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

[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.