[pookel]

This never occurred to me until I had Corbin. Now that he is old enough to like stuffed animals and recognize their names, but too young to come up with names on his own, I realize that someone has to name them, and that someone is me. Am I supposed to be coming up with cute, creative names for them? If so, I'm failing miserably. His menagerie at the moment consists of Puppy, Lion, Kitty, and Monkey. What do the rest of you do?

 

[2M's Mom]

I actually never thought of naming them. My daughter just calls them what they are "puppy, kitty, bear, baby". Interesting question!

 

[octobermom]

My DD 3.5 but a delayed talker overall she calls everything by its idenity. Bear moose. If you ask whats the bears name she'll say Its called bear with this look of DUH mom!

SHes just recently began to give names to a few of her dolls and stuffed animals. She named her puppy backpack harness Jenna after her cousin cause "she bites and so do puppies"

She has a baby doll she calls baby Chance after her best friend (who just moved

) and a magnatic dress up Maggie leigh doll she named Mommy

: ohh and rubber lizzard named Morris.

Deanna

 

[aisraeltax]

my dh names the baby's friends.

we have a UTN rabbit (you know the blanket kind of toy)..he is Harry! lol!

we have a rabbit that fits over the crib side (we side car no flames!)..he is Archer (b/c his back is arched over the side of the crib).

we have a few more that i cant think of right now but he's really good with comgin up with names like that.

 

[wifty]

DD (32 months) calls everything by its name for the most part. She does have one little rabbit that she calls Stretch because he is rubber and stretches.

Interesting question. I guess I just figured that she would come up with names on her own but I wonder when this is meant to happen developmentally? Maybe its a category they haven't even figured out yet!

With smiles

 

[LaughingHyena]

We named our after the people who bought them for her. The paln was in years to come when she asked how she got them we would remember who they were from.

We have a couple of male friends who wished they'd known before buying the pink bears though

 

[rzberrymom]

I've wondered this too! We had a friend come over and ask then 15 month old DD the names of all her stuffed animals. We sat there answering for her "that's lambie, that's bear, that's monkey..." I laughed a little because they had such boring names--I mean, can't DH and I come up with something more original than cat, dog, monkey??!

She recently referred to lambie as "ness" and I found myself saying "no, that's lambie" But then I realized what the heck am I doing, that's her lamb, it's 'ness' if that's what she wants it to be! Good lesson for me.

 

[EastonsMom]

Since we are teaching E german his animals 'names' are the german translation. His favorite big monkey is Affe, his favorite dog is Howard the Hund, and so on.

 

[LittleYellow]

We are not very creative here yet....

We have Bear, Teddy, Teddy, Bear and Her Sister Bear, Doll, Doll, Wormy, Wormy, Wormy, Cow, Sheep, Dog, Puppy, Puppy, Puppy, Penguin, Bunny, Bunny and Al.

Al is a ladybug that was named by dd when she was five months old. Sweet Pea was holding the lady bug and babbling when a friend said "What's it's name?" and in perfect timing, her babble sounded like Al. So Al he has been ever since.

 

[KoalaMommy]

okay, here's one for you. At first all animals were "puppy" to my dd. Now they all have their own correct animal names. Except her favorite stuffed animal is an Elephant. It is still "Puppy". So I think it's an Elephant named Puppy.

 

[teachma]

My daughter is almost 2 1/2. I'm not sure how she got the idea, but she names all her dolls and stuffed animals. Her dolls are: Sara, Baby Joey, Waa-Waa Baby, and Baby Too-too. I have NO idea how she came up with those names, but they have been consistent for at least 8 months. Now, the stuffed animals are different. She gives them names, but the names change ALL the time, and they are never real names. At this very moment, she is showing her brother (6) one animal at a time and declaring it's name! What a coincidence. For now, a bear is "Sna Sna," a crab is "Shoofie..." And tomorrow, they will be different.

 

[AmyC]

My daughter (2.5 in three weeks!) knows the names to all her dolls and animals. Many of them I came up with, but she's named a few. A couple of times I've suggested a name and she's said no, then approved of a subsequent suggestion. My husband has come up with a couple.

As for what the names are like.....

