Naming dolls and keeping sculpt names

I've named all mine, but the sculpt name still gets some use as a nickname. Like if I'm struggling to get one of them to look good in a photo shoot the sculpt name will come out as a way of disowning them in frustration.

 

i usually dont much care for sculpt names actually, so i like being able to name them myself. but that being said, i am very bad at naming things lol... it either comes in an instant or not at all. ive had a pukifee lingering around for years that i just never named orz

 

If I like the sculpt name and it matches the character I have in mind for them I will keep it. With my first doll I kept her sculpt name just because I couldn't think of a better name that suits her and I really liked it. I named my second doll myself. I have a floating head that still doesn't have a name yet.

 

I give my dolls characters that have their own names. Or I see a doll and come up with a name on the spot then the character follows later. A sculpt name is just like a description for me. Though, I had to change my character name for my incoming SDF65 Gray. The character's original name was Gray also, but I thought it would be too confusing and I ended up not liking the name much for that character anyway. It's just my personal preference though.

 

I don't feel it's really it's mine or has it's own style unless it has a new name to go with it. Sculpt names feel pretty restricting unless I buy one specifically based off a pre-existing character.

 

Using sculpt name is ok, though I use my own name usually. I sometimes twist sclupt name a little bit for doll naming.

 

I model my dolls after my OCs so I already have names in mind when choosing a doll, so the sculpt name really doesn't matter. If I ever get a doll that I did not get for a specific character I might consider the sculpt name if I like it enough.

 

I have characters for all my dolls, they all have their new name. But when I talk about them to my friends, I still call their sculpt names.

 

Most of mine have names, but poor Kazuya i couldn't find a proper name for him so he remains Kazuya. There is also Coco, the name i gave her was Sabrina, but later i changed her wig and she was Coco to me XD. Rigth now i'm waiting for a bambi head and i am wondering if i will find a similar sweet name for her.

 

I don't have a doll yet, but I do have one preordered. I have wondered this myself on how I will go about this. I think it might depend on if the sculpt name and if it suits them. But I can see me giving them a name to give me a better bond. I preordered Miyou and he's a cute fox boy. I have possibly 9 months until I get him in and am currently thinking of names to call him.

 

Pretty much all of mine are either preexisting OCs that already have names picked out for them before I even put in the order, or existing characters with similar circumstances (already had a name before the sculpt was picked out), so there's pretty much zero chance I'm going to stick with having them remain with the sculpt name permanently.

The closest I ever had to having an OC have a very similar name to their sculpt was when Tahmos was temporarily shelled as Simply Divine Thomas (swap a few letters around on the one, and you'd get the other, plus their pronunciations are pretty similar). That wasn't really intentional, however. Plus, eventually I reshelled Tahmos with a few sculpts with very different names from his own.

 

I don't tend to keep sculpt names. Usually the dolls "speak" a sort of name to me, either because they look like one my of my characters that I want to shell or they inspire a character that I want to create. I do sometimes refer to my dolls by their sculpt names, like when I'm talking about them online or when it just makes more sense to refer to the sculpt name. My partner is usually a huge fan of keeping sculpt names unless he has something specific in mind. It's just the way that we enjoy the hobby!

 

My first 2 are coming and I've already named them. Although reading these replies, I'm interested to see if I will actually change my mind based on the personalities the dolls have when they get here.

 

I prefer to name my own dolls even if it might take me weeks/months until I figure out a fitting one for them. So until I get them a name I'll call them either by their sculpt name or simply Pretty Head 1/2/3~

 

I'll pick my own names thank you!

 

There was only doll I kept the sculpt name for and that was my gankustuou doll from IOS. Since he was made to be a specific character from that show, I kept the name. My Ringdoll 2011 Frankenstein got a new name, but when I'm talking to my family about him, I call him Frankenstein just because that's how they heard me refer to him for years until I was able to hunt him down second hand. If I call him by the name I gave him, they have no idea what's going on.

 

I try to name all of mine something differen than the sculpt name, but it is difficult to adhere to because I frequently talk about my dolls to a few friends and I don't expect them to remember the names I gave the dolls so I always refer to them by the sculpt name. I am struggling right now to rename my Atelier Momoni Reira and my Minifee Sylvia.
Even if I mostly use the sculpt names when discussing them, I do like to give them their own names.

 

Most of the time, I keep the sculpt name. I'll change it if a new doll comes in with a name of a previous doll, Like Dollzone Carter and Dollzone Yo-Carter, I renamed the Yo one. Some of my dolls got new names.

