How Long Before You Named Them / The Importance of Naming

Naming an object is hugely important. It not only determines what the doll is going to be called but also the type of personality you wish it to have. My boy was named so as to give him a strong nature, but also a hasty side. Ayden means little fire. His sister is Fae, which means Fairy in English, but also means Faith in French.

 

I didn't know that! I have a character named Taracena which means the same thing (literally at least, in practice in means a spark) in the fantasy language of her world, and her husband is named Adden (my boyfriend's character, pronounced as Ayden).

That's so cool! *needs a life so she'll stop getting chatty in discussion forums*

I find the naming of characters/things very important, but the time I spend on it hugely differs.... usually just depending on how long it takes to find the right name. I'm currently trying to get a working name for my first doll and having a ton of trouble, it might really have to wait until he's here.

 

At first, I thought this was a terribly important thing, to have a name to each and every one of them.

Now, though, the doll I find I've bonded with the most is the one who stayed nameless the longest! He was here for almost two months before I finally settled on a name. He even has more "character" and backstory than any of my other dolls, save one, even before I'd formally named him.

 

I think that naming is very important, it makes it feel more like a family when calling the name you give to them.

For me, i name my doll when i start saving and seriously decide to get him. It took me less than an hour to come up with a name~ i had come up with lots of background story and his character. Cant really decide which fit him better until i recieve him~ hope he come home soon^.^

 

Naming also can be important as one's collection grows - it gives you a 'handle' to use when speaking or thinking of one doll as opposed to the rest.

Some dolls of mine have their names picked out before they arrive: they are usually the ones selected to depict an existing character. However, they often arrive and pick their own name without any regard for my preconceptions! My green BBB Nissa had a fanciful (and rather pretentious, in retrospect) faery-name waiting for him, but once he slipped out of his bubble-wrap cocoon and murmured taek me 2 ur leadr?, it was immediately apparent he could only be my 'little green man', Roswell!

I have made and re-made the Tigerbaby character over numerous sculpts, and each of these has a nickname to differentiate him for the others. Some are simple: tall!Tibby, tiny!Tibby, etc., but my Pipos basic Cheshire 1 Tigerbaby picked 'Maurice' out for himself while he was being faceupped and Steve Miller's 'Space Cowboy' kept coming up on the shuffle (he's 'the pompatous of love!' ).

My first doll (Pipos Baha) went for more than a year before I found his 'true' name - I had originally wanted to give him the name for my Dad's boyhood pet (a chubby white cat) but couldn't find the spelling of the word, which I thought was Ukrainian - it took a year of intermittent searching and asking people to learn 'Macska' (pronounced 'match-ko', at least how Dad said) was Hungarian for 'cat', lol. I swear, ever since he got his proper name, he looks just a bit less grumpy!

The doll that took the second-longest to name was my Orientdoll tiny, who I had to wait an unreal length of time for from a doll shop I will never order from again. I worried I might never 'bond' because the purchase experience had been so bothersome, but while painting him, he nicely introduced himself to me as 'Haiku Konpeito' and called me 'mom', awwwww...

It's important to me that none of my dolls have names 'picked from a list', everyone of them come from imagination and interaction with the doll itself, or the character 'coming home' to the doll. It's amazing where you can get inspiration for a great character name - misheard song lyrics, a chance phrase uttered by a co-worker at coffee break, a bag of sweets sitting on your desk...the possibilities are endless.

 

I called my doll my the default name until like 2 years after I bought her XD. But I just bought my second one last night and I already have the name I think I'm going to use.

 

All of my male dolls are based on pre-existing characters, all of whom were RPed, developed, and in some cases even sketched.
I never decided I would make dolls of them; I just happened to find a doll that looked exactly like my boys and the inspiration took off from there.

The only one who didn't come with a name is my one female.

While waiting for a particular mold to come in stock, I browsed around. And I found an AngelFantasy Aki. The sculpt stuck me to my core, reminding me of the waif-like females normally seen in Tim Burton movies [Christina Ricci in Sleepy Hollow, Emily in Corpse Bride, Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice]. Obviously taking a cue from that inspiration, I bought the Aki to mod into a stitched-together zombie.
And she sat there without a name for three weeks.

