In the Habit of Naming Things
In our family, we name things. Like, seriously, everything. It’s funny, too, because you’d think that I would do that, being a writer and all, but you wouldn’t think my dad would. Or my fourteen-year-old sister. Or everyone else who lives within the confines of our home.
It is weird, though. And the weirdest part is that I never once realized this was unnormal when I was growing up. I thought that everyone named their possessions! It is only as I grow older that I am becoming more self-conscious of the oddness of this habit. Naming things. And always with human names, mind you. We’ve never called a pet “Fluffy” or “Princess” or “Spot.” It’s always “Esther” or “Emma” or “Giselle” or “Zach”.
Anyway, my friends think I’m very strange. So below, I will list all of the named objects that we have that I can think of, and you can comment with either an affirmation of my weirdness, or a sweet remarking telling me how much you love me anyway and how I could never, ever possibly be weird to you! 😉
Here is our long, illustrious list of named possessions:
- We have two cats named Emma and Esther. They both have the middle name “Louise”, because my dad thinks that all of our pets should have the middle name “Louise”, for some weird reason.
- Our car is named “Sacagawea”, because she takes us places.
- My dad decided to name our house “Ein Gedi”, after the desert oasis in the Bible. Why? Because, according to my father, our home is an oasis in the dry, thirsty desert of the world.
- There are several wild deer who often hang out in our backyard. We named the buck “Buck Stew”.
- We also once found a stray cat that Hannah and I decided to name “Mr. Darcy”. Not for any particular reason either, except that it was fun to run to the window and go, “Oh! Mr. Darcy! Dear sisters, it’s Mr. Darcy!” all breathlessly every once in a while.
- Once upon a time, we owned a dozen guinea hens. Before they all died, they were all named! Mine was “Rowena”, in case you were wondering.
- We feed a pair of hummingbirds that live somewhere nearby. They are fondly called “Mildred” and “Vernon”, and we make up stories about their life together.
- Hannah insists that her laptop is named “Lola”, and when it’s not working, she gets annoyed and says, “Come on, Lola. Come on, girl.”
Well, that’s about all I can think of that we have named. It is quite a lot, but come on, it’s not that strange, right? 😉
-Rachel
rachelcoker 
I don’t think it is strange at all. We have a drawer in our house we call the “Anything But” drawer. It always has anything but what we are looking for. (I stole if from one of my favorite authors).
Shortly after we first married, we picked up this metal locker with a half peeled sticker with the name “Kevin” in the middle of the door. It became our pantry for a bit and we referred to it by name.
“Where is the corn?”
“I think I put it away in Kevin.”
Then we picked up an even larger locker with two doors. It was promptly named Kevin Senior.
Kevin and Kevin Senior are still with us after almost fourteen years of marriage. We still get odd looks from visitors when we refer to them by name.
So, no, I don’t think your family is weird at all, just creative. 🙂
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI don’t think it’s weird because I name a variety of items too.
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI think the weirdest thing I name is spiders. Every time I kill one, or see one I name it things like Speedy Steve and Fred. I think this started with my Grandpa who used to name spiders after characters in Chronicles of Narnia.
I don’t think naming things is weird. We always name out Thanksgiving turkey. I name my paint brushes 🙂 My cousins name their cars. We call my 3 year old brother Turtle and my 10 month old brother Tiger.
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoOh my word! I am rolling with laughter. I named 2 chickens Rebecca and Rowena. My dogs are Milton, Morris, and Azucar. My cats were Jack Links and Oh Boy Oberto. We had some really obnoxious racoons when we were camping that we named Don and Marge. Mom even named our coolers! Our CRV is the V-Mobile. No, it’s not weird 🙂
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoWe are fellow strange people. We name things too. We even named the letter box. He’s name is Arthur, after an uncle who would never shut up and as we get a lot of junk mail it seemed apt.
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI’m glad to hear that your dad isn’t naming all the cats (male and female) “Bubba” any more. I don’t remember ever having a cat with a different name. But then, we never had to learn a new name, either. And I love the hummingbird names! Great choice for them. I’ll remember that when I name my chipmunks next year. They’re “Chip” and “Dale” this year.
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoGood luck with your interview next week. I’ll look for a link online. I know you’ll be a sensation!
Love you!
Aw, thank you, YaYa! I’m hoping that I can either record the interview or find a link to send to everyone. If nothing else, I’ll post photos! 🙂
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI’ve awarded you over at my blog!http://scribblingskeyboard.blogspot.com/2012/05/awards.html
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoOh, I love this! Especially the stray cat’s name! “Oh! Mr. Darcy! Dear sisters, it’s Mr. Darcy!” I love that! XD
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI thought objects meant like your bed, your nighttable, your fridge… etc. THAT would be weird. Naming every animal in sight? Not so much. And I think it’s weirder not to name pets, like some people I know (they have a cat named Cat and a fish named Fish. Also a dog, with an actual name. They’re weird.)
Our van is named Toothless, because I always think cars look like they have faces, and our black minivan’s ‘face’ looks like the dragon from How To Train Your Dragon. (Awesome movie! “Thanks for nothing, you useless reptile.”) This face thing is also why I want a VW bug, because they’re the only cars that look like they’re not scowling.
Now who’s the weird one? Moving on.
I love the Mr. Darcy thing. Also, I wish I’d thought to name my laptop. Hmm…
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoI loved this! And I’d have to agree with everyone else, naming things like stray cats, cars and laptops isn’t all that weird. My old laptop, up until it’s death, was affectionately called The Heffalump. I guess I called it that mainly cause it was big, but also because I’ve always loved Winnie-the-Pooh and the song about heffalumps and woozles. 😉 Plus, it was just so fun to tell my friends with a mournful expression, “My Heffalump died! It’s so sad!”
| Posted 11 years, 11 months agoMy family names our cars. The van is Green Machine and my first car was Georgia (actually, one of my cousins named it.).
The Mr. Darcy thing is SOOO funny! I’d try it, but my family would NOT go along with it.
| Posted 11 years, 11 months ago