Would you discard that “perfect” name if…

Why should it matter whether or not the name isn't perfect in another language? As long as it's perfect for your needs, that's all that ought to matter. Shoot, I get made fun of for the fact that one of my favorite names I made up sounds close to Oreo, as in Oreo cookies. I just shrug and continue to keep that character name, because, in the end, I like it, and that's all that matters. (Besides, my buds give me enough ammunition to tease them back with!)

 

Lol I never give up on the names i have. I have a friend who never remembers them and is constantly calling
them by different names. But I love the names they have so, i don't want to change them, so far Baltiis and
Sefaeta are the most strange that i have. That is the one thing i LOVE about these dolls is you can do anything
with the, you can go as crazy or as normal as you want. The bottom line is they are yours and no matter what
anyone should say the choice belongs only to you.

 

Exactly!

 

I wanted to name my doll XueLian (bloody lotus), but that name was too similar to the name of my old crush. -_- Yeah...that didn't happen. /buh

On-topic: I would. My entire family is Chinese and speaks mandarin, so...yeah...definitely would. XD One of my friends is a language nut too, so if a name's weird in one language, she will find out and I will get laughed at. XD

 

It would have to be something really, really horrible for me to want to change the name just because of a negative association in one culture even though the name is from another (for the record, I don't get why "mad bird hospital" is so horrible, it just strikes me as kind of funny...what am I missing here?). And if someone wanted to make fun of me for it they would get shut down pretty quickly. There are a lot of things in the real word that have bad/silly/mean/horrible meanings or connotations in one culture but mean absolutely nothing or mean something positive in another. Case in point: the day one of my students wanted to show me a scrape on her middle finger, so she basically gave me the finger. It meant nothing to her because apparently the middle finger being held up like that means nothing in Japan, but it really shocked me at first because it means something really bad in America, and we had to bring another teacher over to explain that to my student. So...yeah. I think if you start worrying about what a name means or sounds like in another language, you're going to drive yourself crazy and never name your doll.

 

If its a perfect name for your doll, why not? My boy is having the same name as an Uno card game, but it doesn't bother me. As long as it makes you happy, and that matters. :3

 

I was thinking about a possible Korean name, Chisoo, for one of my *ahem* future doll, which was the name of a character I liked in a korean drama. But I wanted a slightly different name from the original, so I was playing around choosing new Hanja characters for each word.... so like, I decided on the hanja characters I really liked, only to realize it meant "flood control" in both korean, and to a certain extent, chinese, which is practically =.= But i kind of liked the name... so I decided to forget about the hanja and go for just plain old "Chisoo" instead.

Since Fuchoin is 風鳥院 which is more towards "wind-bird" instead of "crazy bird" so I guess that's a little consolation~ and since it's a Japanese name, I guess you're pronouncing it in Japanese, so just go for the name in that language you like and disregard the meaning in any other languages (like me and my floo- i mean Chisoo! XD)!

 

Well...google translate gave me "bird of paradise court" for 風鳥院. XD It's not completely accurate, but 院 usually means courtyard or garden or something along those lines before hospital. 風鳥 could be crazy bird or wind bird (which is slightly repetitive, but eh), so you really get something closer to "garden of wind birds." XD

 

風 means wind so a direct word-for-word is "wind-bird", or plover (ask google translator lol). thanks god it's not written as 瘋鳥 XD

 

Meh, it didn't stop my mum calling me 'sacrificial heiffer' in hebrew... moo baby!
kinda OT but I keep all my doll sculpt names mostly >.<

 

The meaning of Shi Shi's name depends on which characters he uses although it's a shortened form of Tenshi. One of my minis is Lucifer and there's people who would freak out over that.

Mad bird hospital doesn't sound that bad, great band name, and if the doll likes it who cares what other people think?

 

Which is why I generally don't use names from recognizable languages, I like to use fantasy sounding names that don't mean anything. And if I happen to use a name from a particular language 'd be sure to do research first. I don't want my doll to be named after something obscene.

