A nominative fallacy

[larryhammer]

So why do we name inanimate objects? Why certain objects only? And why do some of us name things more than others? Questions worthy of tabouli, if she ever set her mind to it. I'm not up for it, though -- aside from noting that the more mobile or complex a thing, the more likely it gets a name. The semblance of animate. Massive engineworks, I understand the impulse. A chair or microwave, not so much, nor a TV. Possibly a car, though I'm personally dubious (says the co-driver of Rockhopper, with a penguin mascot on the dash). A computer, yes -- about the only personal possession I comfortably and instinctively name.

My replacement laptop is Dânadariel (accessorized with hard drive Magic Wand and flash drives Glitter and Sparkle). Because a fairy name seemed right. The stolen one was Buttercup, after my favorite Powerpuff Girl. The desktop before that was Fred, as all previous computers -- but those were all dubbed before I decided to call my muse that, and it wouldn't Do to be confusing.

What objects in your life have names?

---L.

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, while the car sorta has a name, the penguin doesn't, even after many years of loyal service.

Unless Navigator is his name?

[larryhammer]

Well Rockhopper can't be its name, he said reasonably -- after all, it's a king penguin.

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

Steve is the one who names our cars. I would never have thought of doing it on my own -- some internal "voice of my mother" thing telling me not to behave like a silly child. [I really wish I had recognized this voice for what it was earlier in my life and just told it to shut the hell up.]

He does not name computers. Lawrence Watt-Evans is the one I think of when I think of a family naming all their computers.

My car has a goat mascot -- a beanie baby that sits overhead in a compartment that I think was meant to hold a cell phone or some other electronic gadget that I don't own. The mascot's name is just "Goat." But we do point out goats in fields by the roadside to him (easy to do in rural PA). Also llamas, hogs, and Shetland ponies. Cows and horses are too ubiquitous for pointing out to our goat. The best point-out ever was a camel which we came upon very unexpectedly when we took a wrong turn on a country road southeast of Gettysburg.

[larryhammer]

Camel? Huh. No doubt an escapee from Baltimore.

---L.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

It isn't my computer that's named, precisely, it's the hard disc. It's named Elrond because it is the keeper of much knowledge and many secrets. Jordin names his after comics characters, i.e., Calvin and Hobbes.

MKK

[larryhammer]

Is Calvin and Hobbes one computer or are they two?

---L.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Calvin was the internal hard disk and Hobbes was the external attached to the same box. His laptop currently has 2 internals which are named after characters in an online strip called Ozy and Millie. Ozy, the smaller of the two drives, is named for the young fox who is a main character. The larger of the 2 is Llywellen, named after Ozy's father who is a very large dragon. (Ozy was adopted see...)

MKK

[branna.livejournal.com]

My previous car had a name that was just a shortening of my license plate. But mostly I only name computers, because they have to have hostnames anyway.

My current laptop is named Freyja, while Michael's Mac is Thor (it's small, silvery gray, and has advanced technology).

The previous laptop was Neb, and the one before that Galrion. There was an Amiga 3000 on my home network that had yielded up its name to my current desktop when it became my secondary machine. Since at the time it was the computer that refused to die, it seemed perfectly logical to name it Nevyn. When the laptop booted the Amiga off the home network, its name seemed to follow logically from there...and when a second laptop replaced the first, likewise. When that laptop lost its screen to the "Yea, I have been dropped open facedown from a mighty height" experience, though, I decided the naming trend had to end.

[larryhammer]

it seemed perfectly logical to name it Nevyn

Heh heh heh.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

With horrible name dyslexia, I do not, ever, name inanimate objects. The people in my life tend to get called by generic noun names because my brain will switch names on me. (This included when I was dating the spouse, but as he is also left handed and dyslexic, we agreed early on that neither of us would invest any emotional reaction into the wrong name issuing forth.) Dog! Daughter! Spouse! Son! Niece! Car! House! And people tend to be 'he' and 'she' which is usually clear from context with the other right-brainers in the house, and annoying to the son, who is right handed and thus isn't brain-wired the same way.

I made a deal with my friends back in the seventies that I was not expected to remember the names of their various objects, including the one who named all her pens. However I could and did remember names of personal physical-geography landmarks, I don't know why. Maybe because the object also had an event attached?

[larryhammer]

Named her pens? Are we talking fountain or ball-point?

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I don't remember--my eyes tended to glaze over when she went on about hre various pens and their personalities (o.e. what kinds of stories they could only write) and whether they were he or she...I can remember sitting there with my polite-face on, wondering inside why she wasn't writing instead of making dolls of her pens, but I don't remember what she said.

