Naming your dolls

I think usually I come up with the names passively while considering the doll character after arrival, sometimes look for inspiration online usually by searching sequences of letters or sounds because that's pretty much what I require, a certain kind of sound feel... Sometimes I ask friends/ community for suggestions just because it's fun and it will either give me lots of totally new ideas that I just find interesting or I'll be suggested something I actually like enough to use (and it helps me break a bit from my typical preferences).

 

My army of dolls, have a lot of different reasons for names. Some are my own personal characters from RPGs or writing projects. Some are named for characters from comic books, anime, movies, or books that I loved so much I wanted to make dolls into them. And some are named just cuz I really loved the meaning of a name, or a word. Oh and in the case of my first and only Dollfie Dream I loved the Gorillaz song Dare, and went Dare would be a good doll name so named my second doll in this hobby that. Dare by the by is the doll in my avatar here. (I keep meaning to change my avi to a photo of my doll Tipp to match my forum name, but Dare's pic is still in use so guess she's too special to replace now XD)

 

The dolls I'm currently waiting on are being shelled into some of my OCs and two TV shows I really like. My current two dolls, I didn't have names planned for when I bought them. I made a list of a few characters in media I like and also names of characters that two actors I like have played. When each of the dolls came and had their wig on and eyes in, I looked at the list and went over which ones fit the most before picking their name. My first doll, Emiel, ended up being named after Regis from The Witcher, which sounded right and was fitting since their teeth remind me a bit of a vampire's. Then my second doll, Ariel, got his name from the character from The Tempest. His wig ended up reminding me the costume Colin Morgan wore when he played Ariel. I'm probably going to use the same method after the dolls I'm waiting on.

 

I definitely wait for them to arrive before I start the process. I tend to opt for more fantastical sounding names if I can. I want names far removed from modern times if feasible.

 

On rare occasionas I keep the sculpt name because I like it and it seems to suit the doll, but not often.

Sometimes I know the name immediately, sometimes it takes a little while to get to knwo the dolla nd figure out what their name shoudl be, sometimes it takes forever, sometimes it doesn't happen at all.

One of my first BJD never got formally named. I referred to her as "my elfie girl" for so long that Elfie became her name by dint of usage. Her tin brother, however, was Bracken right from the start.

I tend to like longer, les common names that I then, invariably use the shortened version of. I was interested in Victorian and Edwardian life as child and I guesss I was influencesd by some of the names children were given back then. My BJD's who are all members of the same Victorian family are (from eldest down to youngest in the family):

Sera (Serendipitous)
Phige (Ephigenia)
Jean-Claude
Edith
Nesta (Clytemnestra)
Cressida
Hannah
Alphie (Alphonse)
Bobbin (Roberto)
Meri (Meriol)
Elfie
Bracken
Nettle (sculpt name)
Maudie (Maud - lengthened form used instead of shorter)
Arin (sculpt name)
Littla Marina
Lottie (Charlotte)
Charlie (Charles)
Raphael (Sculpt name)

Occasionally, a name just suggests itself to me - my little Kaye Wiggs Sage is a woodsprite and her name, Willowbark, just popped into my head on my wlk back to work after lunch one day.

Some names I use more thn once among my dolls (I have lots of non-BJD dolls too) , such as Delphinium/Phinnie, Rebecca/Becca, and Maud/Maudie whihc probably indicates that i like those names, or might just be a lack of imagination on my part.

Teddy

Teddy

 

I like long and unpronounceable names . I usually pick them from books, mythologies and so on. (I have of a soft spot for fantasy novels). For my yokai family I look for names on an online japanese dictionary and I choose it when I both like the meaning and the sound of a word.
Sometimes I can use short and common names. It depends of what the doll inspired me.

 

Haha. Hmmm...it depends. Sometimes, it just happens naturally. Like, with my first doll, I came up with "Marie" and my then boyfriend/now husband said that he was thinking that name too so it clicked. But then there are dolls where I still am trying to figure out their names years later. Names range from traditional American/English, to Scottish/Irish/Gaelic, to Hebrew, to Japanese, to Korean, etc. Sometimes, the original, default name of the doll just sticks and it's hard to give it a new name as we like the original so much. I guess it's somewhere between naming a pet or a child? Hahahaha.

