Question: How did you come up with your doll's name?

For my first doll, I want her to has a name related to some antique or medival feeling. So I search for the beautiful Celtic name on the internet.
For my second girl, I just looked at her face and feel like "oh! I know your name, you are Monique". And that is why her name is Monique

 

Eep. I prepared a name for my dear before I adopted him... but when he got here, the name didn't fit so I'm going to have to think of a new name. I had a list of names but they all just... didn't click ? I guess. I really don't know what to name him at this point... I suppose I'll just wait and continue working on his look until I figure it out.

 

With my latest doll, before she became mine I would just stare at her and I kept thinking a nice Japanese name would suit her. But then when she was mine, I looked at her again, and the name came to me.

So now her name is 'Ouranea'. Greek, like my own name, and it's fitting, because to me, she is heavenly.

 

Some I have to hunt around for ages, looking at baby names, picking the right one for the doll's personality and face. Other times the name just pops out when I see their face. Almost as if they are telling me!

 

Well my dolls pretty much tell me. When I see the sculpt the name usually just comes to me. I only had one time where I had ordered the doll and the name wasn't solid. But as soon as he showed up - the name came.

 

My first BJD was from Volks, so I thought he should have a Japanese name, Kazuhiro. I chose his name before he got here. I had no idea what to expect before he arrived. I didn't know he would become such a character!! He's actually very American in his behaviour and attitude, but he already had his name and I was used to thinking of him as "Hiro" and couldn't change it. I thought he would be just a doll, but he wasn't. He became a full fledged character with a personality. His brother and his friends from back home acquired Japanese names by default.

Next I set my mind on having a girl named Fred. I don't know how or why! I had already decided I wanted a Volks Mimi13, so she became Wynnefred - Fred for short. I also have BJDs named after places, story characters and books. Some of my names are very common (like Tyler) and others are more unusual (like Dodge). Two of my dolls (brothers, in fact!) were named on a whim, as a joke, and the names stuck!

I like to take walks in a cemetery not far from my house, and I found two names I liked for my BJDs on headstones.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I choose my names by thinking of words that describe my doll's character in some way, and then using either etymonline (a site about the history of words) or behindthename (a site about the meanings of real names) to find a name that suits my doll and reminds me of their character. For example, my Heliot's name is Anodýne Paonier - an anodyne is a painkiller, and paonier is an Old French word related to both pawn and pioneer. Odyn (his nickname) is an escaped experiment, and is addicted to medication that was being trialled on him in the government lab. His withdrawals cause a lot of pain, as do the growths that were grafted onto him in the lab, so 'painkiller' definitely makes me think of him. He's also both a pioneer and a pawn in different senses - he's one of the first rebels against the government, but is also being manipulated by another of my characters. All my character names have similar meanings and roots to them

I've never changed a doll's name once they've arrived and settled. I do give them both first and second names (and sometimes more! Many of my characters have a 'birth' surname and a 'government' surname, due to a social movement that occurred in my dolls' storyline.

 

I named by first after my childhood best friend who I miss so much, Sunny. So now I have a Sunny to love again! My Karsh girl I named Dido after the opera; it just moved me so much and suited her elf character.

 

Choosing a name for my doll was never an issue for me. I have been creating stories and writing some of them for about 8 years. Now when I purchase a doll, I would only have to decide which of my characters it looks like the most. Once I come up with a decision. He would have a name, and a history, too.

 

One of my dolls was based from what people use to call me whenever they'd get confused with my username aha, I liked it a lot and it was very simple. And the second was because I really like quirky interesting names.

 

I usually have a name forming in my head the instant I see a doll that screams "Buy me!" Which doesn't happen often XD. This year was a huge exception though. So many. But yeah, normally when I see a mold and how they look, it starts forming a back story in my head and then the personality which usually solidifies when the doll is here. The name comes usually before the doll comes but on occasion after. The only exception is my Faery Legend Metato. He still has no name. Which I feel really bad for but...th-that's because I accidentally dropped him (The one and only time I've ever done that) and it chipped one of the two points on one ear. It mad me really upset and I can't seem to forgive myself. Which means I haven't been able to connect with him enough again to get his name.

