Naming your dolls

I usually refer to my dolls by their sculpt name until they arrive and think of possible names while I wait, and then wait until they arrive to see whether they fit.

My first doll was very resistant to accepting any of the names I had thought up, and it took a long time to settle on one (or rather, two: Millicka Jade).

Virga and Sumire both took to their preordained names right away, so those stuck.

June's name just came to me when she arrived (in June, even though she was due months earlier), and I don't remember whether I decided on "Rebecca" before or after I received her but in any case it stuck right away.

The only doll to keep her sculpt name so far is Shanhu. I usually prefer to individualize my dolls more, but her name just suited her so well and added etymological variety.

...And I keep forgetting that i have this new impulse-buy floating head, so it doesn't have its own name yet.

 

I've only got one doll so far and I really had trouble naming him. Eventually he got a name that had been such in my head for a really long time that I thought fit him very well. So it took a bit of time before he got that name.

Now for the second doll that's currently in order for me it's going to be a character that I already came up with for a roleplaying campaign and I've even already made a drawing of him and a sort of background story and personality. So he already got a name and I searched for a sculpt that would really fit the character.

I don't have that many dolls yet. If I love the sculpt name I might keep it but I haven't done that yet.

When I look for names and I want to search for meanings or origins I go to www.behindthename.com which I think is the nicest name website on the web.

 

My souldoll clodia is shelling an original character. So her name was Guenwyvhar even before I purchased her haha. It will be the same when I finish my layaway on my Batchix High Elf as Aidan.

I probably would rename a different doll that wouldn't shell a character. Although, I'd probably figure it out after their personality developed.

 

It depends on which character of mine they are, 100%. Once I decide who they are they get a name. Or a silly pun based on their name in part to differentiate them from their... nondoll self or another sculpt I have for the same character.

For example, I have a pukifee I call pupifee because his character's long standing nickname he goes by all the time is pup (long story - he's just an absolutely adorable sassy dude and it stuck like, ten years ago when his boyfriend started calling him that). His adult SD size doll has been called by his sculpt name or big pup until I see him in real life because another adorable nickname might come to me. Or I might call him Atticus, which is pup's real name. We'll see in a month.

 

I usually have a character (and a name) already in mind when I order a doll. In fact, the characters often exist long before the doll does. There have been a couple of exceptions where I fell in love with a sculpt without knowing who they were, but even they're developed as characters before they get home.

I have an advantage, I think, by being an author. I have plenty of characters/names to choose from. Of course, it comes with the disadvantage of having so many characters it would be impractical to shell them all.

 

I made the mistake of naming my girl before she arrived. I thought I had her personality, style and coloring all picked out.

Her name was based off a certain color, so when I changed her coloring about 1 year in, her name no longer fit. I renamed her and I finally feel her name fits her her coloring AND personality.

I'm expecting a new girl soon and this time I have a list of names. I'll settle on one after I get to know her.

 

I am a complete mess with names. Aren’s name was Darth Boy for many many months before it hit me out of the blue! And Cassian was Sassypants for a couple of months...I guess in a way I wait until the right name just happens. I almost never have a character in mind for a doll prior to getting them, so it’s a bit of a process getting to know them enough to where I can comfortably name them!
It’s the ones that I name hastily that usually end up leaving my collection fast, so I’ll know if a doll’s a keeper if they sit around and marinate with an embarrassing nickname for a while.

 

Sometimes, I have the name ready to go as soon as I see the doll - Like first and last name ready. The dolls I have named in that fashion have remained with the name I gave them.

Other times, I only have a name, but I struggle to give them a last name that suits them.

And finally, I have the times that I see the doll, I fall for the doll, I buy the doll, and have absolutely no name for them. On those occasions, I struggle with their names for months and even years.