I have a friend that has a character in mind and creates a doll to fit that character. Other times, she tries to replicate an existing character from a series or game she and her husband like.

The funny thing is, I like "ordinary" names as my own name is extremely long and exotic (I'm the only one in the world with my name). My husband on the other hand has a very common name (I think in the millions) and he loves more exotic names. So it's interesting seeing that when it comes to our doll naming tendencies.

 

Some of my dolls are meant to be doll versions or various AU versions of the doll versions of certain characters from anime/manga/games, so they have the same names as those characters or variations of those characters’ names. I also often roleplay (RP) as these characters.

Then there are those that are the OC children of the above and their names usually come about from discussions with my RP partners.

There are also those that I call by their sculpt names and some that are nameless as I haven’t thought of characters or names for those yet. They are usually the dolls that I got because I like the way they look, and not the dolls that I got to represent certain characters. I do sometimes end up using them to shell new characters I’ve added to my RP list though.

Lastly, there are some that will probably remain nameless (mostly off-topic dolls) because they are just part of my collection and are mostly treated as display pieces.

 

All of my dolls are OCs from my stories so they had names before they even arrived.

 

All of my dolls are representative of characters from my screenplays and other writing projects, excluding Taylor, who is a general muse and gets to play many different roles. Each name relates to their story and personality, and frequently come off as ironic/coincidental i.e. Samira, a vampire, which translates to something like "evening companion", or "conversing into the night". Chronic overthinker sort of nonsense, really.

 

Mine have been all over the place. Currently I have 3 categories for naming my dolls, but like those in past they have a theme based on what company or artist they came from. Irrealdolls are all given surnames as their first names. I have Parker and Madison. The anthros are all regardless of company are named after characters from Critical Role Campaign Two. I have Caleb, Yasha and Jester so far. I had Bishonen House MSD guys and they all had human names like Eddie and Logan.

 

some of my dolls have names that have just stuck with me for many years, through many of my characters that have changed shape a million times. so my doll names are all over the place, dragged through many phases of my life. or they’re names from books or movies or shows that mean a lot to me. i don’t really look for a name or try to research. if i find one, i just find one! if i don’t then my doll is nameless till then! there’s no method to it. my delf miyu i’ve had since 2020 and i still cannot settle on a name, nothing has fit right so far.

 

I have a number of ways how name come to be. Either they "feel right" for the character ,it's a name I heard somewhere that I like ,its a name I already have for my character in a game or it's an "obvious" name. Current dolls I have :

-Echo ( I just really liked the name)
-Coco ( fox pet doll, stark white like the inside of a coconut)
-Coal ( dragon pet doll)
-Coral ( sea dragon/ sea horse pet doll)

All these pet dolls are Echos pets, I also just really liked how all their names sound together and were discriptive in some way.

I also have Kabocha , which means pumpkin in Japanese, for my magical girl with a pumpkin head

I also have Linnarea , which is one of my characters in elder scrolls online. She's an Altmer (high elf) . I just went through a list of altmer names and came up with something that sounds like it makes sense in their culture and wasn't taken already

 

I currently only five of my dolls named for sure. Two of which were based on my fantasy character couple (Khavien and Riana). And one was named because the theme of the doll just evolved during customizing and it was inspired by it (Snowdrop the baby centaur). And two Pipos cheese mice that are a mother and baby themed after food (Missus Mossrose the melon mouse, and Baby Reeses the peanut-butter and chocolate mouse)

And because two of my doll heads share a body, those heads also have a name tagged on them, depending on who's active. (Lady Amaya from Dragon Prince, and Raven, another OC)

The rest of my dolls are currently under a work-in-progress state, so their names will likely be something inspired by the finished project.

Toki is the only doll that kept his company name because I like it and it suits the little guy.

 

You know, honestly? Sometimes I’m not sure where the seed for a name comes from. It’s a bit like asking a writer where they get their ideas and it’s like, “From… my brain?”

