When it comes to naming their dolls and softies, my children are… lacking. Badoo calls all her dolls “Dolly” and most of her softies are also called “Dolly”. The new doll she recently got for her birthday is called “Other Dolly”.
She is more creative with naming every day objects, however and we still can’t figure out exactly when she started refering to blankets as “pinkies” and why all blankets are called that. She has her very favourite stripey, cotton “pinky” which she likes to sleep with, but you can use a “substitute pinky” if “real pinky” is for some reason lost or unavailable and she can handle it. Just.
Cappers changes the names of her dollies reguarly. She takes ages to decide what to call them and then unleashes a torrent of names that are quickly forgotten and made up again later. So who knows what “Butterfly Butterfly Princess Party Dress” the pink bear will be called in a day or so. I do know that “Sparkle Carla Rainbow Pop” is now known only as “Carla”, making it difficult to explain to people why my daughter’s favourite doll is named after the bairmaid in Cheers.
Maxi-Taxi used to refer to all things by the most obvious thing about them. So we have a bat called “Batty” and an elephant called “Ellie” and a turtle called “Burtle” (but only because he thought all turtles were burtles at the time). The mouse is called “Mousey” and the Lion is called “Liony” and, well… you get the idea.
We’re planning to get chickens in the next month or so. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of “Silky”, “Fluffy” and “Benjamin”. Yes, Benjamin the chicken. Which seems like a departure from our usual naming conventions, but I believe the child was watching Ben 10 at the time so not such a departure after all. I’m sure the chickens will be so overjoyed to find themselves let loose in their palatial chicken coop that LOML is building* that they won’t mind their uninspiring names one bit.
[Image from birdybrain.com]
supermac says
Oh, my children are like Maxi-Taxi. Our stuffed toys are called “Giraffy”, “Doggie” (except for one dog called “Sparkles”) and our dolls “Dollies”. This is so cute xx
Newmumma says
My little man is too young to name anything yet – but I love how their little minds work. Too cute!
xx
Posie Patchwork says
Oh too true, my eldest names all her toys after people or places she knows (she’s logical); number 2 is creative but a confirmist, like SuperMac, we have Giraffes named “Raffey” & one named Tonsils for when she had tonsilitis & we picked one up at the chemist with her medication; daughter 3 is our boheamian floaty type who makes up all sorts of crazy names we could never find an origin or reason for; then the boy, he has a snow leapard named Zoe, as it rhymes with ‘snowy’ & i can never remember, so he (yes, a boy named Zoe) is called Snowy Zoe. There was the day our pink loving, rainbow dreamy boy who only has big sisters . . . choose some dinosaurs from the toy shop (wow, he really might marry a woman one day) & my husband came home to see these boy’s toys . . . named ‘Rainbow’, ‘Coco’ & something like ‘Kirsty’ i can’t remember. Where, why or what, no idea, all i know the more children you have the more different personalities you realise there can be for children raised in the same family, by the same parents, in the same situations. Love Posie
Silver Threads of Happiness says
Lol @ butterfly butterfly princess party dress!
No kids in my house to name things but as a child I renamed things often, or just picked my favourite name at the time. With one exception, I had a pink elephant with a zip in its tummy to put your pyjamas and he was always called “Pyjamafant”
ms. freelancer says
oh, i’m the naming queen when it comes to naming my friend. i have cubes (rizalenio.blogspot.com), kerjen, kuba, etc…etc..
and i call my husband “bok” hehe. =)
DancingInTheRain says
Our chickens are – Rosie, Coconut and Alexander. Goofy would not be convinced that all chickens are girls and so was insistent on Alexander. So naming is a mystery to me in our house!
Wonder what they will call their own children!?!
Diminishing Lucy says
Chooks. You are brave. I dare not tell lovely husband. He pleads with me to allow him to get chooks. I say no to the rodents they bring with them….
In terms of naming, Olivia tells me that I make up enough silly names for the whole family, which is why she keeps on with “normal names”.
When I ask her what she will call her children, she says “Whatever I call them, I will not give them nicknames.”