 

Honestly, the OP's reation to this issue seems rather silly. I bought a cat from Build-A-Bear, and named him Kiko - even though Kiko, I later learned, is for a girl, not a boy. Do I want to rename him? No way - what's done is done, and I'm fine with that. Just because someone names their son Lindsay or Ashleigh - even when they tend to be seen as girls names, it hasn't stopped people from doing it. If you know what your dolls name is supposed to mean, name him that name. You can name him "hamburger springroll" if you really like it.

Plus, he's a doll, and dolls can't get embarrassed.

 

lol- "Lindsay and Ashleigh" were originally boys names if I'm not mistaken. I know Ashleigh definitely was. And so was Courtney for that matter. I guess my point is that the meaning and even connotation of the name means less than whether you like it or not. Generally speaking, you should just go with what you like- don't worry about whether or not people think it's funny, or what it means in another language (especially since it seems like Kanji can be read any number of ways.) Just go with your own gut feelings. That said, I know that if something bothers me enough, I'd change it regardless of what people think so... I guess you should figure out if you're more personally bothered, or if it's just other people that worry you.

 

I wouldn't let it bother you, Laugh about it, I know people with unfortunate names. A large foot ball player named Kelly, I myself am No foolin.. named after a drag queen. Ivan, means John, and John is a slang word for a toilet... so don't let something get you down. Just roll with it and have fun!

Also note I have a doll named after a food. "Milk"

 

In my son's classroom there are two named Taylor (a boy and a girl), two Alex (a boy and a girl) and two Joe/Jo (a boy and a girl). In my niece's classroom there is a Larue and a LaRu (a boy and a girl). Names don't seem to matter as much in the West as they do in the East, where kanji can be read in a number of ways. In the Western world there are only 26 letters in the alphabet.

My male doll is Erastes, an ancient Greek name, and I'm hoping to get a Ganymede to go with him. Both have social connotations to them that would preclude them being used for any male child in the US at this time. But both are beautiful names.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I think the majority of doll owners wouldn't even bat an eyelid or raise a brow at you calling your doll that name. I mean, if you hadn't mentioned how the name can be translated into Chinese as 'mad bird hospital', I wouldn't have been any the wiser ~__~

If it's any consolation, I have a doll called Dieter (an actual German name) and it's spelt just like the word for someone who is on a diet i.e. a dieter. My mom always makes fun of his name, especially whenever she sees the diet-aid stuff in health shops (Dieter's Green Tea for example). I just shrug it off, it doesn't bother me at all. If you like a name and providing it's not something obviously offensive (like Adolf Hitler or something x__x ), why not use it? Who cares if it translates into something crazy when written in Chinese or Japanese kanji?

 

I've discovered a few horrible naming woes in my time;

Myself and handful of friends are emigrating to Japan in a few months, so have been faffing around working out katakana-fications of our names. The problems we've discovered so far:

-One of our first names sounds like "Inability to maintain an erection."
-Another is "A stick"
-One middle name, so a possible candidate for a name-change if needed, is "Bloodsucking tick"
-One surname sounds like "Market fluctuation"
-Two of us have names ending in -son, resulting the the hilariously repetetive formation of Sandersonsan, when politely addressed.

It's all ridiculous, it's all a bit embarrassing, but hey, we weren't named in Japanese, we were named in English, so it'll just have to do. Your example doesn't seem too bad - At least it's not rude

 

On topic (before I go drastically off topic ) I don't think I'd change it. I mean, if I was in your case, I'd be using the name (pronouncing it, spelling it, etc) In the language it came from, not necessarily transplanting it into my language.

I do however know your pain in having the perfect name for a doll only to have something disrupt it slightly. I named my Puki Briar because it suited her so well and it was totally her! I then discovered there was a Piki named Briar already. My instant reaction was 'OH NO! They're going to think I was copying/insulting/stealing' I ended up having to realize that it's a small world, there are only so many names you can use and it's inevitable that they'd overlap onto the same sort of doll.

I guess my point with that is if you have the perfect name, it's not so easy to force another name. It'll always feel a little 'off', I've tried.

I find your last example interesting, I work with kindergartners and even in American culture, if the child doesn't know about what concept using that finger means, lots of them use their middle fingers to point (because it's the longest finger and makes sense).