 

I kept the sculpt name of my first doll, then I started naming the next ones I got based on my favourite game characters. ^u^

 

Up to now I've always picked the name before the doll arrives, usually before I order them. The exception was my latest doll where I had 3 names I liked and I waited for him to arrive before settling on one. I actually have a list of names I like already, so whenever I find a new doll i want to order I have a look through that to see if there is anything that suits them but I don't always get the name from there. Sometimes names just come to me when I look at the dolls photos.
The doll I ordered a couple of months back I'm waiting to arrive I have no idea what I'll call him though, so I guess I'll let him name himself when he arrives.
But I've never kept a sculpt name for a doll and don't think I ever Will, not for a bjd anyway.

 

The dolls that are my OCs retain their fictional names, or a variant of. Annix's "real" name is Aneirin, for example. Dolls I bought for their aesthetic pleasure usually suggest a name to me, after I've settled on their look and personality.
Being a writer, I'm pretty good at coming up with names and characters.

 

If the doll has been planned for a long time, then I already have a whole character for it! However, if it was an impulse buy or something of that sort, it takes me days to weeks of playing with the doll before naming it.

 

For my first two girl dolls, I picked a name from a favorite anime character and then one from a favorite TV show. One of my other girls, I knew I wanted her to have an Irish name and so went with a long time favorite. The Peakswood I have on layaway I'm going to stick with the sculpt name of Cass as it suits him for the character I want him to be. I don't really have set characters in mind when I choose the dolls, I just look at dolls and any that inspire a background story get added to the growing list lol.

 

I am terrible at names. Even my story characters tend to get names long after their personalities and character arcs have been planned out. I usually slap them with a temp name that often turns into a real name. Or I work backwards from a nickname I like, or choose one based on the nicknames the character could then have. And for some I just write up a list of names that fit and see which one I start calling them the most in my mind. If I have a starting point (for example, a certain culture I want the name to be from), I can just go down a list to see what fits. And rarely, the perfect name hits me out of the blue. My dolls' names have been a mix of all of these methods. And I recently realized that by complete coincidence, all my dolls names have i's in them, which helped narrow things down for my latest name pick, Ingrid.

 

It varies for me. My first doll Blaze was named before I got her. One of my Real Puki's, Kali, was named before I ordered her, and the other is Hermes, a name I had in mind before he was released. I also think behindthename.com is a great resource, since you can find names based on meaning or ethnicity. Only one of my dolls has ever used their sculpt name, and his was changed after a few months.

 

I usually create characters first before ever buying the doll. Sometimes I have an existing character and look for a doll to match, sometimes I find a doll I love and build a character around it, but the character is usually set before the doll arrives to me. Character (and name) are very important to me, but sometimes if I get an unexpected trade offer or a free event head or something, I might not have a name/character until the doll is in hand. And though rare, sometimes I plan out a character for a doll, and after the doll arrives, I realize it really doesn't work at all, but I use the doll for a different character!

I have only kept the sculpt name once in ten years, and it was pure coincidence. I had a character name, and it just turned out that the sculpt that ended up working for her had the same name as the character already had!

 

I wait for the doll to be completed (faceup, eyes, wig) then I decide on a name. I don't keep their original names because I think it doesn't make them special, to me at least? I usually look for Japanese names because I think they suit bjds well xD

 

I am very inconsistent with names, some of my dolls have 2 names and my incoming girl that's a French character has a Japanese name. Two of my dolls are Yo-SD versions of their respective SD sculpts and I refer to them as little "insert sculpt name" instead of their actual names.

 

Names are tough for me, I usually change them a lot until I find one that sticks.
I often use names of people I met in real life who impressed me in some way.
Also whenever I find a name that I like just because it sounds nice, I write it on a post-it-note and stick it on my desk so I won't forget it. I might use those later.

 

Oh the angst of naming! In my defense, I have 33 of the little darlings to contend with and some have been periodically changing names for months or even years as I tried to settle on the perfect one. Finally, I actually forced myself to take a period of 24 hours of doing nothing else until I finally settled my naming woes once and for all! I spent an entire day doing research and coming up with names for the small handful of dolls that were still in need of the perfect one...and it worked. I now love all their names!