I have shelled characters before, but I find the process for naming them isn’t really that much different. I get an impression, sometimes a vague idea of ethnicity like “this lady is Irish” or “this one is Japanese” and either something comes to me and feels right or I spend time on a baby names website narrowing down options. A lot of it tends to coincide with wherever what I’m watching at the time comes from, because I get attached to tropes and sort of express my love for them through dolls.

My last doll got named after a scientist on a historical forensics show I was watching.

 

for me it depends on if I know I'm shelling a character (or deciding to at least), otherwise it's a matter of picking a name i feel fits after they arrive. Sometimes if I'm having trouble with the second, I'll look at a name list and test out names. For one or two of my dolls I really loved their sculpt names (Volks Nono and FL Miwa), but I also felt that them having names from me would be very special especially as I start to find pieces for them that bring out their individual characters. So I ended up going with names that resembled them. Nono really needed a name with repeating syllables like that, and I love the name Momoko anyway, so her full name is Momoko and I call her Momo for short hehe. Miwa really fits an 'M' name, and something feminine. Mariah fits the bill in my opinion!

Overwhelmingly most of my dolls are shelled characters I've already named, but when I received my FL Rendia she really felt ethereal and sublime, and I had her dressed in drapey clothing. I was also doing a paper on the concept of Arcadia in various art movements in history....So Arcadia kind of stuck! (Her nickname's Cadie)

 

with my dolls, their names just come to me when they're ready! I used to have a semi-theme where no dolls could have names starting with the same letter (as an attempt to limit my collection) but that's more or less fallen off. some of my dolls have pointedly chosen to have no names at all, in the traditional sense! (like stranger and the maiden!) but generally, I'll know the right name when I hear it. could be a name from mythology, or a standard name I liked the sound of, or a name where I've looked up a specific meaning (I love behindthename's theme section for this!)

 

Oh the angst of naming dolls! I fret over it so much! It is very important to me that each doll’s character be properly represented by the perfect name, and I’ll work very hard at it until I find it. My inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere really…it’s only important that it suit the essence of who or what they are. And considering my collection is an OC grouping of extremely varied fantasy types (sort of like those you’d meet on a walk through Tim Burton’s “Alice”) my naming practices are equally varied. And it doesn’t matter if it makes sense to anyone else but me, because it’s my fantasy after all! I wanted a French sounding name for my antique french automaton character…so I named her Aubergine because that’s the color of her hair, which made it french in a quirky way. My anthro cat (who loves wearing kimonos) I named simply Neko-chan, an endearing term for cat in Japanese. And I seem to have a thing for the name Rose because I have several of them…Bohemia Rose, Second-hand Rose, Chinoiserie Rose, PrimRose and PansyRose. My angel boy protects the neighborhood, so I named him Barrio (Spanish for neighborhood.) Birdie is a very young gargoyle who was found by a little old lady who can’t see very well and is always misplacing her glasses, so she thinks she’s some sort of a very colorful parakeet. You get the idea.

And it can take me a long time to find the right name too. I’ll keep trying out names for them and then change them once a more fitting one finally pops into my head. Even if I’ve been using the name for a very long time, if I stumble upon the perfect one that takes my character to the next level, I won’t hesitate to change it. This happened just last week as a matter of fact. I have a Doll Chateau SD, and I dearly love her sculpt, but her character wasn’t quite sticking for me. I’ve had her for two years now, and I’ve used multiple names for her, but her character has never developed beyond a very basic concept and I just couldn’t figure out why. She’s a very lovely and fancy sculpt with tremendous detail, so I’ve always used sleek and stylish wigs on her. But last week I was working with one of those wild and uncontrollable Tibetan mohair wigs, and as a lark I put it on her just to test the fit…and voila! Her character just immediately started unfolding before me. It was one of those truly magical doll moments. I loved the juxtaposition of the fancy sculpt with the wild unruly wig, and character details just started spilling out all over the place for me. So I instantly realized this was who she was always meant to be and named her Tatters.

