How did you name your dolls and why he or she is called so?

Mostly I try names I like until I hit on the one that works or something ispires me. Sometimes it takes a long time - one doll was referred to as "my elfie girl" for such a long time that her name became "Elfie" simply by dint of being how she was referred to for so long. But she has human ears and two different sets of Elf ears and answers to "Mosscrop" when wearing her biggest elf ears, while her twin brother is Bracken regardless of which ear he has.

I do have a fondness for longer/more-elaborate names that are shortened for everyday use, especially for my Victorian/Edwardian family, but for some of the others too:

Alphonse/Alphie
Serendipitous/Sera (it was pure happy chance that I got her)
Hyperbole/Hype
Ephiginia/Phige
Clytemnestra/Nesta
Roberto/Bobbin
Delphinium/Phinnie (a murder mystery book I was reading at the time featured delphinium flowers, and I was struck by what pretty name it was)


A few have their sculpt names (or variations on them) just because I like them and they suited he doll:

Arin
Pip (Pipi)
Meri (Merry)
Flora
Raphael
Nettle
Icaraus


Some have short names with no longer form:

Mal
Spike
Rosie


A couple are named after characters in books:

Nancy
Peggy
Kelda
Lisabet (named by her original owner, not me)
Madicken (named by her original owner, not me)

Frankie got her name because she's "Frankensteined" together from parts from five different dolls

January is named for the month she arrived.

Daisy Bacon is named from two jokes/observations about her sculpt name

Jane is named after her "dolly god-mother" who persuaded me to buy her.

Marina and Little Marina (two bodies that share a head - the same character at different ages) are named after the friend who passed her on to me.

Winnie has a name that I don't even like but it's the only name that worked for her

Alex is named after a friend's son, who he reminded me of

Sometimes the right name just pops into my head:

Willowbark
Wickstubbe
Jean-Claude
Lottie and Charlie
Little Blue
Cordelia
Hannah
Cressida
Edith
Maud
Claudia

Two were inspire by their hair: The Down siblings, Eider and Thistle

And sometimes they take a bit of a hunt to find the right one: Isambard

So, as you can see, lots of different naming methods among my resin gang

Teddy

 

I named my first doll, Tiamat, as my favorite group. The second, Amanethe, as the album of this group "Amanethes", the third as their song(Gaya).

 

My first big money doll as an adult was named after the first porcelain doll I received as a child, Alice.
The second was named Callista the Ballista because she has an Angel Philia type-b body and is built like she could take out a wall.
The third is Miss Honeydew, and she got her name because, to be blunt and a little crass, she's got a set of melons on her. Also because Honeydew is a pretty name and she is a pretty doll who I adore to bits.

 

Mine were my characters before I shelled them into doll form.
I like to use unusual names, especially ones with 'z', or 'x' in them.
My character Bug got his name solely because of the extra eye antenna he has, (he's an alien lol).
Zenith got his name from me just liking that name. Panda is my most unoriginal, his faceup resembles a panda.
I enjoy naming my dolls, it's one of the best parts of owning them.

 

I let my sister pick my doll names, she has named everyone of my dolls

 

My dolls get names based on the characters they should become but they have very different origins.
Unlike their personlities, my dolls have always kept the names I give them long before they come home.

• Kerli has the name of a singer I only know the name but not the music.
  
• Edgar is an arquitect and so his full name is a mixture of names and surnames of famous architects.
• Nelliel is named after a character I really liked from a manga.

For my anthro dolls, as I'm a biologist, I try to include references to actual species or subspecies in their names:

• Murphy is named after a bat plush I had when I was little, and his surname, Myotis, is a certain species of bats that are common in Europe.
• Peralta is named after an endangered subspecies of giraffes.