I feel like I am always being scolded by my 7 year old…
**Anne** says
Ahhh, naming things, such fun. I called my teddy Leanne and thought I had made up her name. Funny that my name is Anne, I wonder what that says about me. Perhaps I was a bit narcissitic as a wee girl.
My two girls are affectionately known in my extended family as Larlotte and Beve, corruptions of their names from when little cousins who couldn’t pronounce their names correctly.
Chook pens and the making of them. Good luck with that. My hubby made a Taj Mahal for ours and I must say I was very impressed.
Anne xx
Mama of 2 boys says
Haha! Good on LOML for giving it a go! My hubby would have no shot at building, well… anything! Hence why I am always the one putting together flat pack furniture, Grrrrr!
However! He does come up with good names for the boy’s toys. He has given names to all the lego/Fisher Price figurines. Lucky he’s imaginative… with that severe lack of construction prowess.
Mrs BC says
I don’t think those chickens will mind their names at all. We changed the names of our guinea pigs from Mopsy, Misty & something else can’t remember, to Enid, Beverly & Agnes. They seriously didn’t even notice.
x
Rhi@FlourChild says
Our Miss 3 chooses names that sound like they are from some strange Martian language: pliliplii, plilitputli, pullypplot… fortunately her favourite doll was named well before this stage began, so she’s just Mali.
Our pet rabbit was boombaloopli. Shortened to boomba. Poor girl!
Milla wants to change her name to Isabella Strawberry *****. We will remind her of this in the future…
x
Mrs Average says
Ah yes, the Average offspring are just as unadventurous. “Bear Bear” Master A’s bed time buddy and “Bunny” Missy A’s favourite cuddle. I need not tell you what type of animals they are. The rest of their doll/soft toys are characters from films etc so no imagination required there either!
We are seriously contemplating chickens and would expect them to be called “Birdy 1” “Birdy 2″….. you get the picture!
Michelle says
My eldest was super imaginative with her naming of things – every doll (and there were lots of them) had a different name and woe betide if you got it wrong. My poor husband was forever in trouble over some doll’s name. She also had an imaginary pet named Turkey was a chicken for years, but it turns out Turkey is actually a turtle that was just pretending to be a chicken. (Although the identity crisis was the least of our worries – have you ever gone looking for a lost imaginary pet in David Jones?)
The boy is more logical in his naming – the rabbit he sleeps with is called Bunny, the doll I made him is called Little J (after my soon)
The small girl is a different kettle of fish (or chickens, turkeys or turtles). The doll she sleeps with is called Bunny Bunno, not a rabbit but named after her brother’s. All her dolls are called Baby, except the one called Kid.
Tammy says
Ohhh exciting! I recently met my friends hens for the first time, named by her sons superman, star wars and I can’t remember the third lucky girls name! As for the naming here in this house my son has three bears two are wearing different coloured jumpers and one is … naked! … they are known as Teddy 1, Teddy 2 and Teddy 3. You don’t get much more creative than that , though on the upside they are easier to remember than the revolving and complicated door of names some of my daughters toys have.
Miss Mandy says
Lulu, her dolls I named. Some people think I’m crazy, but at least when she wants a doll I know which one she is talking about.
emma @ frog, goose and bear says
Well you know that our chookds are called ‘Scratchy’ and ‘Flappy’. Nothing original there. They are true to their names. Although we did have a guinea pig named Emily once.
Notchka says
We are much the same – with only 3 exceptions all toys are ‘dowies’ and are differentiated usually by their colour or facial expression – yellow dowie, etc. It seems the more fashionable artsy softies and dollies are often perceived by her as grumpy or frightened and the pastic ‘real’ looking dolls just freak her out (me too).
Toni says
My daughter went through a phase where everything was named Elizabeth (even her beanstalk which died from too much love) and then Rosie.
Her favourites now are fairly prosaically named — her ginger cat is Gingie, her big baby doll is Big Baby, and she has half a dozen Pink Bunnies.
But the babies get new names regularly, and even mid-game when she realises that she’s forgotten the latest double-barrelled name.
Kymmie says
Does it relieve you to know that we have ‘Ducky’, ‘Teddy’ and ‘Fanty’ (short for elephant). But my five year old son has recently become addicted to the Octonauts (ABCKids) and so now teddy is called Quasi.