Usually when I'm stuck for names, I dive into baby lists online. Either I have a feel for a letter or I ask a random friend to suggest a letter [without letting on what my intention is] and browse through names beginning only with that letter.

For me, names tend to stick with me phonetically. I usually avoid hard consanants and choose names that are simple but melodic.

I finally settled on the name Kezzy for my girl. It's a hard consanant in the beginning but it hums. Plus it means 'cinnamon' in Hebrew [not that she's Jewish - I just enjoy the fact there is a meaning behind her name].

I think because of this struggle that Kezzy is the most spoiled of all my dolls. Either that or it's because she's the only girl in a sea of brothers.

 

Both dolls I want already have names. Names are very important to me and have been for eons, with writing and roleplaying and any sort of game (MMO/RPG/etc) that allows for or expects you to pick a name.

I would actually be curious to buy a doll simply because I like the doll itself... and see what name and personality it ended up with. That seems a bit backwards by my usual naming policy, but having become accustomed to some of the BJD community aspects, it's not weird at all.

 

Oh, I did just order my DollLove Leon, so I have to go through the whole process again, haha! This one is going to be difficult I think...

 

I've already named the doll I want (haven't ordered him) he went through two names until I decided on the 2nd one. The first doll I wanted (I've changed doll wants) I named him by his company sculpt name until maybe 2 or 3 weeks after. But even then his name was really close to the company sculpt name. ^^:

 

My boy hasn't been shipped yet and I've already kind of decided that his name is going to be Felix or Isaiah, which ever fits more.

 

My first (so far, only) doll got a name about an hour after I opened him, but I thought it would have taken longer. I tried really hard not to decide anything about him before I had him in my hands - he wasn't a pre-established character and I didn't want to have my heart set on a specific name, and have it not fit him.

In the end, I decided on a name that'd never even crossed my mind before - Devon. I've never even really been a fan of the name, but it just fit him perfectly.

One of my next dolls is a pre-established character, though, so I've already got everything down about her.. the problem is finding a mold that fits the idea in my head. @_@

Devon's also going to get a twin sister, and I am iffy about choosing a name now - I want to wait, like I did with Devon. Everyone else in the house, though, started suggesting names for me the minute I said I was gonna get her. D;

 

Honestly,
If I don't think of a name within the first few days of owning a doll I will probably not keep the doll. Naming is very important to me as it is the first step toward understanding the emotion and expressions that I can see in the sculpt.

 

I must say that for all the dolls I own right now I already had a name for then even before they arrived at my home, And I had even had a caracter made up in my head for them. If I do not have that in my head when I order a doll, I will not order he doll at all.

 

All my dolls have had names before i got them. Usually i see doll and it just cliks. I have stories and charecters, they dont have names until i byu a doll. But when i get doll i start to look name that fits, example: Shula (Arabic, means falme) is all going sparcy and really "everyting or nothing" kind of muse, so i looked name that kinda tells it.
My boys Clava and Crono were funny, i orginally named them before i got them, but when i got them i noticed that theyre wrong way around.

 

Ahh i have the same problem T_T i took me almost a year to come up with the perfect name for my girl. i finally decided Alorah was perfect But as for my boy, still no name i usually just call him by his model type...*sigh* im going to look up names right now!! Good luck finding one for yours

 

Soo... Got my Doll Love Lenon last friday.. He looked nothing like a felix, nor an Isaiah... so I decided on something that is totally unlike my style. I named him Gabriel.

 

I am not bonding with my girl as well as I could. She is bald and naked at the moment. That doesn't really help. A name just hasn't stuck. The only name that has even come into my head is Aimee. Maybe it's destined to be her name?

 

No dolls yet, but I have ideas already. I have trouble naming stuff because I come up with a name before getting something/as soon as I get it, but then I come up with something later on (e.g. something that I believe would be more "appropriate" to its character). Is that what secondary names are for? XD

 

I almost spend 6 monthes to choose the name for my first boy XD