 

Naming my dolls is a huge part of bonding with them. A name gives them their own unique identity. I have a story for them that I need to write down one day and their names are important in the story. One of my dolls is named after my dog and I need to figure out how she fits in the story.

 

The vast majority of my dolls are character shells, so they have their own names (though I refer to them by sculpt names when posting lol). The very few I have that are "just because" I usually just keep the sculpt name.

Most notable example, I have a Luts Juhee -- long, long before I started collecting BJDs I admired her and always said she'd be "my one doll exception" lol. Since I've admired her for so long, I can't see her as anything but "Juhee". She'll always be Juhee to me!

 

This is such a good question ^_^ My ringdoll MengHe has his own name, Klaus, before that I just referred to him as "My MengHe" as though the sculpt was not quite his name... On the other hand, my MDD DDH-10 on a Mochi-ashi body, I started to referring to as "My mochi" haha! So that's one of his nicknames

 

Think only one of my dolls has kept it's sculpt name, she's the off topic little sister of my pukifee Toria. My dollzone scorpio took a long time to tell me her name though so for a long time she was just referred to as Scorpio or Scorpi. Other than that most have either been named before they arrived or within a few days of getting home.
I've not had a doll who's sculpt name is something that I can see calling them long term.

 

I always give new names )

 

I think it depends on the doll. If its one that changes styles a lot, it never feels like a character and it keeps the sculpt. But if the doll has a consistent style of wig/outfit or stays in the same ones, they start to feel like a character and they get names. For example, I love my Mei, but she changes wigs so often that she has just stayed Mei.

 

If I have a character for the doll, I use the name of the character. However, I am guilty of keeping the name of a sculpt previously.

 

I used to never want to keep sculpt names because it didn’t feel personal enough, but that’s changed.

My Rosette Doll didn’t have a name for 15 years because nothing worked, so I just called her “Fir” for her sculpt name, but I didn't feel like that fit either. She finally has something perfect now.

One of my dolls had a name from the moment I got her, but now it’s being changed to her sculpt name. I give up lol. This is my Suiseiseki. Back when I got her, Rozen Maiden was popular in multiple friend groups and the guys especially were fascinated that I had the “real Suiseiseki.” Whenever I’ve run into them after a long while, one of the first things they ask is about is if I still have
this doll. What ultimately made me give up was after introducing my housemate to Rozen Maiden, he loved it! But now I lived with someone who only saw my Lily as Suiseiseki, and after a few years of this, I guess that’s who she really is. Her more newly acquired sister Hina (Hinaichigo) has kept her sculpt name too.

Another doll that will be keeping her sculpt name is the KDF Lemon I am currently waiting for. It’s kind of a silly name but kind of perfect for the vibe I want for her. Maybe she has a secret real name, but Lemon is just how everyone knows her lol.

 

There's nothing wrong in keeping the sculpt name IMO. There's a reason it's the sculpt's name after all.

 

I have changed some, kept some, and used variations of some.
I have a low success rate of forcing characters into shells, so the process of naming and characterisation has to be somewhat collaborative between me and the doll.

Ryōma, Hijikata and Maki kept their names because their characters are vaguely based on the same people/characters as the sculpts (two historical figures from the Bakamatsu and one manga character). They're also some of the few characters that didn't suffer any shell rejection for the same reason.
Saki, Mako, Elena and Noa also kept their sculpt names because they're names I like and work for the characters.

Evander is an RS Doll Evan, but Evan is an old man name to me, so I gave him something softer.
Likewise, I named my SDC Miko because Mikoto because miko makes me think of shrine maidens (plus he's a boy).
Una (Volks F-01 WS) became Fortuna. Lieselotte became Ysaylie.

Some names just don't work because they already have associations for me or don't work for the character. Ayame isn't cheerful enough to be "Nico" and "Coco" is too frou-frou for Suzuran.

 

With my Barbies, I rarely keep their canon names (except Barbie, her sisters, & Ken) mostly because their names are never stated on packaging so whenever I get a Barbie, it gets a new name. As for BJDs, I started keeping the names of the sculpts because it seems so fitting for the doll (even though I don't have any yet).

Force Fox = FallinDoll Force Fox doll
Deborah = Pipos Deborah
Charlotte = Pipos Charlotte III 2021
Rudy = Pipos Deer Rudy
Freya = Hujoo Freya
Freyr = Hujoo Freyr

 

I keep calling my DoD Kirill the same name as his sculpt, but my DoD Ivan is needing a new name. I still have yet to find something that feels right.