 

I have a hard time with names. Sometimes I look at a doll and a name just comes to me out of the blue that works, but usually I struggle. I like a lot of names and will try those out on the doll and if none really suit the doll I use the baby name genie lol
I just sort through the genie while looking at the doll until a name pops up that I feel fits.
Also, sometimes I will go through name lists online. I am very unoriginal haha

 

Naming a doll is definitely part of the fun for me!!! It depends on that character how I name them. Sometimes I love pun names ((twins Beau and Tai— you get Bow Tie or Tae Bo when you put them together.)) or I had a Colt Derringer once ((like a gun). But then some of them are based off of other characters. I have a Dean and Sam head each from
Modoll - SPN, so I merged the names for my Jensen and he is now Gene((Jensen and Dean merged).

Some of my names like Vance, Brody , CT <(Channing Tillman) and Corbin really don’t have any kind of guide or meaning. It just does whatever feels right to me for my crew.

 

Ditto (to all of the methods mentioned)
It's getting tougher as my dolls have exceeded my favorite names it seems ....
Right now I'm trying to settle on a name for a new to me 2001 Volks Ryo.
After learning how Ryo is properly pronounced in Japanese, my friend shook her head at my attempts. I don't think he's a Rio... I'm not excited by Roy or Ryan or Lowell. Looking up the meaning, Ryo means excellent, excell, succeed or dragon. So I looked at Dragon names. But while I love Chrysophylax, that was a greedy snobbish dragon & this is a sweet young boy...I'm thinking about Brodryn (it has the letters included) but I'm not sure yet.
It's easy for me to get distracted by Welsh names. Looked at Gareth, Llewellyn & Geraint today...
My dolls tend to group by how they're proportions go together. So he and my other older Volks Nono are together. She is Magenta. Because that was just her. So I've thought about Jasper or Rufus for him. My other two Volks boys are Alistair & Cedric, so Llewelyn would fit but hasn't been chosen yet.
He's just gotten a faceup & will be returning soon. Hopefully when he's back with me & Magenta we'll come up with the elusive answer which has had me puzzled lately.

Choosing names is great fun & usually not this tricky.

 

To me names usually come while finding out the style and personality for a particular doll. Sometimes I keep some options in mind before a doll arrives, but upon seeing them in person they often don't fit with my plans and turn out to be a completely different character!

I've also noticed that for dolls that give me less issues with finding their personal look I need much less time to come up with a name that sticks. For ones that are difficult to "figure out" it seems to be much more difficult for me to name them. This also leads to problems with forming a deeper bond with them, and they end up being my less favored dolls. Years in the hobby have taught me to give new doll family members more time, but ultimately if I fail to name them, then it usually means that they won't stay in the crew.

I wish naming dolls was easier and less complicated

 

Most of my dolls are based on my characters, who were named based on a combination of the name's meaning and how it sounds. So, like, Ilari has a name meaning "cheerful" in an ironic way since he's one of the most miserable guys ever but Emie is just because I thought it sounded cute.

 

Most of my crew have average human names, some more common than others. All of my dolls are characters in my role play who live in a world much like ours (with fewer serious problems).

There are two main ways I name my dolls--either similar to their inspiration, or they "tell" me. A lot of my dolls are inspired or influenced by real people, either people I know, celebrities or existing characters in media, so sometimes I choose names similar or somehow relating to the original--like Brendan Antony Morelli is influenced by Bam Margera, whose real name is Brandon. The others "tell" me their names, which usually just means writing the character and getting a feel for what is right for them. Sometimes it's a name that pops up often when I'm thinking of them, like when I was trying to name a former doll, a certain name kept showing up everywhere that week--in a book, in a movie, on a map--and it just felt like he was telling me that was his name. But sometimes, the name comes before the doll. In Pepper's case, I just really wanted a girl named Pepper, had no idea what she'd be like. I found a cheap doll I liked on the MP and just started building a character around her, and ended up with a spicy little lady who definitely lives up to her name!

 

All my dolls are named after flowers, even if I have to reach for it to fit. Another rule is that no two dolls can be named after the same flower. No Lotus and Padma, for example.

Otherwise, anything goes. Sometimes there's a character I like who happens to have a floral name, like Heather from Silent Hill 3. Sometimes the doll will go weeks or longer until I find the right name. Or I have a name on "standby," waiting for the right doll.

 

They are all from Greek mythology, from which I am building a story.

