it's popular or the name of a god or some such thing.

 

It doesn't occur to me to name my dolls weird names. Their names are as beautiful as they are.

 

Gods' or mythological names aren't necessarily weird. Gabriel is a common enough name, but it is still an angel's name.

 

I really wanted to name my doll "Hannalore" but I couldn't bring myself to it.
I keep coming up with names and realizing they are names of characters in some webcomics I follow (yes, I am that much of an otaku that I follow multiple webcomics!)!
So, if I think of a name and associate it with a webcomic, it's a no-go for me.
Plus, as I see the dolls (I have one, but I have a wishlist coming XD) the names come to me. If they don't via internet, I'm sure they would once I see them in person.

Emma, for instance. I saw her face and thought immediately "Emma"
I tried changing it, but I got stuck with either Hannalore or Emma.
Emma won :3

 

It's been said before, but names have meaning. All words do, so I just can't agree that anything is "just a name". If it has no meaning or personal significance, how interesting a name is it going to be anyways? But I do think this is a completely personal decision. It's your doll, go crazy. If you think something really potent or nasty is the thing to do, enjoy the reactions at meet-ups, etc. I have a feeling that this doesn't actually happen very much.

A bit OT, but when I was an anthropology major way back when, my professor said repeatedly that the word 'mythology' is often abused. At least in that field, it does not mean "untrue". It refers to stories that people tell to explain their world/worldview. Mythologies are parts of religions, whether widely practiced or not. I'm an atheist, but I do believe in maintaining basic respect for the beliefs of others, and so I do not use the word 'myth' as if it meant 'false/imaginary'. And as ways that humans have chosen to explain our lives and environment, myths are extremely interesting.

On a completely personal level, I probably wouldn't choose a name from mythology because I've just seen too much of it in too many different geeky/horsey pursuits. I can certainly appreciate the draw, it's just not for me. If I thought it would be a name that made other people uncomfortable, I doubt I'd choose it. I'd also feel very weird naming a doll after any real person, horrible or otherwise. My doll and those to come are based on fictional characters. On that front alone, I'm not about to pick a character name that's going to cause issues in something I'd like to have published and sold to the public without a very, very good reason!

Because of the story their characters come from, my now and future dolls have names from different cultures. I spent a lot of time researching and choosing names for them, so my big fear is that some of them are unnatural/inaccurate/stupid to the cultures they come from ^^;;;.

 

I never really thought about names offending. I mean obviously I know there's obvious ones (like naming your doll after swear-words lol).

Then again, the teddy called Mohammed didn't go down well.

 

w~I found a doll mould once and first thought "Merde" which is, basically, shit in French. If I were ever to buy him, I have feeling that'd be his name *facepalm*

 

pages ago I talked about my first doll which should be named "Judas Iskariot" (German spelling ;3) and now he's sitting here on my lap.

Even he's named by THAT Judas people normally aren't offended or anything like that.
Usually it goes like that:
"Wait...did you say "Judas"?"
"Sounds cool "
or people just calling him by his name; for many people it seems a normal name like "Michael" or "Peter". I'm not worried anymore, two months ago I was REALLY worried.

 

Re. the Judas thing- I had someone tell me the other day (a friend who's a biblical scholar, whose son is becoming a priest- and they're both huge Dark Knight fans! =D) that Judas' reputation is at least in part undeserved- the word modern translators translate as 'betray' really means the much less morally loaded 'turn over'. There wasn't a big, organised police force in biblical times, so someone you knew had to literally bring you in. Judas merely played his part in God's plan, and couldn't deal with the consequences. So it shouldn't be a problem- it's not that disrespectful.

And your doll is gorgeous, by the way.

 

I know, I know.
However, in my opinion Judas was more the...you know, he was the last little puzzle piece in the whole "Jesus dies for your sins" thing, without Judas the whole thing hadn't worked (or someone else hat to be the "Judas"). And in the end he regret it and died, so...why being mad at him?

Thank you I'm happy many people seem to like him

 

Osama bin Laden would likely be frowned on. Adolph Hitler might be a bad name to name your doll. Especially if you dressed him up that way.

But I think Napoleon would be fine.

I think 'bad' names get less 'bad' as time goes on. Napoleon was not a well-loved person in his time, he was ruthless and did awful things, but it's been a LONG time, so it's okay now.

Hitler, also, is a 'bad' name.. but in four hundred years, no one will really care, because there will have been someone 'worse' since then.

Kinda like Bin Laden. I think lots of people (if they HAD to chose between the two) would rather chose to name something Hitler, because it's not as fresh of a wound as Bin Laden, and it doesn't touch home with that many people anymore. Most of the people from Hitler's time are dead.. but Osama bin Laden wasn't too long ago, and it's fresh.

Of course, there's Satan, which is the OLDEST of the bad guys.. and still strictly off limits in society.

I, however, LOVE the name Lucifer. It's... utterly beautiful. It's just got a horrible stigma along with it, like Judas.

Then again, most of us who have dolls are very open-minded. Just look at some of the back stories of these dolls (child rape, abuse, torture) things that are very taboo in normal society, but are accepted and (dare I say it) almost embraced in the Dolly world, because people like to traumatize their characters.. we're a very select group of people to be able to let things like that roll off our backs. Not everyone is like this, though, of course.. so best to be careful lest you offend.

Unless you're like me. If I had a doll that fit, I'd name it Lucifer. I, after all, love the name.

 

Personally, I wouldn't care what people thought of my doll's name.
I write stories about angels and demons, using names from the Bible (so I have a Satan and a Lucifer, and also a Michael and Gabriel and so on). It's all very tongue-in-cheek and not meant to be (too) disrespectful; I just like mythology. I'm still hoping one day to have dolls of my characters, and so I'd have a doll called Satan who was supposed to actually BE Satan. That wouldn't bother me at all.
I think I might hesitate to call a doll Lucifer who WASN'T Lucifer himself, but I suppose you see loads of (human) Gabriels (and Gabrielles) around, and I've personally met a Konstantine. I think it's mostly a matter of what offends an individual person; as an atheist/agnostic, I'm not offended by people named Jesus (although I worry, because I think it's an ugly name).
I think the posters above me make a good point, as well--the older a name gets, the more acceptable it is in modern society.

 

My DZ Shoyo boy is named Loki, after the Norse god. It is written into his character. I've never had to defend it, I don't see why I would generally have to. It's just a cute name for him, anyway.

As for Lucifer or Satan (etc), I don't see a problem. It is just a name, and technically I don't find him that evil. It suits some dolls. I think that more offensive names would be Hitler or Stalin, and really only if you make it a likeness. But if it is just a name, I dont see a problem with that either.

 

My two dolls are currently named after goddesses (Persephone and Izanami) and I'm planning on getting a boy soon who will be Hades. And they will all be the gods reincarnated into human form. Their world is open enough that I can encompass gods from all around the world.

Will people be offended by this? Perhaps but I got the idea after watching the Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok anime. (Loki was pretty much banished to the human world in child form and the other Norse gods are trying to kill him.) I just decided to open it up to other mythologies as well.