If you name them, how do you decide?

[ScottR]

@Aahzz mentioned in another thread the names of his prized Velas. This spiked my curiosity. Now that I've thought about it, I have named all my guitars.

SE CU 24 Blck/Grey: Betty as in Black Betty.

Chris Robertson Sig: The fat kid...fatty for short. Pretty self explanatory.

Big Momma: SE 245 it was 9+Lb. Sounded huge though.

Big Momma II: my first forever guitar, thanks again @Alnus Rubra looked like the original Big Momma but weighs several ounces less, but still sounds 'UUGE!!

So, IF you name your guitars how do you determine the name? Give us a few examples if you're so inclined.

For me one will just hit me randomly or it'll have some cryptic meaning. Just curious.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

 

[rbert0005]

They come with a name. I use that, I don’t name things.

Bob

 

[ScottR]

They come with a name. I use that, I don’t name things.

Bob

How about your pets?

 

[Daryl Jones]

When I first got it, I sometimes called my SE Custom "sweetheart", but it never stuck. Since I still (for now) only have the one, it is usually just good old PRS. When my Hollowbody arrives maybe I'll come up with a name, maybe...
I call my track bike "the Flying Pig" but that's an affectionate reference to the type of bike and its following.

 

[bodia]

No names for my guitars, cars, bikes, etc.

How about your pets?

As for pets, all musicians.

The ones that have left us

Tina (Turner) - cockatiel....it screamed a lot
Ace (Frehley) - dog...one eye was half blue
Nikki (Sixx) - dog....wild ass Border Collie/Husky mix
Ginger (Baker) - dog....this one confused a lot of people that called G "her". He was a he, obviously!

The current pooch is a she, and is named Tyler. Steven if you ask me, and Bonnie if you ask the Mrs

 

[danktat]

Errrrr-thang gets a name. lol

I generally have some thing that sticks out that "tells" me what to call whatever it is. Once it sticks, that is it. I can't go back.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Nope. Why would you? It won’t respond when you say its name so....

Names are for sentient things.

 

[Wakester]

I have only named one guitar. Up until recently they have been this one, that one, the red one, the 245, the 24, the blue one, etc. The first and only one I will name is the New HB594, and her name is Amber. I chose that name to memorialize the daughter we lost (not at Walmart) back in 1996. Her name is Amber and looking at this guitar somehow reminded me of her.

 

[Draconomics]

Right, so I didn't used to name my guitars, but the inner nerd won out in the end, so I guess I like mythological names and anything dragon related.

My SE Paul's is known as Tethys. She was the Greek goddess of freshwater, and sometimes is viewed as being inspired by the Babylonian goddess Tiamat, who is off depicted as a sea dragon.

The Ibanez bass I use is known as the Onion. The woodgrain looks like a cut onion. Meh.

In other news, because I am an incorrigible Rush fan, my cat is named Geddy Lee, and his late brother was Neil Purrt.

 

[veinbuster]

If they give themselves a name, I go with it.
Some examples:
Baby Dragon: seems pretty obvious

Eywa: less obvious unless you’ve watched Avatar. This one came to me in a dream, some top secret stuff happened, then it arrived.

Blonde: duh

Lil: you might have to look close

Ariel: the one with the mermaid on the back
Elsa: what would you play in an ice palace?

Flo: probably obvious

 

[rbert0005]

How about your pets?

They are alive, they get names.
We look at them and an appropriate name comes to mind.

 

[Aahzz]

I actually never named mine until fairly recently. As I've mentioned before, I have had a tendency over the years to be a serial flipper. Buy it, love it, play it for a bit, get bored, flip it for something else. The quest for the next thing took way more time than the actual playing. So, I decided that I was going to find keepers, and develop an actual attachment, and move my focus to playing. As such, I decided to name them, make them more than "the black Vela", to add to that sense. I had to waffle quite a while before I sold Simmons, because she was Simmons, not just the blue semi-hollow. Alas, she never played quite as well as the others, and thus it becomes time for her to go.

As for the names themselves, it started with Daisy. I was bouncing back and forth between a couple, none of which were Daisy. Mrs Aahzz and I were on our second or third rewatch of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While watching, I was mulling a couple choices and Mrs Aahzz looked over and said "you know her name is Daisy, right?". Well, yeah.

Then the blue became Simmons because I decided they should all be named after S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I stayed with the females, because guitars are female to me if I'm applying a gender - it's the curves. Thus, the S2 CU22 became Bobbi when she arrived, and the green semi-hollow became Melinda (even though the character is normally called by her last name, May, Melinda seemed to fit better). Since Simmons was referred to by her last name most of the time in the show, I can name the next Jemma and complete the set . I don't intend to reuse any names.