 

Most of mine have just been plucked out of the blue because I felt it fit the doll, but more recently I’ve been stealing names from other things I like, like a video game series I play. most of the names don’t mean much though. I forget them half the time. Lmao

 

Mine are based on characters in my writing.

Meira, my Minifee Celine, is a half-elf character, so I wanted her name to have an elvish feel. The other name choices are a little boring, but, it all follows a similar thought process.

 

Mine tend to vary - I have a couple based off existing D&D characters I've played. One has the name I used when I was in a maid cafe cause she's a Smart Doll and has a more anime-looking sculpt and the others are either just...names I like or ones that just kind of came to me in the moment.

 

Lance got to keep his sculpt name since Nameless used the dolls sculpt names in the game. Little Hela was named after the goddess, and the meaning of Shitoyaka’s name is similar to how I usually address the goddess Sygin.

Shitoyaka’s twin (a Loongsoul Little Xiang who I’m still waiting on to arrive) got her name, Suneru, cause her sculpt has such a pouty face.

I don’t like not having a name even for dolls on my grail list. Im forced to call them things like Twin 1, Lance’s future partner -which becomes a mouthful.

 

I honestly struggle a lot with naming my dolls.. I've just been using their sculpt names, lol! It's so interesting to see everyone else's methods. I feel like for me, dolls are somewhere in between a dress up toy and an OC....

 

It certainly depends on the type of character you are naming. I have both humans and anthros in my resin family and the naming process for them was very different.

• For the human part, I always search for names somehow related to some of their characteristics. For example, I had this guy who was a british architect, so I searched a list of famous british architects and combined some name from there. One of the others got her name from an anime character I really liked.
  
• For the little animals, I went a different direction. They have names related to the species they belong to. For example, my giraffe is named Peralta from the Giraffa camelopardalis peralta, an endangered species of giraffe.

 

Generally, I buy dolls to shell preexisting OCs, so they have names already. Some of the dolls that didn't end up working out for the intended characters required new ones, though.
My naming process usually involves collecting a list of names/words that relate to the character and then playing mix-and-match with the sounds until I come up with something that feels right.

 

Some dolls I shell as OC's from a story in my head, others I name with my character names from the MMO's I play or just human names that fit the character.
I usually start thinking about the name before or while getting the doll.

 

I always have trouble naming my dolls. I have had one since 2015 and she doesn't have a name yet! I just can't decide

 

I only have two dolls (neither of which has arrived) and another girl I just bought today who will need naming.

For my first, I'd bought him without any idea of what type of person he was, just knew I loved the sculpt and he'd tell me details later. I felt he needed an old-timey feeling name, but all the ones I was rolling around in my head just didn't feel right. And then I was literally driving down the highway and the town we were passing was called "Leander" and my brain was just "yup that's him". So there you go xD

For my Miracle Doll Dio (an anthro weasel sculpt), I had a backstory for him almost immediately where he's an ancient Chinese animal spirit. I am not Chinese, so couldn't get him a proper name myself. I ended up going to my best friend who is Chinese, with a prompt of "I want a name that, by itself, doesn't mean anything (because Mandarin words usually have two characters/sounds that make up the word. So basically I wanted half-a-word). But it's part of a dirty/derogatory name you would call an animal." We ended up brainstorming "Chu" together. Which, pronounced one way, is half of the Mandarin version of calling someone a dirty animal. He's actually using a different pronunciation of the same character, which when pronounced the way he uses is just a Chinese surname (because Leander was very offended at Chu using that as a name, and they changed it together xD).

The girl I just ordered is a cat-taur, in the same universe as my two boys. I'll be going back to my best friend for an appropriate name for her, as she's also Chinese xD.

 

So far, all of my doll's names have been similar to their sculpt name! Sarubia is Ruby, Bettina is Betty, and Louis is, well... Louis lol. I've thought about giving them "proper names" but haven't heard anything I like for them so for now they will have those names

 

It's bad because I'm a writer and have had most of my dolls for years, but none of them have names yet
I'm the type of person who really needs inspiration for a name to stick.

