Have you ever renamed a doll?

That's a funny story. On a side note, I played and loved the games your friend was referring to.

I can't say that I've ever had that exact experience, but I have had issues with names when I refer to the doll by either the sculpt name or some other nickname while I"m trying to come up with a proper name for them (in instances where I don't have one in mind already). My first doll, a Dollmore Calvin, ended up just keeping the name Calvin because I thought of him that way for so long that by the time I was able to come up with another name for him, I just couldn't break the habit. I finally gave up on trying.

 

I have a Limhwa Aria Dodo who's named Chung-Cha. I call her CC sometimes. And somewhere along the line, Cecilia came creeping up on me. I almost changed her name. A year later, my friend ordered the same doll, to make as her twin sister. The twin sister is now named Cecilia Christine (also CC for short). Cecilia was my idea of course. LOL. Now we have both and double the CC's.

 

Hey, sometimes names don't stick and better ones come along. I'm sure it's not that uncommon. If there's a doll that has a name that suits them better, I think, just go with it!

 

When I ordered my second doll, I named him Blaize before he even got home. I even set up a roleplay account as Blaize Fable, and told my friends I was so excited about Blaize! Then, after he'd been shipped, I was out on the road one day and just out of nowhere, I hear this punk SoCal voice in my head going "I ain't Blaize. I'm Loki." Now, this was before the popularity of Loki and Thor exploded, and I'd never had any interest in Norse mythology, I didn't even know who that Loki was at the time....yet this voice in my head was telling me this doll is LOKI. And I couldn't shake it. So.....Loki Fable he became. And I kept the "Blaize" rp account and just wrote it into his story that his middle school friends nicknamed him Blaize but he grew out of it. XD

 

I find that dolls often rename themselves once they arrive. They don't always like the name they are given at the factory. Maybe they just don't want to be like all others of their kind. They want to be seen as individuals. LOL! Mine seem to anyway.

 

I've renamed them sometime because I usually gave them a name before they arrived or before they got their face up. And...the original name just didn't suit them well, so I picked a new name for them automatically. Like my little boy MD Mir whose original name was Rikiya, later I changed it to Osamu but...the meaning still didn't suit him well (Osamu means peace and silent but from his look, he's like a snobby child ) So in the end, I named him "Fayy" instead. I didn't know why this name but it came to my head that time.

 

Yeah, my Dai just did that to me. I had another name planned for her before she even got here. But she got here and suddenly she wasn't that person she was Daisy. Usually I don't anthropomorphize my dolls except in fun, but this doll I swear she practically talks to me for real. Everytime I sit with her and I even think of calling her something else it's "NO, I'm DAISY!" Eh, I liked the other name better but she won. It's Daisy. It suits her actually. She's got this mod 60's chick thing going on and I have a feeling that by the time we are finished facing her up and dressing her it will fit her to a T...

 

Mine was an accidental naming, not a re-naming. When my 2nd DollZone Yuu came home, I wasn't sure who he would be in my doll family. He didn't have his DZ body at the time, he was temporarily on a Volks Graffiti body. So he felt like a misfit. My friend asked me what his name was, and I realized I had NO idea. Since his faceup was loosely influenced by Spike from "Cowboy Bebop", I called him "Duke" as a joke. But it stuck. Luckily I like it, and it suits him! Later on I determined his real name is Duncan, but he still goes by Duke.

Atsushi Takarai, that's funny about your twins! XD

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I had ordered a Pipos Charlotte and I kept calling her a Catherine, so although I had no plans to name her Catherine she became Catherine. Again, it's more of an accidental name and not a rename, but it's similar.

 

When my mum ordered my first doll, I thought about just keeping the default name 'Yo' but when I got him and tried a few clothes that came with him on... I remembered some concept art my friend drew of an elf named Ryul, and I just said to myself. "He looks a bit like that Ryul character." and I just decided Ryul was a better name. (my friend who drew the elf-art actually could really see the like-ness and loved the fact that I renamed my doll based on her art).

More of a spontaneous re-name rather than accidental.

 

My friend accidentally re-named my doll. My newest girl actually went through quite a few names and characters before, because I bought her spontaneously. So I had trouble sticking with something I picked for her.
But yeah, as I was saying, I was talking to a friend one day who wanted to know what "peach" meant in my mother tongue (German) because she wanted to name something in a game that. So I told her, and got curious what it was called in hers (Finnish), and she told me "persikka". And for some reason I immediately went "I gotta name something that! It has such a nice ring to it", so ... I picked the first thing I laid eyes on : < lol my new doll.

And it actually stuck.

 

It happened only once with me. I got Bluefairy Louis and actually loved his default name. Then, with time, I changed his character design which was followed by the name change. But usually I like the names I choose for my dolls and really rarely make any changes.

