How You Named Your Doll

My doll's name is Yuki, I was researching dolls and when I saw him on the site my brain just went 'Yuki'. Usually when my brain does that it means I've gotten attached, and so even though I still looked around at other dolls for about a month I eventually just gave in and bought him XD. It wasn't until later when I got his story down that he got his family name of Akaisora though.

 

I like a korean star named Junmyeon and he crossdressed and was called Junhee, so I named my first doll from him >_< I also find it cute~ hopefully I'll be able to find a doll sculpt that looks like Junmyeon and name him Junmyeon.

 

naming things in general is hard, i usually want to name them something cool, or unique... but after a while of using the name i will decide i don't like it anymore! I'm really terrible with names. I don't own any dolls yet, but I purchased a secondhand Elfdoll Soah and I'm not sure if I'm overwhelmed with trying to come up with a design and a name.. The name usually comes last tho..

 

I love traditional names, so my Delf is just named Rosemary. When I get my next doll, it's likely I'll go for something similar again, like Pearl, Olga, Clara, Florence, or maybe just Barbara. Heck, I might just name her after my great grandma, Velvet.

 

Usually I have an idea of the character and I pick a word that could be a "theme" for that character. Then a choose a name (or word) two degrees or so separated. Sometimes I just kind of get a name in my head that feels right. I also keep a "name bank" that I draw from. I'll hear a name or see a word or think of a good sounding name and put it in there and when I need to name a new doll or character I'll look there first. I have two dolls whose names just aren't sticking though. My experience is that if a doll has trouble "taking" the first name you give, subsequent names also have a higher chance of not working too. For those ones you really have to just find a name that clicks for you.

 

Funny story behind mine. My friend and I love elves. I was sitting with her discussing my dolls name, which was suppose to be Naomi. But when we though it over...it wasn't really a elvish name. So we turned to our other best friend, Google. Since my girl is a standard wood elf we looked up some fantasy names to go with her background. We looked through a list and found a slew of names. It was between two Amara and Lorelei. We liked Lorelei better so that's how we got her name. Funny part is she bought a RS elfkin and names it amara. Cute huh?

 

My only MSD is a little sheep spirit, and her name is Ovelha (pronounced like Ovelia). I picked her name by running "sheep" through google translate until I found one that sounded pretty as a name! So her name is literally Portuguese for sheep.
My first doll however, is his sculpt's name. I had zero character when I found him, no name ideas for so long and I just admired him for so long, he was just Karis he couldn't have any other name. So my SDF Karis is Karis

My incoming girl, Rain, got her name from a conversation I was having about cloud OCs and I knew I wanted a LM Roselyn so I just looked at her and she was Rain. Clarissa I asked for help! I liked C names for my incoming Feeple60 Celine, but I didn't want to keep the sculpt name again, that's Karis' thing. My friend came up with Clarisse, but it sounded a lot like Karis, so Clarissa came from that!

I'm not so good at creating detailed characters so it's more of me finding a name that suits their faces.

 

It depends mostly on the history of the doll; but my first doll is based in my dearest character from the short novels I used to write. Her name is Kerli (short for Kimberly) Rachel Adams Fernandez and her name just came to me one day, I didn't even though about it.

My second, Edgar Blake Lanyon Woodthorne, has a lot to do with his story because he wants to be an architect, and his name is just a collage of pieces from famous architects in modern architecture.

My last, Nelliel Rosalynn (Edgar's sister), has the name of a great character from the Bleach series; her second name is just a variation from Rosalind (a character from "Romeo and Juliet", by William Shakespeare) and is related to her gift for the arts.

And that's all for now, I have new dolls in mind but I will edit this post as soon as I have them.

 

I asked for help on here and got a few ideas! lol But other than that, I had his character planned out to an extent and I knew I wanted his name to evoke certain images of nature. I also wanted it to be a weird or unique name. There aren't too many masculine nature-related names, so I asked for help on the forums. One person here suggested Briar, and I loved the name Briar Rose beforehand, but it was too feminine and Briar seemed too short. Then, I went on Behind the Name and looked at the comments for Briar and someone mentioned that they knew a Bryarly. I liked the sound of that but not the spelling so much. Through research, I found out that "briar" is a word for a thorny bush/plant (like a rose bush, for example) and "leah" (pronounced the same as lee) means "clearing", so the name definitely had to do with nature and I liked the sound of it! "Leigh" is an alternate spelling of Leah, so I decided on Briarleigh.