 

the girl I've ordered had a name before anything else really since she's based off an OC for a story. I had created her in sims 4 before I even thought of getting a doll of her so when I had the money I looked around until I found a sculpt that fit her name and personality.

it's the same for the other doll I plan to get, he had a name and a story but no real face until I looked around.

 

I'm hoping for Irrealdoll Nora and will call her Eleonora because I was reading a book about her. She is the mother from Richard Lionheart. Aleonòr d'Aquitàniac.

 

I'm not great at naming them. They do have names but I will either forget them or give them something else randomly. When I think of my dolls, I usually just scroll through their faces.

 

I haven't really thought about names, they known by their date of arrival. Maybe one day I'll find time to give them a proper name.

 

For me, I decided to go with flower names, or names related to flowers, for my dolls. Don't really know why, but I did. The only one who isn't named after a flower is an OC of mine that is close to my heart.

 

For me all of my dolls have some kind of cultural name. I figure out their background then use name databases to look up interesting names and meanings behind them. I match the meanings to their personalities. I have Egyptian, Russian, French, Persian and Japanese characters. Some characters like my bioluminescent sea demon named Lumin is named after his traits.

 

A few of mine were bought to represent a character I already had, and thus was already named. Most though, seem to name themselves (in that a name comes to me after they arrive).

There are a couple though that have been awaiting their name for some time; I stare at them daily trying to learn who they are...

 

For my vinyl dolls, I name them after flowers. They also have a "regular" name, but the flower name is their "witch name" which is what they go by, as such I don't share the original names; it's considered rude to refer to a witch by her given name.
For my resin dolls... I just google Edwardian era names.. if none of those fit, I look up Victorian era names. So far I haven't had a case where neither era worked... Not sure what I'd do then, Georgian maybe?

 

Vince, Pete, and Billy were all named after other characters, but aren't really embodiments of those characters.

Marigold was a birthday gift, and so I named her after my birth month's flower, since she's an Autumn, and I thought her name should be autumnal but also nature related.

Jack is my D&D character, so his name was easy. Deanna shares a name with a friend-outside-my-D&D-group's roleplaying character, though original!Deanna and Jack come from very different universes, it felt like a suitable name for my lady ranger when I decided I wanted to build an adventuring party around doll!Jack.

Party Martian got his name from a line in Earth Girls Are Easy.

 

Maybe i over complicate everything, but before give a name to my character i do the a full research. All my dolls are characters from my story and each character's name has meaning. Several of them hide their real names for reasons known to them, but in general all names has a specific translation that can describe the character itself as a person or give some characteristic, if to pay attention to it.
Soyala - main male character. his name meaning Winter Solstice if translate it from Native American, yet he is basically chinese, like the rest of my crew (only Don is exception). there is a reason behind it.
Hanmei - main female char, name meaning is Winter Plum. she was born when the earliest winter plums starts blooming.
Masheng - not a real name, but refers to his true form, which is a red sparrow.
Donovan - not a real name, but he took it as a characteristic, because he has a brown hair
Kiyo - name means redemption, name given by her father Soyala, cause he believes she is his redemption for all the things he has done.
Wei - name can be written with different hieroglyphs, but his name reflects who he is the High Technomage, leader of all technomages, and his name is written as "power".

and this is only the name of the dolls that i have, but all characters from my story has name and well searched meaning behind it by analogy to the listed above

 

Usually I try out a bunch and just settle on what feels right. Sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it's only a day, sometimes I know before they even come home. Essie was supposed to be an adult version of a beloved childhood doll named "Esther"; I knew who she was going to be months in advance. Hyacinth was quick - I knew she should be a flower and I had a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses on my nightstand at the time, so I guess hyacinths were on my brain. I think it took maybe three days for her.

Sometimes they never have a real, proper name! Robin, my little elf girl, will probably always skip between Robin and some kind of Tolkein/Sindarin name (I got her while I was trying to read the Silmarillion and my head was in a million different places at once - not a great time to name anything!) and the only thing that stuck to my Atelier Momoni Somni was "Som".

Sometimes it takes weeks but then you get the right name and it's like they were never anything else! I have one doll where I tried half a dozen names. Then as I was browsing through my mental list, Opal came up and it just worked. I can't even remember what some of my "maybe" names were now.

