Would you discard that “perfect” name if…

Oh the names... Well, I do actually have an original character (who will also be a future doll of mine) who's named Cirrhosis. I didn't know of the decease when I made him. I just saw the word and really liked it, so the character simply ended up as Cirrhosis Delelmy. When I found out what his name really meant, I was about to burry myself. After all he had become one of my favorite characters and there was no way I was going to change his name since I had grown too attached to him.

But later I just swallowed it up. He's got a nickname now, Cirre, and he usually goes by that, but he will always be Cirrhosis, even when I make him into a BJD. Now though, I just find it funny whenever I watch TV or read something where they mention the sickness.

So bottom line; You shouldn't care what the name means. Just name your doll what you want!

 

I think if you love something, a strange name definition shouldn't deter you!

I also have a name dilemma, and it's similar but not really...

Everyone in my family has a name that starts with the letter S. I really want to name my doll Safiya (African name meaning "pure" and also the long name of my favorite leopard, Safi, from the show Big Cat Diaries.) But my cat's name is Sophie, which sounds a lot like Safi.

Would it be too confusing and cliched to give her a name starting with S?

I'm so torn! Haha!

 

No not really. I always do a throughly investigation of all my names before I settle for them finally.
Many names have different meanings, take the name Kyo for example. It means 1) "apricot," 2) "capital," 3) "cooperation," or 4) "village." But I didn't choose it for it's name, I just love the name and if I have to go for a meaning that fits the character I would go for apricot.

But, I have named a doll to a name I don't even like. Ash. I don't like that name at all, but it got stuck with the doll and he wanted it so I can't really do anything to change it

 

Interesting. I think I would just disregard it if it's a name I really like. I know a girl who named her doll "Lolita", I suppose she gets weird looks or uncomfortable questions every once in a while, but she just chose that name because she liked it and it fitted her doll's personality.
I do a bit of research when choosing my own dolls' names, mostly because I like it to have some historic/ meaningful relevance to their character, but a word can have two meanings, right? I mean, a bank can be something you sit on and something you can bring you money to. So if I run into a name I really like, with no intention of naming it after a specific person or thing, people will just have to accept that it's my doll's name and nothing else. If they don't, well... *shrugs*.

 

I really wanted to name my boy doll Juno, and then my friends started bringing up the movie Juno (pregnant teen girl) and my other friend would NOT let it drop that Juno is a Roman goddess. So I went through a lot of greif and irritation trying to feebly argue that in Korea it could be a boys name because I read that there was a Korean movie with a boy named Juno. I had some suggestions to name him Juneau, like Alaska, too, but I really wanted Juno.
In the end I just decided to deal with it becasue I couldn't let go of the name, it was too perfect Then I ended up nicknaming him Juno but naming him Juneau so he could have a longer full name LOL.
Ok now here's the punchline: Yesterday my dad was playing the new first person shooter, Rage, and some buff soldier's name is Juno. I officially win.

 

One of my dolls, my little BBB tiny, is named "Wenn." Don't know why, that's just the name that she seemed to tell me. But every time I introduce her to someone, there are the inevitable comments of "Is her last name What?" and then they laugh like I haven't heard it a dozen times. I wouldn't get rid of my doll's name, but I did decide to work around it. Now I introduce her as Wenndolyn, but you can call her Wenn for short.

I also have an original character doll named Merrown (pronounced muh-rr-own) but my father is always repeating it back to me as 'morron.' But would I change it? Never!

 

All of my characters are normal folks, born in North America with relatively generic names, which was a conscious decision. But if this did happen to me, I'd probably keep the name and use it somewhere in the story (for example, have the character find out about the inappropriate meaning for their name in X language and be devastated for awhile).

The closest I came to this was picking a name for a character/doll and a couple years later, a famous person ended up having a daughter with that name who pronounces it differently than I do (Malia, with emphasis on the first syllable, as opposed to the middle syllable for the famous person's daughter). So I wrote into the story how frustrated my character is with new people mispronouncing her name all the time, because of the famous daughter. I don't panic with stuff like this - I roll with it.

 

Coming from an Asian country and speaking several languages, I've learned to accept the fact that a name will usually end up sounding like something odd in another language, or in a different pronunciation. Like Sai, such a cool Japanese name, actually sounds like a word that means poo in Hokkien So for me, as long as I myself don't feel uncomfortable with the name, I'll go ahead and use it.

