Naming your dolls

Sometimes the name comes instantly and other times it seems to never come at all. Usually the name comes easily when a doll inspires a character. On the other hand when I buy a doll that doesn't have a developed story or the sculpt name seems to suit then I don't worry about renaming the doll. Usually when the name doesn't come right away, it never sticks anyway and I always just revert to referring to the doll by the sculpt name.

 

I didn't name my first bjd yet, but surely it'll take a longer while.
For naming characters in general I tend to get things I have a passion for and modify it somewhat.

As an example, my FFXIV character is named Claudine Amantisa. I'm an insect (and other critters) love, so for the last couple years I'm naming everything with modified versions of insect references.
For the example, Claudine came from Agrias claudina (a butterfly), and Amantisa from Amantis nawai, a tiny itty bitty mantis

 

I haven't used this list much so far for BJDs, but I have used it for other dolls. This is my favorite source by far for unique names:

Kate Monk's Onomastikon

 

for me it's very easy most of the time but sometimes i have to look around. lists online of names helped me loads when i couldn't make something up.
there´s plenty of different kinds

 

Finding a name for my dolls is always difficult. It may take many months before I get one. Sometimes I just ask friends to give me some idea or search it in google (baby names or so ).

 

These are all very good suggestions, and I think it really helped. Especially the one about playing off the sculpt name.

His sculpt name is Pi so I was juts looking at him and Pazuzu popped in my head, and I think I kinda like it and it really suits his sculpt and character in a sort of ironic way so I think I like it.

For those who don't know Pazuzu is the name of the demonic god who possessed Regan in the Exorcist movie. It's an ancient Babylonian demonic god of wind, and his physical description is very similar to him if he is wearing all his parts.

Pazuzu - Wikipedia

It's ironic because he's nice and sweet, not chaotic or evil at all lol. Although just because Pazuzu is considered a demonic god doesn't mean it's evil, a lot of things get misunderstood when translating from one culture to another.

Pazuzu is also the name of the Prof. pet Gargoyle in Futurama

 

I quite struggle to find my doll names! Sometimes, they come quicker, but I find that I don't name them until I am completely happy with their look. The husband sometimes helps, or the BFF, but it does take me a while (and a bit of testing) before I am completely happy with the identity I give them.

 

As for me ,i always look up the dictionary and find a good word for dolls,and i also choose names of Gods in Myth for my dolls,like my first Gluino[human],i love him so much and i think he is perfect,so I name him Narcissus,and my second Gluino{human too},I think it's very lucky for me to have a second Gluino,so I name him Gratias[from "Deo Gratias"],and i named my FCS49 from Volks Ceasar,because I like Ceasar Borgia,and so as Ceasar Borgia has a little sister,i would name one of my girls Lucrezia,i love picking names for my dolls,i even have a little creature from doll chateau,i named him Pegasus

 

I literally adopt my soon-to-be arriving Limhwa doll as my daughter. Whatever name she had, I will rename her.
I've been visiting baby naming websites and have shortlisted a few. When she arrives, I'll see which one stick to her better.

 

For most of mine, the character comes first (even if, as in Vince's case, that character changes a lot once the doll arrives)... but with Marigold, I knew I wanted to develop a character and story when I saw the doll. Since her sculpt name was 'Autumn' and I'd decided I would be creating her as a forest spirit, I wanted her to have a name related to an autumnal plant. Marigolds are the birth-month flower for October, and have very autumn-y colors, so that was what I ultimately went with, but I did do a bit of research into different fall flowers before I decided that she should be tied specifically to my birth month.

 

Ugh, I'm so bad at coming up with names. One of my dolls, I just loved the name of the sculpt, so I kept it as that. Others, it just came to me ...but I have a few unnamed dolls and it's driving me bonkers. Lol

 

I recently got myself a zuzu delf body and working to get the head. I've been sewing for it and recently I have a name I want to give her. I want to name her 'Paige'. I've been trying to figure out why this name popped up. I now know it's because I've been on a Secret of Nimh kick, re watching the movie over again. I want her to be in that type of setting. I also have been watching Voltron again and I really love Pidge and Hunk. I didn't want to use Pidge's name so played around with the sound and Paige is sticking. Any one have this happen to them?

