Naming your dolls

Hmm I have to admit I have tried thinking of a name before the doll arrived and that really didn't work- I find that it helps me if I have the doll at hand and sort of mull the name over as I look at them. Saying the name out-loud a few times also really helped me. I have even changed a name because it just didn't feel right after the first week or so. Something will work for you

 

In order for me to name my doll I first have to fix them up perfectly with their wigs eyes face-up and clothes then I look at them to see what name fits their look and persona.

 

Usually I have a name and character for my doll before they even arrive just from looking at their sculpt for my IOS Mars it was kind of a play on his sculpt name I used Rei as in sailor mars from sailor moon and changed it to Ray/Raymond and for my first doll I just used a word I used to describe him as his name so it's clearly fitting

 

I also have problem with naming my dolls.. ;( Sometimes they have to wait 6 months, until I decide wich name I should choose. Even after that, I usually call them with their company names! xD I don't know.. it must be defect of mine..

 

pour over name generators for hours till something fits...same way I name my gaming characters

 

I like name meanings, but they have to "sound right" as well. I once named one Dermot because he was a younger brother and Dermot means "free from envy".

 

its hard to me put a name on my dolls.. only 2 of them have one.. the others are called by the name of the sculpt

 

Grotebur: That's a bit of a shame! Unless something is explicitly a character from TV or a movie I come up with new names for them. Even some of my inanimate objects get names like my router who is called BOB and my camera called Zeus (since he is so large and is an Olympus brand camera!).

 

omg haha ok. putting names to routers and cameras is other level.

 

It just kind of simplifies things! When we first got our router, no one in my family had ever had one and frankly we didn't even know what it was called. So instead of saying "hey, where's that thing that connects the computer to the internet thingy?" we'd just say "where's BOB?"

 

thats have sense! here in my country we do put names on some things.. but i think you are very creative!

 

I like naming my dolls after flower names... Because they are both cute and lovely!

 

plantist: That sounds nice and it's also creates a common theme!

 

I usually pick the name from the characters I adored. Such Game of Thrones and then I bought the props like eyes and wigs that match my dolls. Also, I like naming them from dessert like Chantilly, Red Velvet, and others.

 

Roseinate: It would be cool to have dolls that look like your favourite characters!

 

naming is kind of like... almost a sub-hobby of mine? i nickname ALL of my pokemon, and there's like.... what.... 800+ of those now? and sometimes i have multiples, so i'm pretty good at coming up with names on the fly!

a lot of the time it's just a kneejerk reaction, i would say it's most close to the "you look like a ___!" school of naming but sometimes i go for like.... riddle naming? like charizard>fire>bunson burner>bunson>he's a boy>lad>his name is Ladson! and it sounds like a real name so it works nicely. i've done the same thing for some of my dolls that aren't characters i've shelled.

i tend to give my characters less common but still reasonable names, as i have a very weird birth name and it is a living nightmare, but having a super common name seems like it would be a bit of a pain too! Lee and Aleks aren't terribly common names but they're relatively easy to spell and everyone recognizes them as a name and they're not weird to the point where they would get made fun of or anything!

i don't really like to give my characters "meaningful" names, since that would give away stuff! and it feels weird to me i suppose? like how many people actually end up resembling the "meaningful name" their parents named them?? it's just not realistic to me!
but for dolls that aren't characters i've shelled... i try to find something that suits their aesthetic? if it matches their personality even better! like Koth was just a bunch of letters that sounded nice together, but it's apparently an old german word for "hovel" or something which makes sense to me since his aesthetic is pretty much "space dirt" haha~
Cassini is my DC jupiter and i love space and stuff, so i named her after a probe they sent to saturn (since that's my fave planet!), and the cassini probe was of course named after an astronomer and it sounds really, really pretty!
Julian (pipos sienna lloyd) is named that since his promo pics looked very... princely and royal and julian sounds like the name of a prince! i went through a bunch of names for him, but they were all similar; julius, julio, julian, juliette

sometimes i'll stick with or close to company sculpt names though, since i stuck with it for sevy!! it's just a really laid back name that suits him a lot!
when i saw the pictures of DZ norris, i didn't realize he was the same sculpt as floy and i wanted his head since they were discontinuing it, and it took me a little bit to track it down, but by the time i found out the sculpt was called floy i had ended up getting really attached to the name norris! so that's what i stuck with!
and my DZ mocha, Wednesday, i originally wanted a kind of ice creamy faceup for him.... so i did the riddle naming!
icecream>sundae>sunday>wednesday! and it stuck~

a lot of non-character dolls on my wishlist are named before i get them. i have an app (it's called list buddy!) that i use to keep track of my doll wishlist. i make lists like (list of sizes) and in each size list there's (list of companies) and then inside those is (the sculpt/skintone/gender/NAME) and then inside that is lists of (eyes)(shoes)(clothes)(wigs)(etc)
so i can keep track of names as they come to me as my first impressions of dolls!

i'm kind of complicated but.... it's a lot of fun!! naming is one of my favourite things to do~~~!!!!! :')

 

I enjoy naming as well. Meaningful names don't have to spoil a plot, just give a hint!

 

I have a character first, always, and then I find a shell that matches so they are named before they even arrive.

 

I hadn't thought of it that way but it makes a lot of sense.

I don't use names because of their meaning - just because I like them (or don't, in one case).

Teddy