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

Well, a lot of my dolls are named after characters. However, Megumi, my first Japanese doll, chose her own name and character. Megumi means "blessing", and that's what I felt she was to me.

As for the others, Miyae means "eightfold beauty", which is ironic because she doesn't think she's pretty at all. Ashe's real name is Ashley, but she hates it. Belle Fontaine is a bit of a punnish name, since that's the name of a town down in the south part of where I live, but it sounds like a wonderful name for a bayou beauty. Chaeri is a real Korean name, but it's pronounced like "cherry", and I thought it was perfect for my newest (and current favorite, I'm not ashamed to admit it) because she (usually) has pink hair.

 

My Ringdoll Andrew is still named Andrew. He was my first, I bought him because he looked like my hubby. He has the same hair and eye color and skin tone. My husbands name is Andrew so it was meant to be. My Impldoll Iris is named Linn, which is my middle name since she looks like me. Then there's my Dikadoll AAAAA named Rory after Rory Williams, he's my sweet gingery boy.

 

I always loved the Victorian-dressed porcelain dolls since I was young. My doll was named after the American Girl doll that I had for years: Samantha. Any future BJDs I might get will most likely have Victorian names like Mary and Sarah (unless she looks Asian or is a Dollfie, probably an Asian name, idk).

 

My dolls are all characters from my published novels, so naming them wasn't a problem--it was finding sculpts that matched the faces I'd already drawn or imagined for them.
Only one not named yet is the DC centaur which hasn't arrived yet. And I suspect he will tell me his name when he gets here.

 

I haven't got my first doll yet but even before I knew what doll I wanted, I knew what name he would have; Ichiro (Pronounced Ichiru because his parents are stupid) Stower. This is because I choose his sculpt to match a character I had already created (4 years ago!). Because of this, all of the dolls on my wishlist have names too which doesn't really help in the "you do not need ALL of these dolls!" area...

 

My dolls are avatars of my story. Their names existed before them. I have it easy

 

When I named my bjd all I knew was that I wanted something exotic so, I ended up naming him Amir(Arabic, I think it means Prince or commander) and after Amir Derakh from the band Orgy

 

My boy is named Kaleb and his soon to be sister is Names Luna. I chose the names for the a head of time I love the names Kaleb and Luna so much. I have never changed his name nor will I ever. I believe that they have the same last name a me due to the fact that i see them a adopted children. But anyway A name could have a meaning or even in my case just a name that speaks to you.

 

I would say as an avid roleplayer that my dolls are named for my rp characters but the truth is only two share names with an rp characters. The dolls came before the characters, and their backstories do not match. Malach my first, his name came from a book of Hebrew names. The moment I saw it I knew it was his name. It has since been used as the name of a rp boy. The rest of the names just came to me, except Lawrence. His name comes from my fiance deciding the doll, which he paid for would be Larry if I did not pay him back by a certain date. I did pay him back but the name Larry, well Lawrence stuck. The doll hates his name and prefers people call him Grey, which his and not his sister's surname. My boy Donovan got his surname because my best friend has the same sculpt, though hers is the fullset, mine just the head. Her full set Volks Kurt in named Dorian di Drago, when I got my Kurt hybrid we decided they are brothers and mine became Donovan di Drago, he goes by Doon taken from the book/movie City of Ember. Donovan is also the name of one of my rp characters but his character has nothing whatsoever to do with my doll Donovan. They just happen to share a name.

Actually I realized I was wrong when I said two of my boy had names related to rp. I completely forgot about my boy Quinn, who is taken directly from an rp character I have. The only differences between doll Quinn and rp Quinn are his middle name and his parents. Because doll Quinn's parents tie him to the rest of the band boys' backstory, while rp Quinn's parents would not, and because of the different parentage he has a different middle name.

One of my two latest boys, Padraig was going to be George Avery after another rp character but the character decided he has dolls as well, and would not name a doll after himself, so the doll became Padraig. Lachlan my newest boy is named for one of the rp character George Avery's dolls. He, before I bought Lachlan decided he had an Abio Angel Yi named Lachlan. So when I found an Abio Angel Yi for sale I knew he was Lachlan.

 

I too use oc names - and the character names come from baby name databases or borrowed from characters I admire

 

All my dolls have first names only. Some of the names come from books (Elizabel is derived from The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, for example), and some of the names I constructed myself (Nennira is derived from a dialect word for 'kelpie' which is so perfect for my little moose-taur). Usually I'll just go with whatever strikes me at the moment.