 

This doesn't usually happen for me with specific names, but it does with like...naming style, I suppose. (Though one of my characters is named after one of my professors... It just kind of stuck after a while.) If I've been watching a lot of anime, I'll often go for Japanese names for characters. I also pay a lot of attention to what names mean, which usually means it takes forever for me to name things, because it has to be just right. (For example, I just recently had to name quintuplets... I wanted them to have the same first letter in all their names and I wanted them to be nature based names, because the quints are deer hybrids. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, but it was still quite a process. )

 

Sometimes, sometimes names just pop in after I write a million down and hate all of them. Like Joel, others like my guy hunter got his name because of his characteristics and physical appearance. While my mermaid got her name through help and not liking the original after I got her

 

I've two Lati Yellows, both from France. The one with the cute vampire teeth showing is named Louve, which is French for a female wolf.

The one that's going to be younger and less mature is named Bejou. It's just a French name I like.

 

I usually go for Latin names- recently I've been naming random ooaks after the cosmos~ is: Stella, which is Latin for Star

 

I'm a bit of an amateur writer, so coming up with names is often a breeze. It's the deciding on one that's the hard part!

I usually trawl baby names sites, often with an idea of origin in mind. So, Italian, let's say, or Russian. Hebrew, maybe.

Alex was actually named for a historical figure; no, not Hamilton, but Alexander of Macedon, or Alexander the Great as he's better known. The MK Cris I'm waiting on is currently being referred to by myself as Mishka; it might stick or it might not, as he's gone through a few names already. The Dollshe Saint I'm wishing for will be the doll base for a non-BJD OC that I just have to shell now that I've seen Saint, so his name already exists. He will probably also be the only non-BJD OC that I will shell in a doll.

 

I made a list a long time ago with all my favorite names. Each time I buy a new doll, I just look at that list and pick a name. I still continue to add names to that list each I found a new good name.

 

i've been doing this exact same thing for dolls/rpg characters/pets/etc. for years

 

I am terrible with names. All of my dolls (OT included) just keep the name given to them by the manufacturer.

I'm not the type of person to buy duplicates, so it's not a problem for me.

If I ever had a kid I'm pretty sure it would be legally named "Baby"

 

As a rule find when naming things that it's best for me not to deliberate too long on the name or I'll never decide. Though as of late I've found that I keep gravitating towards similar sorts of names so I've been looking through 'baby names' in order to get further inspiration.

 

If a doll comes with a set character, I'll tend to keep it unless I'm changing the doll past recognition--my American Girl Samantha will always be Samantha, my Girl for All Time Matilda will always be Matilda. Otherwise, the names I come up with rarely come from a set place. I have noticed that I trend towards plant names. Out of all the dolls I have personally named, 3/5 are plants of some kind: Linden, Cherry, Hyacinth (versus Lauren and Jesse).

 

I have dolls ordered with no names yet and I am having the worst time coming up with names for them. I have read that alot of people wait for the resin to speak to them so I am hoping that will happen if I can't think of names before they arrive. My head just jumbles up names and all I can think of are names from characters for rp stories I have made in the past.

 

I make the characters first, so I think of the time period and personality and search, popular names of that time or names that mean " x ". I do sometimes changed their names after they arrive because it doesn't match their physical form.

 

I'm still in the process of buying my first BJD but all of my other dolls are named after historical European royalty. I have Elizabeth after Elizabeth I, Annie after Marie Antoinette, Mary after Mary Queen of Scots, and Jane after Lady Jane Grey.

I'm thinking of naming my first BJD after Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa (Marie Antoinette's mother). I want to move away from British and French names for a bit.

 

As a few people have mentioned in the thread already (some of them more than a year ago...it's kind of astounding to me how long some threads go on here), behindthename.com is a great resource; you can search names by meaning, by ethnic origin, by gender, et cetera.

 

I've had my girl for over a year now and still haven't come up with a name for her. I think a big thing holding me back is that, I'm not 100% sure if I want to keep her or not.

 

I think I've mentioned this on the forums before, actually! Technically, my first named was Vit, who is (currently) not a BJD. I bought him in Prague and wanted to give him a Czech name. Vit ("life") was one I found on Behind The Names that was pronounceable for me, plus it's related to the name of one of the churches we visited there. So of course his boyfriend also had to be Czech. I went with Otakar, a variant of Odovacar and meaning "wealthy and vigilant," because it sounded pretty and was easy to pronounce and spell by everyone. Their surnames were stolen from wikipedia, and were chosen because they apparently mean "He wanted anyway" (Přecechtěl) and "Won't tell" (Nepovím.) They are vaguely plot relevant. So they were chosen for accessibility and setting, which is also how most of my future dolls will be named.

