What inspires your doll's names?

When I think of names I look at the character/doll first. How i want them to look like or act like..I mostly go with themes and base the names off of those themes

 

I tried to name all my dolls after types of bird but soon realized I only really liked three bird names as doll names and was just trying to force the rest to preserve the theme, and I certainly couldn't guarantee I'd only ever have three dolls.

Now they're all named after characters from literature or folklore or fairy tales. Lanval is from the lay of Marie de France of the same name. Kai is from Hans Christian Anderson's "The Snow Queen" (but with an alternate spelling; "Kay" is how it's spelled in the story but unfortunately that just makes me think of Kay Jewelers). Conradin is from Saki's short story "Sredni Vashtar."

I try to choose names that aren't too specific to that story or stories that are too famous, though, for example I wouldn't name a doll Mowgli or Dracula. If I did that, I think in my mind the doll would be the character, and that's not what I'm after - I prefer an allusion rather than a direct connection.

...but I am terrible about naming my dolls in anything like a timely fashion, so I have two more nameless dolls still lurking in my drawers. Oops.

 

For me, all my characters, dolls included, have a habit of naming themselves. Which sounds ridiculous, but it tends to happen? I usually come up with a vague idea of who I want them to be, and at some point in my head, a name will attach itself to them. And it typically sticks, or evolves.
My newest doll got the name Anastasia to stick to her, but once I got her in my hands, I realized that name was much too feminine for her. And suddenly Anastasia changed to Andie, and it's perfect.
I can't explain why this seems to happen for all of my characters. It's pretty weird, if you ask me.

 

It depends what their background is. I'm Irish, so a lot of my dolls have Irish names. A few of them are based on Japanese folklore, so those ones have Japanese names. Most of my bigger dolls fit into a cat-person fantasy storyline, and they're all meant to represent different cat breeds, so I try to pick a name related to where their breed is from. If I ever have kids I bet I'll have already used all the names I like for dolls

 

Depends on the character and what they're supposed to represent for the most part.

So, besides the obvious, Mephistopheles being the current Lord Devil's son, for example... You get C whose full name is Cadence but ended up being called that because his last name is Landolt (so we're just literally calling him by the optical test), Ushiwakamaru is named after Minamoto no Yoshitsune, and Myabi (who happens to be a nekomata) was literally named after the sound a cat makes and 'bi' which is 'fire' which nekomata control... (the same naming convention applies to Nyasuke who is also a bakeneko, with -suke being a very common ending particle for Japanese male names).

Lancer is named after his 'job'; his entire tribe don't have names they own, they're called by a trait or their trade instead (other examples that aren't made into dolls at this point in time are Wizard (a person with a good prediction ability and hunches), Spanner (a mechanic), Winter (a guy that joined them during winter), Doc (a medic), etcetera )

Lord Kazama was named after the Hakuouki character of the same name because of his delusions of grandeur (he's a literal kitten who wants to take over the world) and also because his sculpt name, Kazari, reminded me of Kazama's name. Inaho is an adaptation of Inaho Kaizuka's character from Aldnoah.Zero, and Chiaki keeps the name of Chiaki/Sindbad from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne (because my friend and I are huge nerds and love it...)

 

All of my dolls are avatars of my original characters. Naming the physical dolls is easy when the characters they represent already have names.

Some of my characters have names with a specific meaning that's related to their story. Aenon, for instance, is a water elemental sprite and his name means "naturally occurring spring or fountain". Apple Sweetwood is an earth elemental sprite and he has a name related to his affinity for trees. Sini has blue skin and hair, and her name is derived from the Finnish word for "blue". Piri's hair colour is predominantly bright red, and his name is derived from the Hungarian word for "red". In the cases of Sini and Piri though, within the context of their story, their names in their own language mean "Sky" and "Hummingbird".

Most of my characters' names don't have any particular significance beyond being names I like or names that work for a particular character's personality, circumstances and historical time period. A few characters have names they chose for themselves (within the context of their stories) that are personally significant to them, but that gets into layers of detail I don't think OP was necessarily asking for.

 

Depends on the character.

Pharaoh Ay is a historical character, but I have taken artistic liberties with him.

The rest are modern humans, so I mostly went with names from baby name websites. For some, I looked up popular names from the character's birth year and place. For others, I used names from friends, celebrities or movies that I liked. Some of them, like Blaine and Lakin, were taken from company given names of fashion dolls I owned when I was younger.

 

I usually come up with names by messing up existing words. For example I came up with the name Vana (please don't use :P) by messing up the name Alana. Or sometimes I smash up different sound I like. But I never choose names that don't fit the character~ that's a no-no!

 

Thanks to an immense love for all things science I derive most of my names, for BJDs and otherwise, from nature. I love using names of plants, critters and minerals, though I usually modify these names a little to be less of a mouthful

 

@Miri Oh my gosh, I loved 'Sredni Vashtar'! Excellent source of inspiration.


If I'm building a character around a doll, then it takes thinking about. Looking at names, looking at meanings, seeing what sounds right when spoken... and then in spite of all of that, Vince just had to be named Vince, despite it not being meaningful in regards to his personality... But if I'm building a doll around a character, then I already have the name down.

 

I got inspired by an Director my GF likes ^__^ so that was kind of my inspiration for my very first Doll. But I am not sure if I would continue this on my next Dolls.

 

I don't have a character yet for my doll but I gave him a name inspired by Nicolas from anime "Gangsta". I just love him so much. At first I want to name my doll Nicolas but then I change it into Niclas. Simply take out the letter "o" to make it sounds different

 

I actually don't name my dolls until I come up with a certain style for them, but each one correlates with the moon which is the driving theme between each of them. My first doll was originally going to be called Celeste, but after I decided I wanted to make a traditional kimono for her I decided with Kaguya, which means "Moon princess". My second doll wasn't name until after I body blushed her, and I named her Genevieve Lunette which means "white wave" and "moon" in French since she was blushed like a fantasy sea creature.

 

I just try to think of names that I find to be pretty, cute, or elegant sounding, as well as have a meaning that suits my doll's character and sense of fashion. I also try to steer clear of any names that are too common, and sometimes I like using words that aren't normally used as names, too.

 

Nothing in particular, really. I just go with what my gut says goes with the characters.

 

My dolls are all Original Characters like a lot of others in the community but unlike some who order dolls to fit existing characters I order a doll and then start creating a character and personality around the doll while I wait so when my dolls arrive I have a small list of names together to pick from and see what fits the doll the best. The names can come from a variety of places, either a name I heard and liked, or if I am looking for a feel I will look up names in that era or nationality ect. I have even named some dolls after when they arrived. My newest doll is named Vincent because he arrived to me near Valentines Day!

 

i choose doll sculpts based off of old characters i created for my book, so i don't really need to think too hard on it when a doll arrives home. sometimes, though, plans don't go the way i expect and a doll will arrive home and i realize it doesn't fit for who i wanted and i switch things up. and sometimes i impulsively buy a sculpt just because it's nice and then its very hard to come up with a name / a place for the doll in my story ahaha. i usually just pick names i have some sort of connection with. when my foveo vincent arrived i didn't know who i wanted him to be since he was an impulse buy. so, i named him craig as a homage to my favorite south park character :P and the rest followed and now i know his character very well and he has a place in my fictional world.

 

I named my first bjd Amelie after the the Amelie movie haha. So anything really inspiring or catchy