Naming Your Doll References!

Most of the time, they name themselves. Ysandre, though, is named after a character from a book. Ramsay is loosely named after an Egyptian Pharaoh. Loki and Eris are both named after trickster gods (and not gonna lie, it amuses me to have a female Loki since we've mostly seen Marvel-Loki as male, although I know there is a Lady!Loki). My dad named Achmed after the Jeff Dunham puppet. So my brood is about 60% self-named/ 40% named after something.

 

I have 3 dreaming/ sleeping MSD girls I call my Poe sisters. Their names are Annabel Lee, Liegia, and Lenore But for the most part my dolls tend to name themselves, and some dolls have names that are rather fluid & change from time to time, some have no name.

 

Since there's so many names to choose from, I started making it a rule that my dolls' names have to start with the letter that comes before the sculpt name letter in the alphabet. I chose this because I happened to name my first doll a "C" name and her sculpt name started with a "D." For example, my Soom Rico's name is Quinn, my Luts Yul is named Xylia, and my Loongsoul Chris is Brooke. I hope I don't buy anymore R or Y dolls, though! Haha.

 

I don't much have references for names, but I like to pick names based on the style the doll wears or the country I see them coming from. Since my two girls wear Mori-inspired stuff and I like renaissance fairy paintings, they have names that seem fitting for a fairy (Elda and Greta)!

 

My dolls names come from either words I made up, names I've made up for gaming characters (eg Animal Crossing, I've played every version from the beginning as 'Gurma', which is now the name for my Leeke Kiko) and most recently I've been using bird species (with Wren, Mulga and Scop).

 

Considering all of my dolls except for one are modern day human people, mostly from English speaking countries, I usually go for regular baby name websites. Most of them have pretty common names for their heritage, and sometimes I'll even research what the top baby names for their gender and nationality were in their character's year of birth.

The only ones I have who are somewhat "odd" for their age/nationality/culture/etc are Loki and Lakin. Loki is a Chinese-American 26 year old born in California, but while I was waiting for him to come home, I just got this really strong feeling that he should be called Loki, though the name really doesn't make sense for his character or backstory. Lakin is an 18 year old Australian guy, and I chose the name because I liked it, it's unusual, and I first heard it years ago when it was the official company-given name of one of my Bratz dolls. Though his middle name is Ashton, which was one of the top Australian boys' names in 1996, when Lakin was "born" in character.

I guess also Dhani is fairly unusual for a 15 year old from New York, but the story behind it makes it fit. Dhani is a member of a pop boyband, and the only other two Dhanis I know of are Dhani Lennevald, former member of pop band A*Teens, and Dhani Harrison, son of former Beatles member George Harrison. My boy, Dhani, is young enough to have been named after either or both in character, and both work for my musician.

 

Well I dont know. They just tell me their names somehow. Even if I try to choose the one I like still theres a chance they wouldnt like it.

 

This is the same for me

 

My dolls name (Jeff) is a reference to Jeff Andonuts, though his character is pretty much the total opposite of that character. I like the name for him though.

 

It depends from where come from the character, then I choose in a names list from this country, I got many dolls with Arabic and African names to the past.
If not, I go wild on it most of time, I pay a lot of attention to the tone of a word.

Except one which is a fan-doll so obviously, it gets the name from where it comes.

 

I usually just go to Behind The Name and look through random names it spits out till I find one I kinda like, and then I look at names more in that style. I always have a character in mind already for my dolls, so I try to match the name up with that.

 

I like to get my names from cities and mythical creatures/ organisations. Venice and Gabriel for example. But if it doesn't fit when they get here I change it.

 

At first I named my dolls after some famous scientists, like Damkholer, Tesla and Reynolds. I learned Damkholer's number and Reynolds number in class, just trying to find a way to love those names....So I named my dolls after them!
But most of my dolls are elves...I'm considering renaming them. Time to read The Lord of the Rings!

 

I'm a fan of darker, more eerie names. So over time I pick up a few from books, poems, moves, etc. and collect them in my notes on my phone. That way, I always have names ready when I need one for an OC Usually there is one that just fits perfect with the character and it all works out!

 

I didn't catch that someone else had posted this, but here is my favorite source for names:

Kate Monk's Onomastikon: http://tekeli.li/onomastikon/

I usually keep a running list of names that I encounter--names that are slightly off or different--regardless of whether I like them or not. That way, I can use more traditional sites like Behind the Name, and also have my list of strange names. I like names that are slightly unusual, without looking made up. It's a balance.

 

Thanks for all of the name lists/generator guys!

As for how I come up with names, it's a bit of a mix. Sometimes I'll make one up, other times I'll look for name lists that have meanings attached. Sometimes I'll even change a few letters in an established name to make a new one. My Luts Lu-wen hybrid got his name because I liked the name of a character in a movie, but didn't want an exact match.

 

I usually have a feeling if what type, style, ethnicity, and sound I want the dolls name to have. Sometimes I'll get an idea beforehand and it doesn't work when the doll arrives, so I like to keep a list of ones that I think of, hear, or like in case I need to change it!

 

Noah - Honestly it just fit. When I looked at her sales picture "Noah" just came to mind... And Noah is as a result my spoiled girl. She gets more clothes then everyone else... And she was the third MSD at that.

Vala after my original character of the same name and fantasy creature type (Elf)

Veronica - Flower name.

Avalon - Arcani was just not working out. I needed to find a name and Avalon stuck out to me... So it worked out.

Avery - I wanted something to do with aviation and Avery sounded right... Plus it's close to Aviary.

 

I wanted to stick with Japanese names, but that kind of failed on the second doll I bought.[emoji3]

 

My characters (and therefore my dolls too) always get names from where they are supposed to be from (or at least sth that sounds like it is from there). Sometimes the names even have a deeper meaning and not just sound nice. => My DZ Hid is named Reito written in Japanese with the Kanji for Spirit and Door.
In rare occassions the names are partially inspired by either musicians or characters from books XD => My DZ Yuu will be nicknamed Aoi because the real name of The Gazette's Aoi is Shiroyama Yuu =D