Valli's name was originally Veralidane, since she was a character doll, but when I changed it I wanted to keep the "v" sound. I messed around with "Vallie," a nickname for another book character I found cute, until I got this name. I still kinda want to change it again to match her new (... third) character, but eh. Her surname, Snohetta, is from a Norwegian mountain.

Winterberry was originally named Eclair, since she was part of a larger plot where all the anthros worked at a cafe and were named after deserts. When I took her out of it, I wanted to keep the food name. So I went with a berry that was uncommon, cute, and found in one of my potential locations (Norway, Iceland, Labrador, or Newfoundland.)

So my naming system is a mix of "it was cute" and "it was available"...

 

I love reading about names!

All my dolls have plant-based names. My first doll, a Doll Love Yoyo, started the pattern. For reasons I can't entirely remember, I names her Anise, which is a type of herb. When I ordered my second doll, I decided that she'd have a leafy name too. I spent all summer looking for a name for her an finally found it while on vacation: Sitka, a type of pine. Then I was hooked! Next came Fearn, the ye olde English way of spelling fern.

Sometimes I pick names purely based on how much like the word, but my two most recent dolls have names that are based on their appearance. George is named after the genus of catnip - she's an Island Doll AnAn, which is their car anthem bjd. And Yanagi has an aesthetic based on historic Japan - yanagi is the Japanese word for willow.

 

I always think of the personality of the character and then go deep into the baby name websites and see what fits.

 

I also keep a mega-list of names! sometimes it's real names, sometimes it's things I mis-read or mis-hear, or mis-spell sometimes it's just sounds I like together

When I actually go to name my dolls, I generally think of they're background. For example, Umi, I wanted to be American, so I decided her mother was Japanese and her father American, which led to a cute Japanese first name and very simple English surname (Summers) For my wizard fellow, I knew I wanted a "fantasy" name- meaning made up, so I just rolled some sounds around until I got a cool looking name that I could make a neat nickname from. (Kajadreem aka. Jader)

Right now I'm saving up for a girl for a naga I have in mind, and I want her name to be something fitting a snake-like race, and I got the name Zenobia from a book and I really like it, but it's just not been sticking, so I've been going round and round with some of the other names on my list. Names with a prominent "s" or "z" and no hard consonants like "t" ... (side tracked...)

I actually try not to use names that have too literal of a meaning for the doll's character, because, I know it's kind of silly, but I like the idea that the dolls are not "destined" to live up to their name (like Sirius Black, named after the dog star, who turns into a black dog...) but I do use naming sites sometimes, if the character in question comes from a "real world" instead of a "fantasy world"

 

My dolls have basically chosen their own names! It doesn't seem to matter how much I think about what to name them before they arrive; once I see them and hold them in my own hands, they figure out their names for me! As soon as I had Alice home, all I had to do was look at her face to know that was her name!

 

I am terrible with names. I even have trouble naming my written characters. My usual method is to just roll names off the tongue and hope one sticks. And if I have trouble, I give them a "temporary" name, which often sticks and turns into a real name. I also see what sorts of nicknames might result. For example, my girl definitely wants her nickname to be Ollie, but I had a bit of trouble decided whether her name should be Olive or Olivia. I decided Olive fit her better, but sometimes it flips to Olivia anyway. Also annoying is the fact that though I finally decided to name my boy Elliot, he sometimes tries to take the name Oliver, which I decided against because they are so similar (maybe he doesn't like being an Ell named Elliot?).

I don't look much at name meanings (who perfectly suits the meaning of their name anyway?), but I often look at name origins, especially if the name is particular to a country. For example, I almost named my other boy Bichun, only to find that I couldn't really find much about the name and what little I did find didn't suit him. So I changed it to Ji-han, which I got from a character and tweaked to different, though still possible spelling. It's a name that is also having a bit of trouble sticking. Maybe when I have them all complete, things will work out.

TL;DR: Just read the first sentence.