 

I had a doll who completely rejected her name and character. Now I am reshelling her so that I can have her old character, though I think that character might get a new name too.

 

My Ringdoll Shao was my OC Junjie for a couple years. Then I got a Luts event head that worked so much better for the character. I couldn't get rid of the Shao because I had so much history with that doll and my friends all love him. It was really hard renaming him though. I settled on Ryuki because I liked the name and it seemed to fit, however he still to this day feels like Junjie... but not Junjie. It's hard to explain. I even considered getting rid of the Luts doll and making him Junjie again (even though he looks too sweet and innocent for the character). I think I just have trouble with change. It's been a year since the switch and I'm finally starting to get used to it. My friends have even stopped calling him Junjie, although they still don't call him Ryuki.

So, the tl;dr version...

Have you ever renamed a doll you own?

Yes

If so, Why?

found a doll who fit the character better

Did it feel strange?

oh yeah!

Did you get tired of the old name? Did it become too popular? Did it not seem like the doll's real name?

no, no, not exactly

Would you rename a doll if you already haven't?

N/A

Do you feel as if your doll has something of a life of its own, a name it already wants to be called?

I think some dolls do

Did the personality of your doll change as you got to know him/her?

Sort of. I realized he was too sweet to be the warrior character I picked him for

 

I have changed the name of one of my boys as I got another doll who already has (and is keeping) the name Loki and it was confusing. It wasn't a big change just Loki to Lox. He is still the same character just with a slightly different name.

 

Have you ever renamed a doll you own? If so, Why?

Yes I have. I don't exactly have a reason, but somewhere along the line it just occurred to me that the name didn't fit well on him, and so I started looking around for another.


Did it feel strange?

Not exactly, since I had already decided the name didn't suit him, and calling him by the new one seemed more refreshing and fitting than continuing the use the old one.


Did you get tired of the old name? Did it become too popular? Did it not seem like the doll's real name?

A partial yes to the first. No to the second; popularity doesn't matter much, though my penchant is for unique names. The third: maybe?


Do you feel as if your doll has something of a life of its own, a name it already wants to be called?

I wouldn't go as far as to claim it has a 'life' of its own, but I would agree that their names has to fit their personalities, and so really it was more of whether the name would fit the character, than the doll itself. (Then again once everything has fallen into place, I'd think of the doll as a part of the character.)

And again I wouldn't like to say that there is a name it already wants to be called (since that implies there is a name destined for the doll), but there have been moments where, the moment I choose a name, I get this unshakeable, certain feeling that it's perfect. For example with Alain, who is due to arrive soon. I can't give him any other name since having found this one. It's almost as if he owns it now~


Did the personality of your doll change as you got to know him/her?

Yes! In a way I find it's one of the exciting things in the hobby, that the arrival is only the beginning and there will be years of discovery and getting to know your dolls lying ahead of you.

 

I bought my long anticipated grail doll, an Iplehouse Carina, after wanting her for a couple of years. I had hoped she would be the romantic interest of another of my dolls, Ramses, and I planned to name her Nefertari...but when I got her home and introduced them...she looked at him with such amused contempt, and clearly let me know that he was not her type, and she was no demure Egyptian maiden, and that she was the worlds greatest Pirate Queen. Her name is Epiphany Epitome Paragon.... because we really like alliteration at my house.

Her name was not an accident, but she was so very adamant that her name was NOT Nefertari that I had to pick another quickly.

 

Three times to me. The first one Klaus, I wanted to name my doll Klaus it seemed nice but once I got him I kept calling him Gene (his model name) and I bought him with the money I earned from working for our neighbour so I thought of calling him Chris because without him I wouldn't have him. So I decided to give him the name Chris Gene Klaus but for official reasons I will tell people his name is Klaus but I still call him Gene.

The next one is My doll Trillium. I based her off Jadzia Dax from star trek, but I called her Trillium after the flowers I painted on her instead of spots like the trill have. After I took her to meet Terry Farrell (the actress who played Jadzia Dax) I have been calling my doll nothing but Jadzia and I have to keep reminding myself that her name is Trillium.

and the Third is Sarish well his Tom. It's Sarish Tom but I have modded him to be a Bajoran (star trek alien) and in their traditions the Family name is the name you call them and only close relations or significant other can call them by their given name. I know he is my doll I can call him what I want to respect his culture and call him Sarish but I keep calling him Tom it really doesn't make a difference but I just feel bad when I do.

 

Sure. I did :-) When I change the story of dolls, then I also change the name too :-)

 

Yes, I've changed a few dolls' names over the course of time. The timbre of my collection shifted and so did some dolls' concepts, names, and even genders! To me, this is natural dolly evolution. I have a lot of non-BJD dolls as well, and altering/streamlining the collection occurs every few years to keep things fresh!