The Importance of Naming

I kept Julian's name from his previous owner. I liked the name and didn't see any reason to change it. I was planning on keeping Mei's default company name of "Megi," but my friend kept referring to him as "Maggie," and that bugged me (not that his name is any less femmy now >.>) With Alex, it popped up when I was still toying with the idea of ordering him. His company picture just made him look like an "Alex." I have a list of dolls I'm hoping to get in the next few years, and I'm having fun coming up with names for when I do get them. Most of them a name just jumped into my head, and stuck. That said, a name may change when a doll arrives if I don't think that the name I picked suits them after all. ^.^'

 

A lot of my dolls are the resin avatars of favorite fiction, tabletop RPG or online MMO characters, so they had names from the very beginning. I knew exactly what I was going to call them long before I ever hit the order button. Likewise, some of the individuals that were picked to fill particular roles in my few dolls-only storyline casts had names long before they actually arrived. Like the game characters, I knew who they were right from the start, because I'd chosen them with someone in mind. Others (Typically the ones who were purchased just because I liked the sculpt, rather than with any specific role or character in mind-) weren't named until after they arrived and I'd had some time to tinker with them.

I don't really have over-all themes for the entire collection, but the names I pick for characters in smaller sub-groups are often related. Winter and Autumn, for instance, are a couple; likewise, Grey Kestrel and Red Cardinal. My Turtle House main cast all have Asian names (Harumatsu, Tien Jen, Chidori and Kitsumaru for example), and the guardian godbeasts were all named after birds (Nightengale, Crane, Kingfisher, Crow and Falcon). That sort of thing is pretty common in my crew.

I also have a few who don't really have names at all. They only have occupational titles that serve as names... Oracle, Mender, Poet and Shaper (avatars of a group of sentient machine characters from one of my fiction projects-), for instance, along with the Mystic and the Archivist. In all of their cases their roles became their names. Nothing else suited them.

 

With my small dolls they all adapted to their names PERFECTLY...My MSD's? Nope...Nope..Nope...My new girl can't seem to decide if her name's Kazumi or Akane...Though I'm pretty sure at this point until she's completed she's neither....Avalon used to be called Arcani until I got him home and bonded with him...My mom who now gets the hobby told me I should bond with my new girl and see who she is...I agree.

 

The dolls that I planned to buy all had names chosen before I received them. The dolls that were impulse buys have had their names given to them by my husband!

And one of mine is named after a friend of ours, but he doesn't know it haha.

 

My doll was named after her character and theme. She is a pretty illegitimate child of a noble man family, but because she is a pretty and sweet so everyone love her. She love flower and nature. So I named her "Roisin" it means "rose" ^_^

 

I am bad at choosing names for things in general, and I have a habit of changing them over time. For my doll, she sat nameless for about a year before I settled on something, and I am sure I will find something better in the future that I would rather name her!
I do, however, have some planned characters also that have set names with deep meanings! So I guess it depends on the doll.

 

Well me, I just go with what comes to me. Sometimes I use names from shows I like, or just think of one liter of a name like I will search for a name with an O, or an S, and come up with a name like Oliver and Sasha. I make storys so Sasha came from that. Oliver just came from searching the web for names starting with an O.

 

I actually ordered my first doll recently, as well! And most of the names I have thought are were probably past OCs of mine from stories I've created when I was younger. For me, I was always more to myself and don't really talk much to people, so I tend to venture around in worlds I make and the people that are "birthed" through these ventures. I suppose it would be similar to making my dolls into my OCs, but, it's not exactly that. I just grew attached to these names and is more than likely to use the names rather than the persona of my characters. I feel like I might be confusing people... Haha!

 

All my dolls already have names before I even get them. The most I've ever done is change ones name because I changed their character, and so far it's only happened once with a doll that I already own.

 

I find naming very hard. :S
It can take time when the doll's character developes - I can't name them too soon because I might end up changing the doll's looks or story.
If that happens the doll's old name won't fit for the newly changed character.

 

Like many others, I go with the route of naming them after RP characters of mine. Like a friend of mine, I hope to model my doll after one of my favorite characters. If for some reason I didn't have a character to name her after though, I would probably end up looking for words that describe her and finding pleasant-sounding translations of those words. You can come up with new, unique names that sound lovely with a bit of creativity and I find it to be quite a lot of fun.

 

It sounds weird but they literally just come to me, like I just see something that triggers something and I think hmm that would be a good name, and there you go! I have to say marlo is a great name!

 

As soon as I order a doll, I am straight away thinking of names until I find that perfect one. But even when they arrive, sometimes they don't fit so I have to change. Naming dolls is fun!

 

How about changing names AFTER you've owned them and named them for a while? I'm feeling the need to change my pukifee's name. The name I picked out feels different than the character she's grown to be. I still don't know what I'm going to name her, but I'll think of something.

 

I've definitely felt like I haven't bonded with a doll until I've named her and named her properly. Usually the name comes before the doll. Once I ended up changing a doll's name that I hadn't really felt bonded to and with the new name a whole new personality blossomed. I ended up feeling bonded to her after that. Once I had a doll who I never found "the" name for and I ended up selling her because I never bonded with her. My other three dolls all had names before they arrived and I instantly felt bonded with all three of them.

 

When I first named my girl doll... I actually forgot it quite a few times.

When I got my boy doll, I named him several times and in my head I only remembered his sculpt name. Never really bonded with him, so that might have been a sign.

 

I pick all of my names before I even order the dolls but it's fun to have time to plan out the names, just in case the one you thought was perfect isn't what you want, then your doll doesn't have to be left being nameless why you're figuring out what it's name should be!

 

I'm so glad you said that because I am going through the same thing. Part of me feels as though I need to follow through on what I first named her, but another part of me is screaming that her name only suits one of her looks, and doesn't seem to fit with the other facets of her personality. Now I feel a bit less guilty about wanting to change it when I see other people feeling the same way!


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Naming my dolls is very important to me. It cements them in my mind as my own and not just some collectible or show piece. I can't bond with them without having their names in place to figure out their character a little bit.

 

I love names. I even collect names and have hundreds, almost thousands of them >__> As an author, I love giving a personality to a name and as with my dolls, it's important that the name fits. Only a few times have I changed the name of characters in my novels (mostly it's done when I realize there are seven people who's name starts with a K or F or B or whatever), but I can't see myself changing names on my dolls. However, I do take time to decide a name so it fits in the first place :3 Also, I almost instantly come up with a name as soon as I visualize what kind of concept I see in the sculpt. For instance, my next doll will be an albino, so I'm considering soft-sounding names that sounds light and bright.