 

Normally I have a name picked out ahead of time since I want the doll for a pre existing character.

But one time I bought one on a whim (...I can't fight a good bargain orz) so I wracked my brain for names, and narrowed it down to two names I've always been fond of for goodness knows how long, Serene and Sophia.
I still couldn't decide- so I went looking for a quarter and flipped it, and ended up going with Sophia. But since I'm really fond of both names I just made Serene her middle name. Makes the initials super awkward (sounds like some kind of seafaring vessel!) , but my real middle name and last name double up on initials too; so it wasn't too weird for me in the end.

 

I have nine dolls so please forgive me if this gets long.

Andrew is his sculpt name and also my husbands name, who is very similar to my husband and the reason I bought him.

Linn is sort of the doll that looks like and is based off myself, Linn is my middle name.

Rory is named after Rory Pond and is my little fanboy.

Chiyoko means Child of a Thousand Generations in Japanese. It seemed fitting with her being a kitsune.

Schrödinger is a cat boy...enough said lol. Soon as I saw his kitty paws he had his name(5star Doll Tong Tong).

Baozhai means Stockade of Treasures in Chinese. Seeing as she's a Chinese traditional dragon meets DND golden half dragon it fit.

Sofie is Schrödinger's sister so German name it was, it means Wisdom.

Wendy made me think of fairy tales and she's such a darling lil thing so shes named after Wendy Darling from Peter Pan.

I normally choose a name as characteristics of their character form themselves.

 

Well that's easy; I have a specific naming scheme in which I choose an herb, spice, aromatic and/or flower that pairs with the doll's personality.

 

The name is usually the last thing I come up with. First, I want to know what the character's role is in the story. Then, I want to give them a few attributes: Things they're good at, things they suck at, fears, wants and needs. After that, I come up with a name, And when I have the name, I'm going to flesh out his character.

Example:
My newest doll's (Dive Seimei) role in the story is that of the strong man and muscle. He is extremely loyal to one other doll's motives and plans, pragmatic, uneducated, but smart, and physical. Has a short fuse. But since he's pretty small and slender, nobody has ever taken him seriously.

The name I came up for him was "Ax". It's short, it sounds brutal and it reminds me of the weapon that he sort of resembles: Keep punching, until it yields. But "Ax", I thought, is too cool sounding, too Mary Sue. I wanted to give this guy something to be embarrassed about (considering he really cares about his street cred). So now his full name is "Bernie Ax". Something he'll NEVER admit.

Now, that I know the archetype his character is, and I know his name and a few of his insecurities, I'm ready to flesh him out.

 

I still only have a head, but I called him Felix - I wanted a name related to luck because I won the head in a raffle.

 

The majority of my dolls have been selected to represent characters that already exist in some way, either my personal OCs or existing media characters.

I do have a small handful that don't fit either of those categories, so for their names, I try to match the origin of names for the existing characters. So, in the case of Emilia and Andrea (the latter hasn't been purchased yet, maybe this year!), because other characters in the canon setting they're from tended to have names based around some theme, I chose Italian names to represent them coming from the area most similar to Italy. For Cidmaferre and Opiya, the characters most similar to them had their names derived from a modified Caesar shift of a word or name related to the character, so I did the same for them. For Alev, the characters around him/her (still not sure) have names based around playing with sounds until something sticks, so I did the same there.

For the little group of elemental spirits, I've been picking names from one particular rock album, and my last girl got a name based around her hair color (which, like her gender, was actually selected at random).

But, in general, the vast majority have benefited from the fact that their characters already existed, and I didn't need to come up with a new name for them.

 

My dolls are all my characters. In most cases, a doll is attached to an already planned character, with a name and face and story. In a couple rare cases, I've chosen the doll and then built them an elaborate backstory.

 

Usually, I look at my doll and ponder it for a while. I say ponder, but I'll forget about naming 'em.
Then one day something nice will pop into my head. I make my dolls based on character design, and
I don't really focus on creating an OC with backstory like other people do. I pretty much keep my actual
OCs and my doll designs separate. That's why it's easy for me to come up with a name on the fly.

 

I usually have a character to work with before i pick a name.

 

It depends, i usually go for meanings (one of my dolls is blind, his name is cecil coz it means "blind" in some dialect) and nationality or, like, i'd search for japanese names for a doll if the character is japanese

 

When I first saw the sculpt I immediately knew that I wanted her to have a black and yellow wig. As those colors represents a bee I wanted that to be her nickname, so I named her Beatrice (also inspired by 'Over the garden wall').