I'm currently trying to settle on my Frappzilla Lupi's name and I think they're going to be Rigel. It seems like they should have a star name, and it's one of the more name-like ones I can think of.

 

I use Victorian naming conventions for mine, so lots of references to flowers/plants, Greek mythology, Biblical stories, and Egyptian mythology/history.

 

I name mine mostly from Japanese names ..I do have one my most recent one I named Xyla. When I come up with a name I always look the meaning of the name up and see if it will fit the doll right..I set back and imagine the doll in a forest or in a fantasy kingdom or something like that .

 

My crew have a consistent naming system. They're all angelic characters, and each represents a virtue (wisdom, peace, etc). So they have a given name that reflects their virtue, and a surname that's based off a mythical bird -- because birds in mythology are often associated with heaven and considered angelic messengers themselves. (And I'm obsessed with birds too.)

That above sounds all very tidy... but in reality it took me a while to settle on this naming system, because it took me a while to figure out what kind of characters my dolls would embody. I went through some trial-and-error with character development, even sold some dolls that didn't fit the world-building and/or I couldn't shell characters in them. But once I got the characters and world sorted out, it became really easy to figure out how to name my crew.

 

Everyone's name follows a plant or flower theming. It doesn't always work, so I keep it as an alternate name so it wouldn't technically be breaking the pattern. If the sculpt name suits the doll, I keep it. Even then, I would try to find a plant that is related to the sculpt name. Names can get strange since I mostly derive names from scientific names.

 

I never named them (( I should but actually they aren't even OCs, just dolls to play with and dress up, I don't feel like they have personality per se...

 

Haha well I'm in the process of revamping my dolls as it is, but since my dolls are also characters I basically go through the same sort of naming woes as any of my other characters. Generally speaking I use name sites, almost always Behind the Name, in order to help choose something. Sometimes it's based around the supposed ethnicity of the character, other times it's based around some sort of theme (like looking up 'flower' names or what not). In characters that are purely from worlds I've made up, I have a bit more fun with just smashing together letters to get names or using fantasy name generators.

 

My dolls are all characters from my novels and names are very important to me. Generally they'll have a name that reflects something about their character/personality/what they are. I'll often use a name site to try to find something that fits/suits. If nothing there works, I'll pick several things about them as a character and enter those words into an online thesaurus to see if any perks my interest. Then that word is looked up in a dictionary for the word origin, alternate spellings, root words, etc. Sometimes I draw a blank on those methods so I'll go back to the collection of descriptive words and start throwing letters together to see what I get that is both pleasing to the ear and eye. Sometimes they just tell me who they are. Sometimes I stumble over their name.

Ondraeden is the Elder God of fear & Nightmares. His name means fear.
Wai-Lan is the God of Pain & Sorrow. His name was created by me to sound like the word wailing with a bit of a twist.
Jaiseki's name was created with some of the letters of his parent's names (Moswen & Kijika).
Enjei's name is literally the sound of the letters N and G. He was a new doll and I didn't have a character for him so I was calling him New Guy until I figured him out and that got shortened to N.G. and when I happened to say that out loud one day I had my ahhh moment and realized that was his name.

 

I named one of my dolls for Demeter, and though I'm no longer a practicing pagan, Dimitri's name is going to remain as such. As for my other dolls, I just looked at baby name websites, lol. The only exceptions to this are Max, who was originally named after the Doll Family-A Max because he was going to have that sculpt as his head, and Fable, whose name sort of just sprouted from the aether fully-formed. I guess Demeter was like, "Thanks for Dimitri, here's a name for his girlfriend. She grew up in a farming community, btw."

 

Truth is... I make my partner name them. I do the faceup and body blushing myself and I usually ask his opinion on eyes/wig/outfit combo. He also comes up with a short blurb about their personality and based on all those things, names the doll. It motivates me to work on my blank dolls for that reason!

 

I collect names on a list, but I lost that list. I am making a new one on naming woes. Should I keep my list private? I notice people don't seem to share their name lists. Is it like personal thing that people don't like others having the same doll name thing?

Usually I get the names from stories, webtoons, kdramas, or names I randomly heard in passing. If I like the name I add it to my list.

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