 

I am obsessed with names. I feel that names are part of what makes us who we are. When I adopted my kitten, it took me a week to name her -- and that isn't including the two weeks I had before taking her home! Likewise, I have a tiny delf that took me almost four months to name.
I say think about the personality you want to give your doll, or traits you'd like for her to have. Then go from there. Pick up a baby names book, or even better, poke around 20000names.com (I think it's called that, maybe too many zeros, though? Hah.) For example, that tiny delf I talked about is named Milk. I named her this because the teeny tiny dolls I want to collect will all be named after beverages, and I wanted her to fit in with most of them, since she is my first. For a while I tried forcing something bigger on her, like Babiccino, but Milk turned out to be a better name so I kept it. I'm planning to get a TDF Kai next, and I have no idea what to name that one. @_@ Maybe something with tea? Like I said, it takes me a long time!
It's much easier researching a name you want for your doll than it is to reverse-engineer said name. I have dolls based on characters I created when I was a kid and they had awful names... but I couldn't change them! I had to find a way to make the names make sense for a character in that world. ugh!
We should make a dolly names database. You know, just for fun. Hah!

 

I usually wait until the doll arrives and I've painted the face up before I come up with a name. I usually only give them first names.

 

I think naming characters is one of the funnest things about writing and gaming and the like. My first doll is on her way here, and she's going to be the embodiment of my fox characters. I have an affiliation for foxes, and play a character in almost every gaming genre with a fox theme. I use a couple different names and usually rotate through them. My current DnD character is Xephrya, as is my LARP character. My main Wow toon is named SylverFox, and in my writing I use Ahri a lot, as well as League of Legends, lol.

So my Soom Breccia's name will be Xephyra Ahrianna SilverFox.

I'm also already building a boy character, and he also already has a story/name. Mind you, he'll be from one of my favorite book series.

 

Pretty much i made it up randomly got it from my mom side and other dollfie name so i combine the initials names and put it together so it can be Unique so so happy though.

 

I usually wait until I have the doll and then play with it, get a feel for the personality and bounce names off of them until something sticks. Some come out right away, others still haven't settled on a name after a year or more. Most or only a given name, no last or middle names, but some have a nickname as well.

 

Most of my dolls names are very normal names that I like.
There's nothing more to it than that with the exception of Landon. That's the surname of a friend of mine that passed away the summer I began to work on the doll.
Vivica got her name because of a song called "Vivica" I heard in 2000. The character has nothing to do with the song, I just liked the name. So I got a doll for that character and gave it said name.

 

My girly's name was decided before she came, because I was looking for a doll that I felt, fit the name.
Her original name was just going to be Odessa. That's my RP-OC name, because sounds like Odyssey. Later on I decided to also name her after one of my favorite actresses Daryl Hannah, so her name became Daryl Odessa. To me it's a word play for "Daring Odyssey". She's sort of tom boyish, and came with a hankering for adventure, so I felt it fit. Just happened to work out that way before she arrived.

Her partner/ Boss, that I plan on getting her eventually, will be called Guy Ford. Guy, because my best friend (whom he is loosely based off of) chose the name, and Ford, because I love Harrison Ford.
His name will be a bit of a word play too, only more distinct.

 

I wanted to give her an exotic name with meaning so I looked for weeks for name that would represent her personalities. So her first name is Smita which is Hindu for smiling and she takes on my last name.

 

My first stayed nameless for a couple of years. I named her only recently. She changed, like, 5 maybe names in all that time and i could not settle on anyhting. The others are fine, they got named before arriving or just a bit after. Luckily no one else had to wait years.
I'm happy nobody in my doll family has a last name, it'd be two times more trouble.