Would you discard that “perfect” name if…

Once a doll's name reveals itself to me, done deal. I wouldn't change it regardless of the issue. Of course, that also explains why some dolls have sat around for months with no names. I spend a lot of time with a new doll, observing it and "getting to know it" and then ultimately being inspired by it to figure out the name. Yeah I know... a little weird. But, that's my process.

Cheers!

 

Funny, I was just looking at that closed thread about an hour ago - yeah, Penis has become Colin, I think somebody wised-up Iplehouse! I think if I found a name I had chosen had a strange-offensive-undesirable translation in some other language I would still keep it... I have the new Elfdoll Eun-A on order; haven't the faintest idea what Eun-A might mean ...??

 

Apparently my username “Shoga” is a derogatory word or something in another language (can’t remember which one exactly, somebody approached me about it a couple years ago and it was pretty uncommon). I don’t care. It’s a username I’ve been using for YEARS and related to how I met my very dear boyfriend, so it’s pretty special to me as far as usernames go. Lulz

I’d apply the same to my dolls! I’ll name them what I want. Most people aren’t likely to catch on anyway unless it was totally obvious hehe.

 

If the majority of the people you interact with have no idea about this other connotation, then what should it matter? Even if they do, you can just laugh with them about how 'odd' it sounds. You should have fun with your perfect name!

 

No, probably not.
I must admit I go a little .. wut? sometimes when I see a doll with a random German word for a name (being German myself) but other than that, I don't really care and wouldn't care any more with my own dolls. Unless I accidentally picked a name that meant something really really vulgar maybe.

 

I'm completely with misterfrost on this one.

My dolls tend to have rather quirky names anyway, all carefully chosen as a reminder of some wonderful moment in my own life that their characters are connected to and reminders of. Their names have a lot of meaning to me and that's all that matters.

 

I either make up the names off the top of my head (Tanso and Tremis are named that way) Or I grab my Big Book of Baby Names and start looking things up. It's why I have a future cat-boy named Rafe, and two future Elementals named Galen and Rufus. I'm American, and for the most part, I pronounce things that way, so what it 'might' mean somewhere else isn't all that relevant. It's going to mainly get used in America, by people who speak like me. (We'll note that a couple of my friends tease me because somehow, through no connection what-so-ever, I have a very slight English accent that occasionally colours my words and makes me pronounce things differently.)

 

Hah, I choose names based on uniqueness/quirkiness instead of the meaning. If the meaning of a name I chose is like "Little Batshit", I wouldnt really care cause it doesnt matter to me. What matter is that the names I chose has to be uncommon/not many other dolls have it. If another doll has the same name I chose, I will immediately discard it.

 

My given name actually is a place name, and it means Land of the People of Lothar. The beautiful name Cheyenne comes from the french Chien, slang the trappers used on the Native Americans to call them dogs. Ashley, the most typical girl name in my generation, means a place where a certain kind of tree grows. Rachel means Ewe, a female sheep.


Don't get too hung up on name "meanings"- most aren't literal. Do your research and make a decision based on that.

 

No. There is some language, somewhere, that will have a similar pronunciation for some name that sound great in my english language but may bring on the giggles to some people in a middle eastern country.

 

All my dolls are based on preexisting characters. Usually my characters names come to me or I pick them out of a name book... That being said they all have really pretty normal, or at least heard of.. English names... so I don't run into a lot of issues. I just don't like foreign sounding names because my dolls are all American mutts!

I don't even know the name meanings of any of my dolls. I don't read into that stuff and really don't much care for a deeper meaning behind a name. I just want it to be pretty.. ><;;

 

ImplDoll Penis.

He's named Colin now, but... XD
I felt a little bad for the company.

 

As far as naming a doll goes, the only thing that has stopped me from naming them something is a bad association. It's unfortunate how a legitimately pretty name can be ruined by an outside association that has nothing to do with it! It's actually making me re-think buying a particular sculpt of a doll right now...the doll's sculpt shares a name with someone I don't care to think about anymore, and I worry that even if I re-name the doll, I will always have that association and lightly cringe when someone asks me what sculpt he is.