 

Names! One of my favorite things to do when I get a doll is figure out what they want to be called. Some dolls are way easier to name them others.
The first doll I named was my Resinsoul Mei named Jane. This name came from the phrase, "Plain Jane," which is important to her story. (School nickname causes her to rethink who she is, later goes on to change the phrase to, "Insane Jane,").
Next was her best friend Paul who goes by Puddle (Luts Kid Delf PUDDING). His name came from the fact that in his story he has a lot of eye problems that cause his eyes to water, which makes people think he's crying. So he got the nickname Puddle because he's "crying" himself into a puddle. His nickname actually came before his real name.
Then came Jane's other best friend Willard. I honestly don't know how I got this name. In her story she's named after her great grandmother, (something she greatly dislikes). When looking for names, I looked at older and less common names. Somehow I got the name Willard and it stuck.
When coming up with names my best tip is to honestly spend a few mins on a good random name generator and write down any name you like (You never know when it could click!). I also do this with names of people I meet. I look at fun words as well! (I'm a sucker for nicknames or calling someone by their last name). It's crazy to think about how important your name is to your identity. I believe the same can be said for dolls.

 

Most of my dolls already exist as characters before they came to me in doll form. Many of the elves have elven-sounding names (Orledin, Aeramin, Zaelith, etc) and generally don't have a name story behind them. But three of my elven characters do have specific name stories. Ruby is a bit different as her dad thinks of her as his little gem and so he started calling her Ruby (he found her wandering around the slums as a toddler and took her in). Hethurin was named Sanimir by his parents, but he changes both his first and last name later in life to prevent associations with his sister. Tik earned his nickname from the two children on the estate where he works as a butler. His actual name is Tiglarius.

The winged characters have more strict naming rules. The male names have two syllables and the females have three. A male name can be made female just by adding an 'i' at the end. Males and females who have mated add a silent character after the first letter in their name. In roman characters, it's an 'h'. As I have a conlang for them, they're also restricted to certain sounds. So from that, I get the names of some of my dolls -- Bhaqrin, Fhorbach, Nhochtar, Rhavek, Kavir, and Sakiri. I may shell Zhugani one day too.

Lastly, there are three human characters. I didn't want them having TOO human names because I feel it kind of breaks the fantasy of the story if a character is named "Brian" in a world with dragons and magic. So I went with Marta, Roderick, and Morgyn-Leondre. The last one may have borrowed part of his name from the latest Sims 4 expansion because I really like the name.

 

A handful of my dolls are based on long time ocs so their names have more meaning and background to it. Ezuchana was originally a misspelling of Azucena which means lily (I named her when I was at home and then went to draw her again at school and couldn't remember the actual name I guess and it just morphed into Ezuchana lol) . Asim means protector/limitless which is actually kind of the opposite of his whole character. Eros is an obvious meaning and the character is a love based angel whos very bad at her job.

And then I have ones that the character is developing exclusively around the doll and the names are specifically based around the dolls themes and how I intend to have some of their face ups done! Magdalena is a DC Madeline so I kind of wanted to keep that sound and for some reason the name just really stuck. Io is my sweet alien gal and I wanted to give her a short space themed name so the fact it's one of Jupiter's moons is kind of perfect. Neoma and Soliel I'm planning on giving a sun/moon dynamic so they were named around that And then I have a Tiffiecasting Giz who's exclusively referred to as The Goblin or The Boy lol

 

The names of the majority of my dolls are chosen after a very simple theme - Marvel Avengers. However, there are a few exceptions:

- T'Gai Spock: Yes, he is to be Enterprise's First Officer. But with a twist: Spock embodies his Vulcan side. T'Gai embodies his weredragon side. This is a Vulcan trait I invented for my version of Mr. Spock: His dragon part normally is with him as a Cuartodragon. Very cheeky, sometimes his dragon part plays tricks on him. But in extreme situations, Spock turns into an ice weredragon, and the part of him which manifests as the little dragon disappears, because it is now united with Spock. Spock then also the outer appearance of an ice dragon, complete with the abiliy to breath fire and all the emotins Vulcans normally do not show.

- Raphael: He is a phoenix, as well as an archangel. In his human form, he appears as a stern, but very attractive guy with a freaky fire tattoo in his face. When he deems it necessary, he can turn himself at will (different to Spock) into an angelic phoenix. His official title is " ,Phoenix Lord of the Skies", but really does avoid to be called like that. Spock and he are soultwins, one cannot be without the other. But they are also quite competitive.

