Doll Names : Orginality vs Characters

Awesome. xD
Nunnally would be cute. D8;;;

Er, but yes.. xD;

 

Why do you enjoy original dolls? Do you find it distressing or upsetting when people emulate your original doll or copy his/her name without asking? Or do you feel names are just names and are up for grabs.

I can only answer to this because I lean towards original dolls. I like creating a character from scratch. That's one of the funnest things about writing, and being able to put a character that I created into resin form is just delightful.

Personally, I believe most names are up for grabs. Of course, if someone came up with a doll whose full name is Ciaran Chayne, then I would probably raise an eyebrow, seeing as that combination isn't very common. However, I have created characters from a world where their names are pretty unpronounceable, so if I did see someone using such names, then I would feel a bit more inclined to ask them 'What's up with that?'

 

I have original dolls, and a shared character doll.

Mitsukuni, our character doll, is made to look like the character more than act like him. I know personally I prefer not to entirely copy a character but to change at least a few things so they're a little more original to me... if that makes any sense

On the other hand, I played a character for a long time who evolved far beyond his starting point to a personality very individual to me. He isn't original in his main look, or in the fact he's royalty, but when I think of where he started from I'm quite proud of him. He's become more than a RP character to someone I want to doll and write books about.
I did want to give him an original name based on his RP nickname, but after doing a quick search on google apparently he's not as original as I'd thought Who would have thought Milsae would be the name of a race of game zombies? I may change it slightly.

I don't know if I'd be upset about someone using a name I'd completely made up... If it was just one name, I'd probably not be bothered due to the instance above, but if they stole an entire name & surname I might be a bit annoyed.
I know my Eden's not the only one on the board, but as far as I've seen she's the only Eden Lilim - mostly because Lilim isn't a common usage of Lilith. (Lilim = born of Lilith). Homunculus probably isn't common as a name either, and I haven't seen many shorten it to Culi since I first started using that name about 4 years ago

 

That's exactly it, isn't it? All these name trouble comes bcause we're in a community. It's like, a first come first serve, when it really shouldn't matter. I barely look at people's dolls and galleries here on DA and I'm perfectly fine naming my dolls what I like. It was quite a while before I actually found out that there was an Elan on the board who was an El mold, the mold I had wanted to use for my own Elan. I used a Tender Bee-a in the end tho because i prefer minis.

Now, had I gotten around to actually getting an El and naming him Elan and gone around the board posting his pics, I'm sure some people would have seen me negatively, thinking I stole the name/image/doll+nameset. But if I were to keep my frolicking off the board, I'd be as happy as any other camper and no one would issue me with "doll copyright violations".

This is the trouble with communities. Things either becomes a "bear and share" or "first come first serve."

And sometimes they are the most feeble of things.

edit : Some people may get me wrong here. I do not care if there's another doll with the same name/head type/style as my doll. As long as they are not posing as me or deliberately trying to annoy me. What I do care is that some people care about it so much. It's ridiculous.
I agree with JennyNemesis' post : http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2363139&postcount=58

 

I can't draw. I love Lucius/Snape, but not many people draw it. I don't have time to read/or write Lucius/Snape fanfiction. My friend suggested I could get a doll and make my Lucius and get another doll for Snape and then I can have all the Lucius/Snape I could want. So now I can pose them together and take pictures if I want. I don't have to do that even, they are my living art. Just seeing my two dolls sitting next to each other makes me happy. The rest of the doll family just sort of evolved around them. I at times hunt down specific characters, but I also have molds that I like and then find characters for that just fit in my world. They are 'charcter' dolls but they are my own 'original' version of the characters. (shrugs)

-Anneke

 

Why do you enjoy original dolls? Do you find it distressing or upsetting when people emulate your original doll or copy his/her name without asking? Or do you feel names are just names and are up for grabs.

I enjoy original dolls because it gives me total creative freedom in regards to their character - how they look, what they wear, their personality, how they live, what they do, etc. They are whatever I make them, nothing more and nothing less.

I'm not possessive of my doll names. In fact, because they're all relatively common, I would consider it odd if a person asked my permission to use one. Off the top of my head I know of at least 1 other Jay, 2 other Wrens and 2 other Elliots on the board. I chose these names because I liked them, it seemed to "click" with the doll, and I didn't think it sounded silly when pronounced. *shrug*

For the most part, I'm of the opinion that names are up for grabs. Unless a trademark is attached to a name, then anyone can use the name without consequence. However, if I knew someone associated a particularly creative or unique name with their doll, and if I hadn't come up with the name on my own before I saw their doll using it, I would ask for permission before using it. It's just respectful to the doll owner, for the time and effort they put into coming up with the name.