Animals:
Desiree Mouse
Nini (bunny...an old "tradition" in my family, since my oldest sister named her stuffed bunny Nini at age one. She probably was saying the last syllable of "bunny.")
Mr. Bun (another bunny, with glasses and a bow tie)
Bunny James (another rabbit)
Elefante (stuffed rolling elephant pull-toy)
Ellie (stuffed elephant)
Max (pull-toy dog)
Bear, Teddy, Brown Bear, Sam (all stuffed bears)
Florida (orange Beanie Baby bear)
Brown (dog)
Mona (cow)
Durango (horse)
Uncle Penn (penguin)
Lilah (giraffe)

Dolls:
Bartleby (a little organic "elf" doll from Under the Nile. That's one that took several tries on my part to find the "right" name.)
Cotton, or Cotton Dolly (another cotton Minimo doll from Under the Nile.)
Lulu
Amy (she named this one on her own, Christmas morning. After me, I guess?)
Sadie
Liesl
Dora (not Dora the Explorer, just a stuffed doll my mom gave us when she was a newborn and I named her Dora after my dad's mother)
Christmas Dolly, or Miss-Kris (a little red doll with "Christmas" embroidered on her chest)
Dressy Bessie (the name she came with)

Dollhouse Dolls:

(I got really into naming these because they are family units. And my daughter really calls them each by name, even though there are so many. It's precious, and funny, and a little bizarre.)

Daddy Will
Mama Holly
Ned
Mabel
Baby Theo
Grandma Nell
Fluffy (cat)
Tillie (dog)

There's another doll that looks just like Daddy Will, except in different clothes, and there's a random nurse doll. So we call them Uncle Nate and Nurse Betty. They are usually together; I guess they're dating.

the farm family:
Uncle Tommy
Aunt Ginny
Millie
Piper (dog)
Nina (cow)
Mona (cow)
Mae-Mae (cow)
Cleo (calf)
Rosie (horse)
Poncho (horse)
Pinto (pony)

didn't name any sheep or pigs, thank goodness!

Ezra & Leona (these are the "farm" grandpa & grandma that came with the little tractor....)

There's a second set of farmers, and we named them
Uncle John
Aunt Sally
Adam
They have a baby but I can't remember the name.

(I have had to ask my toddler to remind me of various names before. I've forgotten Ezra & Leona, and Piper the dog, and Poncho the horse. Thank goodness she keeps them straight for me! I just have to come up with the names and tell her once.)

Names are important and fun around our house. She also wants to know the names of every piece of clothing she wears, so I come up with lots and lots of names.

"mandarin collar tee"
"green bean pants"
"bold stripey shirt"
"pop dots"
"fresh striped capris"
"summer fruit pants"
"morning green shorts"
"poppy red top"

Today I put her in a sundress, and instead of asking its "name," she said, "This 'hills are alive' dress, Mom?" And yes, the last time she wore it we came up with "Hills are alive dress" and she spun around singing "The hills are alive with the sound of music" when I put it on her.

 

[AmyC]

The weird thing is that she sometimes sleeps with a "friend," (not always the same one/ones, and not every night either), and in the wee hours of the night, I've heard her suddenly call out for whichever one she started out with. I'll feel around in the bed for Bartleby or Desiree Mouse or Sadie, put it into her arms, and she quiets down and snoozes again. It amazes me that she keeps it straight in her sleep. And Desiree Mouse wasn't in the rotation for more than six months, but I pulled her out of the basket last week and DD started carrying her around some. Then she was up in bed with us one night, and my daughter cried out for her by name in her sleep that night.

She's got a whole little mental indexing thing going on!

(I do enjoy naming the toys, and I made lists of names as a kid.)

 

[Christine&men]

Not every one is named but the Steiff we got from an auntie is named Molly (all Steiff's have names) and the bear that benefits the children's hospital is named Gilmore (says so on his tag) other than that, no names yet. DS is 28 mnths old.

 

[AEZMama]

: I don't have creative names...if they didn't already have a name, they are either "Mr." or "Miss" whatever they are. Pretty boring!

 

[EnviroBecca]

We mostly have not named them, figuring he'll come up with names when he can talk more. He does have an owl whose tag said his name was Roundfellow so we call him that, and an octopus with a different activity (things to twirl, crunch, etc.) on each paw that we call Octivitypus.

The few stuffed animals that we had before he was born, which he is now allowed to play with, retain the names we gave them. An interesting example is my rabbit Amelia, which my mom made for me before I was born; she then made a similar rabbit for EnviroBaby before he was born. We call them Amelia and "your rabbit". I just didn't feel right choosing a name for his rabbit! It will be interesting to learn whether they are mother and son, or some sort of cousins....