I do remember her saying that she was careful to use different colors of ink so people would know which pen wrote which story, and me thinking, yeah, but we all have to, like, get published first, before we can make thinngs easier for future biographers.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

My laptop's name is Henry, because I got it shortly after seeing a very fine production of the Henry VIs, and I am a big big dork. The desktop is Frankenputer, since it is cobbled together out of assorted parts of old computers (yes, I know the creature doesn't have a name and Frankenstein is the creator, but I think I can take a bit of license here).

My car's name is Archie, after the fellow in my icon; q.v. comment about being a big big dork. ;)

[larryhammer]

Better than calling it Caliban, I suppose.

---L.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

The computer before this one was Magic Beans, because I walked into the computer store not intending to buy one that day... and then I named this iBook 'pale lady' because once again, I was seduced. But then, you have to name the Macs.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

The computer before this one was Magic Beans

Why am I thinking of the witch from "Into the Woods"?
Don't ever never ever
Mess around with my greens!
Especially the beans.

[larryhammer]

Whereas I associate Magic Beans with chocolate-covered espresso beans.

(Am I the only one to habitually mistype that as expresso?)

---L.

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

Questions worthy of me? (blinks) Well, yes, such speculations are indeed saladic. The practice of naming inanimate objects generally isn't, though: while I will talk to computers, cars and other objects when they need coaxing or cursing, the key characteristic for me seems to be whether the object *resembles* an animate creature. I named the toy zebra I bought in South Africa, for example, even though he's neither mobile nor complex (note also the assignment of gender, which I don't do to my car or computer).

[larryhammer]

I don't think I've named any stuffies since I was first courting Janni, and rather silly about most things. No, wait, there was a bear, a gift from a friend, that came with the Wrong Name on his sweater whom I redubbed Benjamin, to both our reliefs. The rest of the livestock, those acquired since college, are nameless -- or rather, just themselves.

---L.

[larryhammer]

The genders of inanimate objects (in non-gendered languages, anyway) is another issue entirely. Another worth poking at.

---L.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I feel so left out... I don't name objects.

People and pets in my life get nicknames, often more than one, but I don't name anything that isn't alive.

I wonder why?

[larryhammer]

This is an interesting question. I'm fascinated by the responses so far.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I name rugs. If you come to my place you walk over Innanna and sit on Kai.

[larryhammer]

It would never have occurred to me to name a rug.

---L.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have a car. And the rugs are older than I am and so are deserved respect.

[junoxxiv.livejournal.com]

We named our brand new fridge Steve because Steve's a good name.
The cars all have names too.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

fridge... hedge... what's the difference?

[larryhammer]

Steve is a good name in general. As good a name as any for the fridge.

Yes, but what are the cars named?

---L.

Cars & Cats

[junoxxiv.livejournal.com]

The current vehicles are Putt-putt, our Scion XB, and Zoom-zoom, the Mazda RX-8. So, the zoom-zoom is a total rip-off of the Mazda ad campaign, but together the names work for us.
The 1986 Mazda B2000 pickup came with the moniker, Truck-o-Doom, alternatively the less fatalistic, Truck-of-Destiny, and our 1994 Crysler Neon is Julia. We have a similar problem with cars that we do with cats, more come into our possesion than leave. So we have seven cars in our yard (yes, we are those neighbors.) Seven cars, one for each cat. Only four of the seven cars have actual names, but all the cats do.

Re: Cars & Cats

[larryhammer]

Julia's a good name for a Neon. Must remember that.

---L.

Re: Cars & Cats

[janni.livejournal.com]

Yes, but how many of the cats are old enough to drive?

Only one of ours is ... guess that's why we only have one car. :-)

[coyoty.livejournal.com]

Years ago I had a friend who named his Honda. Fenris. Fenris Honda.

If my car were to have a name, I'd call it the Coyotymobile.

[larryhammer]

So we should worry then when the Honda breaks its chains? Gotcha.

---L.

names

[jillykat.livejournal.com]

My car (a 17 year old Honda Civic who still gets 33 mpg) is named Lady Minerva the White. Shortened to Miss Min. I thank her for taking me places whenever I drive her. She's a good car.

I have a counting machine (tickets, money, parking passes) in my office at work that I call Bernice. She makes this really snarky noise when you put too much on her hopper. Weird, I know, but it is a noise someone named Bernice would make.

Hey, I just realized, my *car* is old enough to drive. Cool!!

Re: names

[larryhammer]

You've mentioned Bernice, but I don't think you had Miss Min.

---L.