 

I generally have two methods I use for naming which are either
1. Sometimes it just comes for me. I'll just look at him/her and think 'They're definitely a ____', and it sticks. Honestly this happens more often than I realize. I have named dolls names I don't even like very much purely because it just suits them so darn well.
2. I'll name them a variation of their product name, or in rare cases use the actual product name

 

So I'm currently picking names for characters, one for a new head I just got and one for a head I'm planning on getting. I'm just using fantasy name generators (both elves) and picking out ones I like but some of them have meanings which actually fit with my characters. I was wondering if you picked your names cuz you liked them like me or if you specifically looked for ones with a certain meaning?

 

I didn’t pick my doll’s name for its meaning. I just liked the way it sounded and thought it fit his character well. That’s generally how I name all of my OCs

 

My first (off-topic) doll ended up getting her name be a variation of her sculpt name. I generally don't like just calling them by their sculpts, but for her it took me too long to pick a proper name so I found I just couldn't call her something else but her sculpt.

After that I've been more adamant about coming up with names before I doom myself to repeat what happened with my first doll.
I'm dreadful at picking names, but thankfully the setting I've given my dolls gives me some nice leeway now.

As for meanings I'd say they do have some, but often it's very convoluted so I don't expect other people to pick up on them.

 

I've only shelled my existing characters so far, so they already had names. But for my characters I mainly look for names whose meaning represents the characters most important traits and the sound of the name matches their look/asthetics.

For example one character is a shapeshifting crow merchant who travels the desert but despises the heat so he is only active at night. Because of his clothing style and his origin I looked for arabic names and ended up with "Zill Sara" which means something like the "shadow which travels at night".

 

Welp, how much changes in half a year.

I changed Valli's name to Dagny - it means "new day," and I had decided that she needed a proper Norse name, to go with the fact that I revamped her character into more of a Viking-type. Her full name is Dagný Vígþorndóttir.. because it "sounded Norse" I guess. Winterberry also got her plot changed, so that she's now a Japanese spirit. Her name is Fuyu, because I liked the winter imagery.

As for my new kids... Hideyasu was named because I hecked up, many years ago, trying to say the name Ieyasu (as in, Tokugawa) and merged it with Hideyoshi (Toyotomi)... So, Hideyasu. That might also be the in-universe explanation, as well. Soujoubou's name is from mythology, since he's the Soujoubou. Vissarion's name was chosen years ago, because it's pretty and a little strange for a Russian name, and all the names in that verse are weird and Russian. (I only discovered that it's the nickname of a creepy cult leader recently (woops.)) Nadezhda and Boris' names, by contrast, were chosen because they're pretty normal Russian names. Boris's patronymic, Aristanovich, was chosen because I wanted to show off a fantasy Kazakh background, and it can mean "lion," along with Boris meaning "snow leopard"...

 

I really like cute food names....I plan on getting a doll that has really chubby cheeks and I'm going to name her mochi because her cheeks look so soft and chewy ^ 0^ I'm having trouble thinking of a name for my other doll though, luckily she wont come for another month so I have time to think haha....it should be something that will go with mochi since they will be cute little sisters~~

 

I have a list of names saved on my phone. Theyre names that i really like so when a doll comes i just choose from the list and name my doll. I dont really like long names most of my dolls only has 3 or 4 letters on their names. And i base my dolls character on the name ive chosen for him cuz most of them are unplanned dolls.

 

I kinda have a few names in mind when i got them, some of the name stay but some change cos my doll dont like it! How i tell is i call them by the wrong name all the times i know its a sign they dont like it, lol

 

I have names I like on a post it on my desk (it gets lost but I'll find it lol) for my future dolls ^^
I named my current dolls after names that means something to me

 

I don't have a story yet but I don't think I could change her name. It took me a while but I found that Amaranth just fit. An Amaranth is "an imaginary flower that never fades." I thought it fit perfect for a BJD!

 

I use to name my girly doll by fruit name hahaha (cherry, mango, water melon, lemon etc) as I have fruit passion deeply and I always found the fruits name are very cute. When it comes to male doll, I prefer to name them by alphabet, the first names starting by A, seconde by B etc. Names are pretty much coming randomly.

 

I like to name dolls based on things about their appearance or characteristics that jump out at me. For example, if a doll looks very "cold" or "snowy" to me, I'll spend a while researching names that have a link to snow, ice, winter, etc. and choose the ones I like best.

Occasionally, though, I find that a doll's "default" name suits him or her so well that I can't bring myself to change it. Doll Chateau Snowborn is my grail doll, and if I got him, he'd always be Snowborn to me. It's just such a nice and characteristic name already.