But past that, ehh. If you like a name, go with it. I go by the logic of naming a child: you never know what their personality will become as they grow older. Just because you name your child "Grace", that doesn't mean she won't grow up to be a prostitute. It's the same with dolls, to me. I try not to name my dolls names based on their personality, and if the name has a separate and less-friendly meaning to someone else of a different language, or even opinion, so be it! It's my doll, if I like the name, it's sticking. It may make them laugh, but that's okay.

 

Strangely, i feel kinda drawn to naming a doll "mad bird hospital"

 

I would definitely say, never worry about the translation you get from an online service, especially BabelFish. They can be really, really derped and there's no way they can get all the subtleties that are possible. If you're naming your doll for a character, just think of it as having the same meaning the character's name has; most likely, the original writer chose it for an appropriate reason.

But if you're really worried about it meaning something off-key in another language, find a native speaker and ask her/him.

 

Nope, I wouldn't If anything I would joke about it far too much, because I'd find it so hilarious that it means something unusual.

If it's really perfect for your character, I don't see why you shouldn't call him/her/it that, as long as you accept that this name translates to something funny or rude. I remember this English speaking girl had named her doll an English word, and it was a rather sweet doll, but in current context the name meant animal poop. When people asked her about it, she denied that word meaning existed, said everyone was wrong (as well as their 2010 dictionaries were wrong o_O), and generally threw a hissy fit all over her thread. She couldn't accept that the public's perception of that name was going to be different to hers, and as a result of her hissy fits people looked at her unfavorably afterwards. It really wasn't something to throw a tantrum over, but she still did.

If you can't accept something bad with the good, then don't accept it at all, y'know?

 

If I like the name, I like the name! When Loki's name first came to me, I didn't know that Loki was a "god of mischief", which was suitable...and then both bad and funny when I made a friend whose doll is named Mischief! But neither doll got a name change, and I don't think they should!

Also, my first doll's full name was Zero Amir Angel, and I chose Zero because I liked it...then was told how horrible it was to call him basically, "worthless".....which was funny, since Amir translates to "prince"....But it fit with his story. His unloving father chose Zero, his very adoring mother chose Amir. And at the age of 21, he changed his name to Basil Amir Angel, which meanly Kingly Prince Messenger of God. But this has nothing to do with ME finding the name offensive and everything to do with his personal story.

Then there is the matter of sharing names that make things unfortunate or awkward. My BlueFairy Tommy's name is Matt, after my best friend who passed away. I've had the character since April, but just got the doll. My boss's name is Matt...which is kind of weird. I got this job in June. So, although my boy had the name before I met my boss, it is a little odd at times. Also, I have a boy named Mike, had him for two years, and my husband's best friend's name is Mike. Again....awkward! But no name changes! My Mike has been my original character for 10 years, twice as long as I've been with my hubby.

 

Nah. Well, it depends. If it's an actual name and it just so happens that there's a similar-sounding weird word in another language, then I'm not going to bother. If it's some random string of sounds I made up for a name, then sure, I'll change it a bit, because there's no point in having a made-up name that actually is a word with a bad meaning in another language. (I've actually done this once before, though in my case I sought out the word in another language and later found out that it was currently slang for "red lights district". I waffled between keeping it or changing (nothing wrong with red lights districts, haha), but changed it in the end)

Most of my doll names come to me accidentally though, just one day I suddenly decide to call my character/doll that name because I'm tired of having them nameless. Yet they're always eerily perfect and tend to stick. (Like I needed a human name for Eros/Phanes, so I just randomly started calling him Jason/Iason, which then became Iason Phanes (since no one would really make the connection between the surname and the god), and later found out that Iason meant "to heal" or "healer"... which seems rather appropriate for a god of life.)

 

when I really started thinking up backstories for the dolls I decided to discard all the "silly" names given before, though recently decided to give back Clover's middle name "Yor" as...I donno it just fits!
its Yor's world and she's the man lol
there is a reason she was given that name, obscure movies aside (where the hero uses a dead bat as a hand glider to drop kick a purple caveman while his theme song plays in the background, literally informing us how he is the man), it does fit her

 

I even use words that actually mean something in my primary and secondary language for names.
Not really original but at the same time not many people would name them like that XD

Exemples are Ignorance, Avarice, Era, Serenity, Plume and Red.... and those are only the ones I have as BJDs xD

BTW, none of those names really have anything to do with the characters. They're simply names I never was able to get rid of after calling them that xD