 

In Singapore....our Chinese surnames translate into a variety of different ones. Having the same surname in English doesn't mean having the same surname in Chinese and vice versa. I was teased really badly because of that. Like what Hisora said, my name Tsai, is often mispronounced as sai instead of cai. My classmates used to replace my name with 'shit'.
I can't say I completely don't care, at least it must have a nice meaning and sound nice. But I chose English names that probably don't mean much in Chinese (my 2 major languages). Alice is translated as 爱丽丝, pronounced ai li si, literally love, beautiful and silk thread. One reason I don't chose Japanese names (most of the time) is because I am unfamiliar with the language and don't want to give my dolls silly names. I am a naming freak, and am obsessed with nice sounds and meanings. I once asked my French teacher what Lelouch meant and he said crosseyed. So yeah, I probably run through the names in different languages like mad, but I can't please everyone and I am the one most concerned here, If I don't mind, no one should.

 

Im a bit odd @-@ i acutally look up name meanings before i name characters i feel the meaning is stronger than the sound of the name but they both should equally be liked. I like haveing the name represent the character as much as possible pulling there personality and being into the name i selected so i dont have the problem of finding out what it meant later on x.x i use to randomly think of names in my head i made some random names up i liked which was fun and i stilll love that but i dont do that anymore ;o;....

 

I've used names such as Scythe and Viscera for dolls before, so I'm not really the person to ask about being embarassed over what a doll's name sounds like and/or means...

 

Ohh, but you could've had him face-upped with a little pink nose and sickly eyes and it would've been so cute!

My newest girl's name is Astrid, which sounds like asterisk. <_> And also has a very strong "ASS" sound at the beginning... But I think it suits her a lot.

 

eheheh~ I love names and their meanings so this doesn't happen to me very often. (rarely did I name someone something to find the name so unfitting that I had to discard).

of course my namings range from the painfully simple (Nowell, Conley, Cadence) to insanities such as Amaryoju Yoshinozakura written &#38632;&#31452;&#23551; &#33459;&#37326;&#26716; in Japanese... 'rain, dragon, age' and 'fragrant, field, cherry' I knew perfectly well what I was naming that poor girl, however, yet did it anyway ^ ^;;;

Because I'm greek... I do laugh my head off at some of the "greek" names people try to give their dolls sometimes, I must admit... simply because they're absolutely ridiculous words that are never used for naming people, no offense...

 

I decided my EL didn't fit the character I came up with years ago and thought it would be good to give him his own character. I haven't named him yet because I just can't decide. I thought about naming him after one of my best friends who passed away last year. But then I realised my boyfriend's best friend has that name too and it just felt akward lol. ( That guys is a real perv -.- )

I'll hopefully find the perfect name soon, but Im just so picky!
~

 

Nope, not ever. The only time a doll`s name would change is if it wasn`t perfect and I found a better name.
However, yes, time to time, I will smile/giggle/frown at people`s Japanese names they give their doll because they sound weird or look strange.

But then again, I am guilty of being not so original and my doll names come from Chocolate/tea/Music.

 

I would give up a good name if I found a better one! I'm very critical, I guess

 

In American sign language, the symbol for the letter 'T' basically used to mean the same here in The Netherlands as the US 'middle finger' - back in the early 20th century when sign language was adopted here, too. Which is why our sign language alphabet has a different 't'. (I still get confused - I don't sign often, and I learned in the US, so I tend to 'stutter' on my t's).

Nowadays American movies and TV-shows have made the middle finger gesture more common. But we're stuck with the different 't's now.

But to get back on topic - I do sometimes change my dolls' names. Usually not for the reason that it sounds bad in other languages, but more because I change their look drastically and the name no longer suits.

 

I don't see a reason to change the name if you already thought it was perfect. If the name was meant to be Japanese, then you should look at it in the context of the original language - not what it sort of sounds like.

 

Good luck! I haven't even started to consider what I'm going to name my doll...

 

Honestly? Not a chance. Usually it takes me for ever to think up a name that not only sounds good off the tongue but that I also like and haven't used a bazillion times (I'm a RPer. XD ),so when I do find that perfect name I hold onto it tooth and nail.
I also like to make up fantasy names,so I'm sure somewhere out there one of those means something silly or bad but again,that sucker ain't leavin' no matter what it means.