 

i do a bit of a mix of both, my super dollfies have kept their names because they fit their characters, my lunablanc girl got a new name because 'hestia' didn't fit her personality, most of my dolfies kept their names but the dolls on numbered heads got their own names

 

I kept the sculpt name for my first BJD, which is a DIM Flora, but named all of my other dolls. I'm considering getting a Supia Emma and keeping the name Emma if I do get one.

 

My dolls are primarily aesthetic dolls, rather than oc's so I find myself refering by them to others by their sculpt names first rather than the names I did give them. If a doll has a name already I do find it difficult to cast them under a new name cause I'm a goober u.u Everything else I add feel like just nicknames, their company name is their "government" name so to speak aha.

 

I usually keep the dolls original name, as I can't remember what I called them. Old age!

 

My dolls’ first names are the names I give them, and their surnames are their sculpt name. If their sculpt name is a number (like f-30), their surname is the company name (Volks).

 

I have lots of ideas for names for them. But for convenience, they go by their sculpt name.

 

As a character-driven collector, every doll of mine has a proper name (and surname, and birthday, and backstory...). The names I pick or create for my OCs usually have a deeper meaning or significance for the character, so I can't imagine myself keeping a random sculpt name with no meaning to me.

 

Like Yami_Hanako, I shell OCs with my BJDs, they all have carefully chosen names and I'm telling an ongoing story with them. So at first I thought I'd never keep a sculpt name that has no meaning to my OCs. But I've recently started acquiring animal/creature BJDs to be pets for my human BJDs, and... turns out that I'm quite happy to keep the sculpt name for such a pet. These pet dolls are basically accessories to the human BJDs, and somehow being an animal and an accessory means they don't need a proper name?

I currently have an off-topic pet BJD -- R.Dean's Weimei, which is the cutest little spiny lizard. Its name is Weimei. Because otherwise, I'd be calling it "the lizard", for real.

This is amusing, because I did the same thing as a child. I loved stuffed toy animals, but my names for them never progressed much beyond Rabbit, Bunny, Horse, Kitty, etc. At the same time, I was making up imaginary characters for storytelling, and they all had elaborate, fantastical character names. I guess I'm still the same child

 

Like Vega and Yami_Hanako, my dolls embody characters. Thus, each of them have proper names, surnames, individualized backstories, etc. That said, I like to wait for names that feel "right" for the doll, and the speed with which I name a doll is typically inversely proportional to how invested I am in making a doll work, as dolls who are named incorrectly tend to leave soon thereafter. During the limbo between receiving a doll and naming it, I refer to them by their company and sculpt.

 

Personal names all the way! I have characters in stories, characters for rp's (old, not used any more, but fond memories) and characters to draw and possibly one of the first two. So many characters, and if I didn't shell one of them I'd definitely want to make my doll into another oc. So to my surprise I kept the sculpt name of my first fullset, as it happens I have always loved the name and wanted a character with that name, so I thought, why not keep it? Now I have a character with that name, tada! (Orion). I'll probably give him a middle and last name to be more unique.
Of the dolls I have named so far, the other fullsets took names heavily inspired by their sculpt names, but I might change that. It feels too limiting. It's got to be only tangentially inspired or even not at all. Dolls I will be painting/face uping myself have unique names not related to sculpt names.
I like the idea of the doll "choosing" the name as you interact/finish them more, with clothes, wig, face up, eyes, etc. It feels very natural and it sticks! It's happened once so far, waiting for it to happen again!

 

I really want to give my doll a personal name, but it's such a struggle atm as I don't want to change it a bunch of times (tho I don't think there's anything wrong w that, I'm just a bit perfectionist). So far I refer to her as her sculpt name, but I tend to say she's "a Chiyo" instead of just Chiyo I also do not know yet wether I'm going to give her a story or a personality, which might influence the naming thing

 

I've named my lillycat ninon "Roslyn", sort of to set an intention for her design as I work on her, since that name reminds me of listening to Bon Iver on the bus and watching trees go by and feels very foresty to me. I'm not one hundred percent certain I'll keep that name, but I hope she grows into it.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping the sculpt's name. It's a name that was chosen by the artist because it fits the doll after all. It doesn't make the doll any less yours.

 

I use the sculpt name unless I really don’t like it or if I have multiples of the same sculpt.