Naming your Collection!

Just curious, do you guys give names to your animal figures? And if so, what kind of names? I'm into naming mine after word play/puns, humor, gods/goddesses, classicism pop culture etc.
I also like to keep records of what names I've given them and what genders I might have assigned them(if the model doesn't explicitly show what gender they are) all together on a tabled Word document. Do any of you guys do this? I'd also love to hear what names you guys call your figures!

I name all my model horses, but not my wild animals, they don't seem to need a name in the same way as a domestic species. I'd say nature themes are the most common if I'm just picking at random with no rules to go by. Because some breeds have certain naming traditions, which I stick to - even if a culture normally names their horses something descriptive based on colour or features or temperament, then I do too. And I like to use the right language, so there's a lot of googling translations, meanings, and even human names from different countries.

They're all recorded in a little notebook, but also on my website where each caption carries a lot more detail about each model, like the breed I've allocated, the official name and release info, the year and how many were made. It's like a big illustrated database so I can keep every horse organised and sorted, and can always check what I name I chose if I forget!

That's really nice George, and I totally get the whole googling, researching a name before you give it to them. I lots of that!

No, i dont know so many names

I see...I guess researching names is a whole other rabbit hole in itself! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That's truly an interesting topic!

I would love to name all of my figures in my collection but I must admit that I have quite the trouble to name anyone apart from my horses.
For my horse models I have kind of a naming structure I am following but not in terms of name categories. It's more concerning the letter their names should start with.
The names for my models come from all sorts of categories, for example:
Names from characters out of my stories
Names from franchises I like (Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc.)
Plant names
Names out of all sorts of mythology (e.g. Athena, Osiris)
Planet names (what technically also counts as mythology)
Cities and States (e.g. Arizona, Toledo)
weather phenomenons
Crystals and Minerals (e.g. Amethyst)
and names of elements out of the periodic table (e.g. Cobalt, Ferum)
Or sometimes just random names I found somewhere.
I also like to vary the language for my names from the languages I speak or at least understand a tiny bit. That gives me a wider range for naming and is a nice touch in general.
I write down the names plus the general information of the figurines in a note book but I am also planning to create a website for my collection where I would also have their names and a little bit of background stories.

Hi Katy, that's a great explanation. I usually go with minerals, pop culture, puns, language, mythology, planets etc for naming my collection. Though I must admit, place names is a new one, and new inspiration for me... [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I only started naming my collection when I attended my first model horse live show a few years ago. It was a requirement for each model to have a name and breed assignment. But it turned out finding nice names for model horses can be super fun. Now almost all of my horses and most of dogs have names. Also a small number of my cats and farm animals. Wild animals remain nameless, with maybe a few exceptions.

I don't have any particular system and I hardly use any rules. Sometimes I would use a word from the country of origin of a particular breed, but not always. Very often I just use the words I like, song titles, bird names in different languages, words from poems, food or drink names, characters from games etc. I even started writing down words for future use if I liked something about them. You could say I collect words now too

I do have a rule for naming models I sculpted myself. It has to be a bird species name in the language of country of the breed origin. Except when it's a portrait model.

That's a cool rule Ana, and actually I tend to do that with some models too, for example my animals native to Ireland will of course be given names like Diarmud, Paídi, Cailín etc. And your right, it's super fun naming the models :)

I got into collecting because I got many models as a kid so I named almost every single one of the figures that I got. I played with them a lot and knew all their names. Now that I'm older and I have more figures, I simply just can't come up with enough names for them all, and I have to write them down or I forget. Many of my original models, however, I do still remember all their names. I did also give them genders if there was no way to tell.

The names varied a lot, if there was a character equivalent to that animal, I would often name them from that. For example, I loved the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series so pretty much all of my owl figures are named after characters from the books. Other names included flowers, plants, movie/book/tv characters and such. There is a lot of variety.

And although I no longer play with my figures I do still enjoy taking photos with them outdoors or setting up dioramas.

Ooh that's cool and I'm aware of those books too! My owl names came from the likes of Harry Potter of course...
I also rely on fairytales too, like Reynard for a fox etc.

Every single custom hare sculpture that I've made has their own name. I've made hundreds of them. They also each have a small personal story related to something in their life and personality.
When I come to name them, I have the hare sitting in front of me as I go about my work. And then they 'just give me their name'. It comes effortlessly, and irrespective of what it is, I write it down. As it came 'from' my sculpture to me. Their sparkling eyes always confirm their name. And sometimes I just know innately what their name is as I am making them.

The names are surreal and beautiful and fun and endearing, sometimes related to your heart, love and the stars. Many of them are made up, as the hare relates their name to me and I scribble it down. And the stories I've written for these hares bring many tears of joy and love from their new owners. If the hare has been made for a particular person, then I ask the customer for some extra details about the person, their preferences etc, and I always manage to include these touching details in the story and combined with the hare's particular attitude.

My hares have names such as ArayanStar, Bellatrix, Deasura, Sundust, Tears of Gold, Fluffa, Velvet, Bitty, Compassion, Everlasting, Aphelion, Hasen, Vespertine, Matrexa, DogStar

And for my plastic animal figures, well I like to keep everyone in family groups, but I haven't named anyone yet. I have lots of herds of animals, if you don't already know
I do name the wild animals I see all the time though. They have names that make it easy for me to remember them. Like 'White Bib', a small female blackbird that I've known for years and fed every day. She has a little light patch under her neck on her chest area - like a 'bib'. And a mother giraffe I know that I call Sprout. And her baby is called Little Sprout. They both have the exact same bean sprout pattern on their neck chest area.

Sunny, that's a really sweet and beautiful explanation behind your naming process.
Funny, I also knew a blackbird hen that had white on her, but I think child me didn't give her any name.