 

I agree with the whole 'putting a character into resin' because, it IS very delightful Requiem and Rhapsody are already characters of mine so going out to look for molds that just 'screamed' their characters was... both fun and vexing >.> in fact I'm still sorta debating the mold I've chosen for Rhapsody.
I've made them into RP characters multiple times (perhaps with different names but they are still the same 'characters') so yes, I prefer original character dolls. As for dolls based of other official media like manga/anime/video games/books etc... well, I remember looking at the Kingdom Hearts characters and going 'hey, I bet you could find bjd's that look exactly like them more easily than from manga and anime since they already have the slightly bigger eyes and whole 'bjd' kind of look but it never really went beyond that.

As for being limited by what an official media character or original character would wear... well... I've thought about that, and I've concluded that unless your doll has no background (and possibly even no name) then you'll always be somewhat restricted in their wardrobe. Like a Victorian character would look out of place dressed in punk attire.

Continuing on with the 2nd part of that quote... the author, Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters series has a character named Ciaran and it was written about 7 years ago XD Just goes to show how easy it is to come up with the 'exact same name' even if you make it up.

 

Yes, that is exactly my point. Even when you make a preset character over an original, in just picking a mold let along the make up, you turn the character into your interpretation of said character which makes them no longer the original character. Unless you are buying the Official Chi, Haruhi, Shinku, or the Rozen twins, you're making your interpretation. (Or if you're Kouga Yun having custom made Ritsuka and Soubi dolls lol)

Devil's Trill and I both have Lelouches, but do we necessarily see the characters the same? I prefer the interpretation you find in Kashi doujinshi. It's why I chose Yo SD Shin, while my Suzaku is the much more sweet and innocent looking Yo SD Kuuta.

I just think it would be so fun to have one. I sort of want to do bad flashback stories. I sort of want an evil prince Schniezel too, but I doubt it will happen >>;

 

I am a Star Trek fan. :] and yes, he's named after Picard's Borg form. nope, didn't have to look it up. but he's not based on Locutus of Borg any further than that.

btw, Locutus is Latin, "the speaker". or something like that. :P

 

But if you're a Star Trek fan, why wouldn't some other fan ALSO want to use that name. He was a popular character. Maybe someone wants a Borg doll.

They might not give him the same personality as your doll, but they could use that name.

I just don't think unless you follow Kim's suggestion and get a series of random letters and numbers it is possible to create a name that no one else might ever use and I think it is ridiculous to say you would be miffed if someone else used said name, particularly when said name is one used for a well known character pre-dating the existence of your doll.

I'm not going to be upset if anyone else makes a Nannally/Nunnally or even uses the name for an original character, unless they start getting miffed at others for using the same name.

BTW despite all this reference to the name "John" as a boy's name, it's not been in the top 10 for quite some time. Michael and Jacob are the most popular names for boys in real life.

 

I myself was pretty suprised to come across another volks tony on the board that was also names Akito, a little annoyed at first too, but thinking about it, the fact that two completely different people, who don't know each other looked at the tony mold and thought, "he's definitely an Akito" just amuses the crap out of me.

 

I never said I would be miffed, just that I would "raise an eyebrow". of course if someone actually made a Locutus of Borg doll it would be obvious they weren't like, "zomg cool name and that doll has the same name and I like it desuuu", I would raise an eyebrow, but it's nothing to make a big deal about. it's not like I've copyrighted or trademarked the name or would even say anything to the owner of the doll unless it was a blatant copy of my doll (but that's a whole other debate topic already).

and btw, the "John" reference is not a solid statement that it is the most popular name. Michael and Jacob are easily the most popular boys names right now, but that's not to say that John is not has not been popular at all in a long time, say, when all these people we know named John were born. (my boyfriend has two cousins named John, one of whom has a sister soon to be married to someone named John, and whose father was named John. that's 4 Johns in one family. there is a lot of them, just as there are many Michaels [my father, and my boyfriend's brother, uncle, and grandfather].) anyway, this is getting a little OT with the "John is not the most popular name" debate.

 

I bought my dolls only because I like the molds... I never thought so deep about their background ^^; but they devoloped their own personalities in some way! my dolls names are Narumi and Shirogane, thay actually are two character from 'Karakuri circus' a manga that I love a lot but my dolls are not based ont these chara - I only took their names: my first doll was Narumi, I simply choose this name beacause of I love the meaning and also the kanjis; so I bought Shirogane... I was pretty sure to name her 'Akatsuki' but after her arrival I suddenly changed my mind: she is a white skin and she is really white XDDD so thinking about how much 'white' she was (white=shiro in japanese) I decided to continue with the 'karakuri' line and I named her 'Shirogane'!
I have to admit that the names I've choosen are not originAL at all, but my kids behaviour is really different from the 'Karakuri' characters with the same names, so I can say that they are my original characters^^

I prefer the original chara dolls because I think that it's pretty funny to create a new creature with his own life! I love the bjd world because I can talk about some dolls as if they are my friends or simply some people I know XDDD isn't it amazing?