 

Most/ all of my dolls are based on original characters, and all of them are named for one reason or another. It's rarely ever "just because" a name sounded nice. I have a fascination with languages and words, and in extention names, and where they come from. Sometimes you'll find that the name you like has origins you couldn't even fathom and was adopted to the language you are using through any kind of passing down through other languages.

That being said, I often restrict myself to specific origins. For example, most of the characters from my Witch Hunter story are from a fantasy version of east/central Europe, so besides the two characters that share my heritage of being Greek (Heliodor, whose name means "gift of the sun" and Ptolemaeus meaning "of war/ warlike") and Carlos (spanish, meaning "masculine" or "warrior") the rest all have Russian, Polish, Hungarian and Latvian names.

Wereas the dolls from the Origami storyline are all Japanese, and commonly have small names that pertain to their character in a very intimate manner as they are also meant to depict them in a form, given that they are all spirits and deities inspired by the shinto religion and japanese folktales. As such you see such names as Suoh (Su Oh, literally meaning water king, a dragon), Hei (meaning peace, a guardian lion deity), Sen (meaning 'one thousand', a kitsune deity the likes of which is only born once each thousand years), Yamanami (mountain wave, a spider deity and also the titular "origami"), Gin (meaning silver, but homophonus with the on reading of "motoru", meaning contrarian), Nemu (meaning 'to sleep', a sleepy amefurashi, rainmaker spirit), Ren (meaning lotus, a buddhist monk), Kanda (field of god, a tennin/ angel), so on and so forth.

On the other, more anecdotal name, Laurent got his name in hindsight. I had a solid character concept for him in mind, complete with a backstory to go with it when I turned to my friend and was all like "he needs a name. A ludicrously French, refined sounding name -even though he's not French" and she was like... "Lawrence! or well, Laurent, since it's French" and it kind of stuck; thus Laurent Crowe was born.

 

Oh! I have quite a few dolls so at least this will take some time.

Ren: My first doll. Honestly my first dolls name was supposed to be Kaji.But then I changed from a Chiwoo to a Yder. Then it was going to be Haru, before ultimately I decided on Ren. I just saw the name one day on a forum site and it stuck with me!


Kouji: My second doll is named/inspired by Koji from Malice Mizer

Kai: I loved Kai in the harvest moon series, and I sat there weighing between Kai and Sai. Ultimately, Sai won.

Hope: Name and inspirted off of Final fantasy XIII hope--- Whom I'm actually no longer going to have

Sora: Kingdom hearts and digimon made me fall in love with the name for my boy Yuz
Nova: Soras sister- I wanted something similar and honestly the name just stuck for me. I feel like it reflects her personality as a relatively hard headed, but sharp

Hiro- Named as he's the Hero in my original story surrounding my MSD dolls

Frost: Cliche but he has ice powers. Also a cool attitude .Plus it has to do with my story.

Fate: She's my online alter ego (Duh) And my #1 RP character, so I had to have a doll based off of her

Rhea: Honestly. I don't know wher the name came from. I think it was just one of those spotted online sort of deals, and it fits her quiet and soft personality

Terra: Named from Final Fantasy 9. She was a free head that I just had to keep and ended up labeling as my gamer girl

Kalin/ Kal : A used quite often roleplay name for usually my playboy boys.

Zero: in my story, he's 'project number 0', so its really not his name, but since he was called it most of his life, That's what he tells everyone it is.

Amethyst/Ami: I wanted my robot dolls to be named after Gems- But gave her a fun nickname to go with it.

Ruby & Jade- Same as above

Flynn: I've always wanted a doll named flynn, so finally just went with it. The urge hit me more when tangeled came out

Rhyme: I somehow started to like 'cool' words as names, and Rhyme ended up being one.

Demetri/Demi: Another roleplay character turned doll. Yes, it's anastasia inspired

Oracle, Prophet, Sage: Their names pretty much sum what they are

Soren: One of those cool trendy names I ended up just enjoying.