 

I had a really hard time naming my dolls, to be honest. Of the two I have right now, only one got a name before she shipped (her face just said "Willow" to me). The other was nameless for a good while before she finally got her name, and even now I'm still considering changing it (I was hoping she'd tell me her name when she arrived, but alas ; v. Then they sat around without characters for a while, until I ordered my latest boy. He kind of sparked a whole new characterization for the both of them. Before that, I'd really intended them to be "flex" characters – that is, characters that could be dropped into any universe I needed them for with only minor changes – so they haven't gotten last names. Meanwhile... now the one on the way has no name. I know it will be a while before he comes, but hahaha. Back to searching baby names databases for me! (Incidentally, that's also how I name most of my OCs.)

Like mymel0dy and probably others up-thread, I'm a roleplayer, but I'm not planning to name any of my dolls after my characters from my RP adventures – my doll characters kind of follow from their sculpts. Also... I have other plans for those names.

 

That's totally different with each doll.
For some I have a character with name, that I was looking to resinize, for others I fell in love with the scuplt and was slowly developing a role for them, then looking for a name, which I would sometimes find while browsing through name-pages, others I would seek directly for a particular meaning, while others again I'd come up with while rythming names or words and OTHERS again I've come up with randomly while playing video games ...

So yeah, various ways to name the dolls ;P

 

I named my girl Grenadine. The reason I gave her that name was because her style reminded me of my best friend, who I love like a sister and her favorite thing to drink is a Shirley Temple. The key ingredient being Grenadine. Which sounds like my best friends middle name, Grenadine. My next doll, which will be Grenadine's sister is going to be named Genevieve. Mainly because I think that name is bad ass. No last names though. Like to keep it Madonna-Esque. haha

 

I've decided to name my dolls based on their personalities or says something about their personalities (while making sure the names would be more or less unique) it has worked for me very well so far.c:

 

For some, it just comes to me and sticks..For others it takes a bit...My newest tiny went without a name for two days until I was browsing Wikipedia and stumbled upon Veronica (which is also a plant owo) and it stuck. She's Veronica.

As for my two newest boys I'm working on...Well I can't credit myself for their names...Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson.

 

It depends on the character set the doll comes from, for me.

I have two that are shells for fandom characters, so their names are easy! I seek out a doll that looks sufficiently like the character I want to shell, give it that name, and work on it to bring it to the correct look overall. The names were already chosen by their original creators, so I don't have to do any work on that part at all.

With the set of my own OCs, similarly, I created most of the characters years ago. I honestly can't say where I came up with any of their names anymore, it's been so long! I created enough of their names early on that I have a pattern of sounds that "flavor" names now, so if I add any who don't already have a specific character in place, I can use the existing names to guide myself in creating a new one that sounds like it belongs with the rest.

There's also a small "set" of two, one of whom is one of my OCs that doesn't belong with the rest, and the other was a random acquisition. His name was easy, her name was pulled somewhat randomly; her gender and wig color were left to chance, instead of being planned, and then her name was selected to fit the combination of body + faceplate + wig + personality that arose from putting all three together. Since her wig was red, I looked through a baby naming site for female names that had "red" as all or part of the meaning, and selected a fitting name that way.

The last set, I thought the first one looked a little sci fi heavy metal, so that family gets names from a rock opera.

 

When I was waiting on my first doll, I read websites with name lists a million times but couldn't decide on any. And when the doll actually arrived, my mom said I should call her Kristine and I was like: 'OMG, it's perfect!' So my first girl was named spontaneously.
Soon I'll get another dollie and this time I planned ahead, she is going to be Swarna which means 'golden' or 'good color' in Hindi. This reflects the fact that she is going to have golden eyes, and in the world she lives in, people are getting names in accordance with their distinctive feature or characteristic.

 

My girls, Chandira and Shalunia have both fantasy names - for Chandira I looked up some indian names, and mixed up similar sounding one, and for Shalunia I took my inspiration from Tolkien's and other fantasy writer's elven names (also made it up so, that there wuold be some likeness to "Elune", which is name of night elves moon goddess).

 

My dolls are all characters in the same setting, a Catholic school in Arkham, MA (one of HP Lovecraft's inventions), so I try to pick out names that are American, preppy and a bit old-fashioned. A few of the dolls that were younger got more modern names, but still rather dated.