 

So far all my male dolls have been based on OCs, so I gave them variants on their original names: Annix for Aneirin, Pike for 'Stig' (he's an Irish traveler), Gilbert for Aurelio (gold for gold), JoJo for JeongHo, Mo for Mauro.
The girls have names I thought were cute and unusual, Chanterelle, Fuschia and Usagi.

 

While I don't have my doll JUST yet (just ordered!), I think her name is going to be something along the lines of a character of mine in Guild Wars 2. She has different "personalities", each of which are named after something in the natural world--Violet, Poppy, Sakura, & Willow. It's a little difficult to explain, but I think I just really like flowers....

 

I veer off from using "basic" names. It's hard when you don't have a specific story, but usually I associate my characters with their heritage. I do try to have a set race or nationality so it will be easier. Searching the net is helpful, but I try to make the name more personal for my taste by changing the spelling.

I try to also create my own, and luckily I am from an Asian country so I play with my native language's words. I also play with the spelling of the name with a word that sounds like it.

There's not a science to it, and that's what's wonderful with this hobby, you can be as creative as you can. But if you want to name your dolls "John" or "Amy" then that's up to you, too, as long as it makes you happy.

 

I can understand the "wait for your doll to tell you" aspect. I'm guilty of doing that (still waiting for one to tell me)

 

Mine are named either for the OCs they’re based on, or if they’re minimees they’re just named after the character/actor. Unimaginative, I know...

 

Sometimes it's after an existing character (like Lorilei, Aya and Queryn) but sometimes it's a name that just came to me when I saw the doll (like Arianna and Icarus and Liliphina). Jethro, I saw a character named Jethro on an episode of Doctor Who and I really loved how the name sounded.

 

Lots of fabulous and creative posts here!
I'm in the tiny minority: I keep the names the bjd companies give their sculpts. (It helps me remember the details about the dolls.) However, if the sculpts were designated by numbers instead of names, I would definitely name them and this thread is a huge inspiration!

 

My dolls have no names yet... I'm horrible about picking out names for things. I hope I find the right names for them soon!

 

I frequent name sites, so I always no where to go. And I'm the kind of person who has names for all the characters I want to shell before I shell them, simply because I don't want to risk getting dolls just for the sake of getting dolls. I have some on my wishlist that don't have names or characters, but that's because I'm just figuring out the nitty gritty of it all at the moment. I would never purchase a doll without having a name, personality, and place for them in my story first.

 

I roleplay quite frequently (have been doing so for five-six years) and that's why I wanted my dolls to have the names of my characters. But upon creating that character, I just searched around the web and on those baby names sites. It also helps that some of them have meanings which you can also use to further develop your character? I found that sometimes the name inspires the character themselves ~

 

I have different groups of dolls that have different name inspirations.

My Elfdoll Catsys have Latin name for lunar features: Marria (dark seas), Terra (bright highlans), and eventually I hope to add Catena (crater chain).

My Delf Elf Soos all have bird themed names from various languages, all with three syllables and ending in "a".
Mierlă (blackbird in Romanian), Paloma (dove in Spanish), Rēvaṇa (Raven in Punjabi), and I hope to add Alondra (lark in Spanish) eventually if I can find a tan Dark Elf Soo.

My Soom dolls all have names based on what type of creature they are:
Sanura (kitten in Egyptian), Jelenia (deer in Polish), Charis (Grace in Hebrew) -she is an angel, Varg and Ylva (wolf and she-wolf in Norwegian)

For most of the others I like finding an obscure word for something that fits the doll or the character off the doll.
Shamira (guardian, protector in Hebrew), Nkosazana Umalema (Princess Troublemaker in Xhosa), Deoradhán (exile wanderer, Gaelic) .

Sometimes though I get lazy and use an Elvin name... though even those I am picky about making sure the name fits and that it has NOT been used in mainstream literature.

 

I started out with Ashi. Next doll was Anais. Then Alicai. Andromedia...... I like to keep the A theme going

 

I usually use 20000-names and surname.behindthename to get the job done. I pick the ones that I feel they suit them the most, depending on their background, visuals, personality, etc. Naming them is actually one of my favourite things to do

 

I use names generator and choose one I feel like it suit the doll ^^' Though I actually like cristals names (like ruby, amethyst, etc ...)