Ash: He's got fire powers, and for some reason it took me forever to come up with a name relating to fire for this boy


Not really super cool or fun reasons, but they all fit each doll well.

 

I'm pretty haphazard with names. Some are named after favorite literary characters (Rose-Red, Snow-White, etc.), some are named after people in my life (John Henry, Nell, etc.), some are named simply because I like the name (Claudia, Francis, etc.), some because it was fitting for them (Moggy, Nal, etc.) and quite a few are complete jokes (Avis Beakon, Wuffins McSnuggles, etc.). There's no rhyme or reason to it.

 

Most of my dolls just have names that I liked best, ones that I thought fit the character. I can talk about some of my favorites though!

• Ilya Spire - I picked his given name way before his surname, mostly because his surname is only there because he was adopted. Selkies in his universe don’t have surnames. (Fun fact: I couldn’t choose between Ilya and Nikos because I liked them both so much, so I ended up with twins and used both names. )
• Tadpole Bramblebrake - A little forest spirit needs and foresty name! I think the word Tadpole is just so cute~ I got his last name by sticking some ideas together that I found on a bunch of “generate a fairy name” sites.
• Fukuto no Toshimaru (A.K.A. Fukuro Toshimaru - Now this boy has an actual name story. It’s in his profile, but I’ll put it here too. Fukuto is his family name, and Toshimaru is his given name. (The suffix -maru is often used for names of younger boys). So with the ‘no’ it’s read basically "Toshimaru of the Fukuto family." Fukuto (福人) means "good luck" or "good fortune." Toshi (慧) means "bright" or something along those lines, and まる (-maru) for "whole, complete," often about personalities... So a bright young man with a balanced, good personality.
• Tenshitenshi - This one is just funny, because “tenshi” means angel, and Tenten definitely is anything but. He’s a mischievous little thing.

Others like Lacey and Nikolai are just names that I like. I made up Ocias’s by picking random letters until something looked like a name. I generally suck at naming things, so I latch onto whatever works.

 

A lot of my names are just what I like, I put together names I like and how they fit the characters. Unlike most people, I name the doll and make the character for each mold I like, and over the years those characters have become very special to me. But I usually love a name and it usually will fit the character as they develop.

 

Naming dolls really is one of the best things about owning them I try to pick western or central European names which I find classy or I associate with friendly people irl.

 

Oh man. Naming is kind of a mixed bag, and there’s no guarantee they’ll keep the name. Some of them (like Nobuyuki or Salem) I just give them whatever name pops into my head and feels “right”. Some of them are based on existing characters, or got lucky enough to have some actual effort put into finding a name for them – Seir, for instance, is named for a very specifically chosen demon. Suvi (supposedly) means summer in Finnish, which is a nod to her creator, SummerbirdBJD. I sort of ended up with unintentional groups of names starting with the same letters. Don’t ask why all the shiwoos have A names or why I have like five dolls whose names all start with S, I really don’t know.

Some (mostly the Shiwoo Crew, ngl) are just because the meaning is a good joke and I have a very dad sense of humor.

I will say though, if you’re having trouble with names, there’s nothing like a good old fashioned keyboard-smash-pile-of-letter naming convention, if only because the results can be hilarious.

 

Mine come from my OCs and they tend to just name themselves.... (Nat, Skeech, Rika, Ban, Ota, Daphne, Kellan & Ubizu).
Fion was chosen deliberately because I wanted something that matched his flamboyant personality.
Neive I chose because I liked the name, but the spelling I did how I wanted.
Sawako and Sachiko were chosen to mean "Refreshing child" and "Happy/Cheerful child" which is the opposite of their personalities.
Mijime chose her name, but when I looked into it the Japanese meaning is "wretched/pitiful" which actually works really well.
Shunka was something I thought I heard in a song and liked the sound of, so I looked that up and it can mean "Spring Flowers", which works perfectly because his surname is Tsubaki which means Camellia flower.

 

So many interesting replies! I'm taking notes since I'm terrible at coming up with names. It took me months to name my cat. >_<"