He’s the only one with a different name now!
xx
Alice Becomes says
We have Kiwi, a stuffed kiwi and Neigh, a stuffed horse. And Another Neigh, which is, wait for it(!)…another stuffed horse. I don’t expect my boys to inherit wonderful naming genes…I had a horse called Gallopy, a duck called Quack and my brother had a teddy called John.
Gill xo
fairchildstreet says
when my son was four he wanted to name our black spoodle Blackie. I had to step in and get creative. She is called Licorice or Licky for short which he is happy with now.
Wendy says
We had a dog named Zack. Found out years later that my son “meant to” call him Jack, but he “got confused.” Our chooks were dubbed “That Black One” and “No, Not That One, The Other One.” There were 10 of them. They looked EXACTLY alike.
SawHole says
Moo used to call herself Sky Lara Mint Pint Tara and after that Sidey.
bron @ baby space says
The teen picks obvious names but the preschooler is really creative — he picks names with no obvious source. For instance, if we have a new baby he wants to call it Sheeba.And he wants it to be a boy (?).
Naturally Carol says
If you think the chooks names are too uninspiring I’m sure you could call on Capper’s imagination and get some goodies!
Brenda @ Mira Narnie says
hahah! this is really cute! i think kids are just so funny when it comes to this sort of stuff. my kids are bit random at times, but the cutest is that my daughter has an imaginary friend called Stoopie that can morph into one of her toys or an object. i have no idea where the name came from, but gees she’s committed to it! Enjoy the chickens B! and wow your man is amazing having a go at handyman stuff! good on him (and you for it being of something not threatening your safety!) xx
ange_moore says
We’re Maxi-taxi namers here too. We have “purple ted” (now shortened to purple) and white ted. Although we also have “Ranga the Rhino” (was a gift meant for a red-headed great-great-nephew from a red-headed great-great-aunt), and Sophie and Maya the Cabbage Patch dolls plus Wilbow the bear (pre-named). My daughter likes to call most of her dolls Lily, or Billy, or Molly, or Polly or some variation of that. Although her latest acquisition has been called Elouisa! Who knows – perhaps naming at our house is random.
Naming toys – easy. Battling with the idea of naming another child – and there are sooooooo many rules!!
Cath says
I can deal with the naming of toys, it’s the name-changing that occurs with a sex change that throws me!
Melanie says
I have a few of all of your naming types. I just hope the creative one that follows after Cappers changes by the time she has her own children because, well, you know. I rather like those that have Maxi-Taxi’s style, because at least I remember those, and I guess those that have Badoo’s style, I can also remember that, although it’s “Baby” instead of “Dolly.”
Megan Blandford says
Very similar here – I’ll ask A what a doll’s name is and she’ll reply “Dolly”. For every doll. A mouse toy? “Mouse”. A teddy bear? “Teddy”.
And in a new low of naming conventions, our chooks are mostly nameless – except for Buck Buck. 😉
flowerpress says
We bought Miss A an baby boy doll when her twin brothers arrived (seemed to make sense at the time?!) and he was called Boydoll from then on, though I did try and get her to give him a new name a couple of times.
Later she was given a monkey doll and called it Cromatitee.
I’m a bit worried for her kids 😉
Life In A Pink Fibro says
We have a duck called Ducky. Must be genetic.
This post made me laugh out loud. For real. Not even LOL.
Hi I'm Rhonda. says
I am a senseless and impractical namer. I have had so many names for things and people will just shake their head in wonder at where on earth I possibly got that name. My son is the same. However, my niece calls every single doll, Lillian. This is because she has a friend who recently got a baby sister named Lillian, and so every single baby is now named this. Obviously.
Anna Bartlett says
All of our chooks are called ‘Derrick’. The kids just decided that. No idea why. Another friend’s son called one of their chooks ‘Princess Leia’, quite simply because he was into Star Wars – but what a PERFECT name for a chook. My husband is a history teacher, so cats are Octavious and Attila… Tiberious is no longer with us. But yes, the dolls are all called ‘Baby’ or ‘Rebecca’. So the looniness does end somewhere.