I don't think I'd be able to manage an anime/manga based doll, it'd be as a never ending fanfiction! ^^;

 

To owners of these dolls: Why do you enjoy original dolls? Do you find it distressing or upsetting when people emulate your original doll or copy his/her name without asking? Or do you feel names are just names and are up for grabs.
first before i answer...i would like to say that i don't have a doll yet..i'm working on getting one-so my answer might be a tad different then when i have the doll home.

that aside.
as with my origional characters-i'm very excited to bring my character to life. and her name another form of a pretty common name used for a lot of dolls here, but i wouldn't be able to change it because it already suits her so well. so if someone copied the name with out asking-it wouldn't bother me and i wouldn't really be able to tell anyways.

i have no idea what emulate means....

now if someone copied my doll, once i finish making her clothes and customizing her wig (and this will all be after i order her head and body).but if they copied my doll (and it was obvious that they copied), i would be very angry, because i designed an origional outfit for her. And i thought up this character my self to use in my stories. So having someone else take credit, or even use what took me months to create with out my permission, for their own purposes is very insulting.

as for copying names, though, it doesn't really matter to me

i mean, if someone is constantly copying your dolls names that's a little annoying, but it doesn't bother me as much as copying an origional doll completely

 

Umm no, you said originally that you would do a flip, and that you can't do one. That gives the impression of more than just raising an eyebrow.

And as I said if you are picking the name of a well known character pre-dating your doll (and this applies to anyone doing this, not just you, be it naming your doll Miriya, Glorfindel, or Hester) it is very possible someone else could use that exact same name because either they too liked said character or they want a doll of said character. If I thought the name Hyzenthlay sounded cool and named a doll that, it would be ridiculous for me to even raise an eyebrow if someone else used that name, even if they were not making a character of Hyzenthlay because they could be a fan of the same source material as I am.

As for actual popular names, I think sometimes particularly if one is younger and does not spend a lot time around babies, it can be hard to know what names are in vogue for babies being born now. I had a friend who named her son Ethan in 1996, she thought the name was old fashioned but cool sounding. She never checked name popularity sites and had no idea Ethan was becoming very popular, it's #4 now.

When I was a little kid, naming someone Madison was a joke in the movie Splash that made everyone laugh. Now it's the 3rd most popular name for girl's.

I do think conceptions and misconceptions around a name's popularity is an important topic since so many people have expressed the belief that the name they're picking for their dolls is "unique" and their unhappiness at seeing another doll with said name.

Using a Neu spelling for a name will not make your name unique. Parents have been doing that for years.

 

I think it's pretty silly to be having this conversation in the land of 10,000 Els. You can't throw a stone around here without hitting an El, and quite possibly a Shiwoo, too. There's nothing wrong with owning one, but why would you get hissy with another collector for owning one, too?

My Domuya Fin is Elisabeth. Is she the only bjd named Elisabeth? Oh hell no. And I chose the name knowing that. Why should I care? She's my Elisabeth, end of story.

My minifee Shiwoos are character dolls of the Kisarazu twins from Prince of Tennis. Are they the only bjd Kisa-twins? No. Do I care? No. Do you see a trend here?

The dolls I own are tailored to suit my tastes. Maybe it's my age, but I don't give a crap what the rest of you think. I've invested too much money, time and effort to feel otherwise. If I enjoy them, that's all that matters.

 

It's not whether something has already been done before... it's whether or not it's been done by YOU before. Do what you want to your doll.

I see this as a nonissue, although I am starting to see how some people are really racked-up about it.

When I get a new doll who doesn't have a character or name picked out for him already, I look at his face & watch his style & see what name he comes up with for himself. I always "let them decide" (i.e. let the name pick itself according to what I see in that doll). Usually, I know his name as soon as I see him, although sometimes he makes me wait for a few weeks while he makes up his mind. This decision process takes quite enough energy, without then having to go online & scour DOA to make sure nobody else has already taken that name for that sculpt. I don't see why I should have to. I took the time & energy to think up that boy's name. That boy looks perfectly like that name. So I don't see why I should be made to pick a less-perfect name for him.

If you really believe that a name/concept is off-limits once you see it on DOA-- even though you'd already had your heart set on it ahead of time-- then that's your own damage. Go ahead & waste your time coming up with a new one, if it makes you feel better.

 

It's certainly understandable that an "original" character would be near and dear it's creator's heart...but originality or ownership of names seems to be a bit...possessive?

Me - I'm easy - uh....Bermann Angel, Saint Twin Angel, Junkie Angel, ManBoy, Sexy, Saint, Angel of Death, Angel of Vengeance....