While we're at it, my Peavey Patriot bass is Betsy, because it seems like a good name for a patriot. The acoustic is Angie, because Angelus...kinda phoned that one in but it fits.

As for dogs, they've essentially all kept the name they had in the shelter, because they already knew it. Finn became Phineas was the exception - he was still a puppy and my kids were big fans of Phineas and Ferb. Dixie, Bailey, and Rosie all kept their name as is.

Cats - we have Hamilton. We got 2 cats, a brother and sister, when the kids were younger, and they were big fans of the kids show Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, so the cats became Maggie and Hamilton. Before that we had one cat, his name was Furry Turd. Generally just called Turd.

There, have an insight into the mental naming works of the Aahzz family.

 

[ScottR]

I actually never named mine until fairly recently. As I've mentioned before, I have had a tendency over the years to be a serial flipper. Buy it, love it, play it for a bit, get bored, flip it for something else. The quest for the next thing took way more time than the actual playing. So, I decided that I was going to find keepers, and develop an actual attachment, and move my focus to playing. As such, I decided to name them, make them more than "the black Vela", to add to that sense. I had to waffle quite a while before I sold Simmons, because she was Simmons, not just the blue semi-hollow. Alas, she never played quite as well as the others, and thus it becomes time for her to go.

As for the names themselves, it started with Daisy. I was bouncing back and forth between a couple, none of which were Daisy. Mrs Aahzz and I were on our second or third rewatch of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While watching, I was mulling a couple choices and Mrs Aahzz looked over and said "you know her name is Daisy, right?". Well, yeah.

Then the blue became Simmons because I decided they should all be named after S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. I stayed with the females, because guitars are female to me if I'm applying a gender - it's the curves. Thus, the S2 CU22 became Bobbi when she arrived, and the green semi-hollow became Melinda (even though the character is normally called by her last name, May, Melinda seemed to fit better). Since Simmons was referred to by her last name most of the time in the show, I can name the next Jemma and complete the set . I don't intend to reuse any names.

While we're at it, my Peavey Patriot bass is Betsy, because it seems like a good name for a patriot. The acoustic is Angie, because Angelus...kinda phoned that one in but it fits.

As for dogs, they've essentially all kept the name they had in the shelter, because they already knew it. Finn became Phineas was the exception - he was still a puppy and my kids were big fans of Phineas and Ferb. Dixie, Bailey, and Rosie all kept their name as is.

Cats - we have Hamilton. We got 2 cats, a brother and sister, when the kids were younger, and they were big fans of the kids show Maggie and the Ferocious Beast, so the cats became Maggie and Hamilton. Before that we had one cat, his name was Furry Turd. Generally just called Turd.

There, have an insight into the mental naming works of the Aahzz family.

Cool! Thanks for the insight bro!

The two dogs Brodie & Bynx' origin stories happened well before my becoming their doggo dadio.. Bynx had the name when my wife adopted her from the shelter as well. Brodie was named after Brodie Croyle, the former University of Alabama. (I despise Alabama Football names) However she didn't choose it either. Her cousin had Brodie for about a year before she was sent to prison for the attempted Murder for Hire of her ex-husband (tweaker). Brodie had been alone in her cousins house for over a week. My wife heard about him, went to the house and knocked a window out to rescue him. The rest is history. A 100% true story...ya can't make this stuff up.

Suddenly, guitar names just got overtaken by dog stories. Welcome to a glimpse inside my mind. The mind of a wakadoo.

 

[ScottR]

If they give themselves a name, I go with it.
Some examples:
Baby Dragon: seems pretty obvious

Eywa: less obvious unless you’ve watched Avatar. This one came to me in a dream, some top secret stuff happened, then it arrived.

Blonde: duh

Lil: you might have to look close

Ariel: the one with the mermaid on the back
Elsa: what would you play in an ice palace?

Flo: probably obvious

Such a classy collection, and the names to match! I got the Avatar reference.

 

[ScottR]

No names for my guitars, cars, bikes, etc.



As for pets, all musicians.

The ones that have left us

Tina (Turner) - cockatiel....it screamed a lot
Ace (Frehley) - dog...one eye was half blue
Nikki (Sixx) - dog....wild ass Border Collie/Husky mix
Ginger (Baker) - dog....this one confused a lot of people that called G "her". He was a he, obviously!

The current pooch is a she, and is named Tyler. Steven if you ask me, and Bonnie if you ask the Mrs

Dude! Those are all awesome names. Wish I had of thought that years ago. I did have a ziggy...but it was because his zoomies were in a ziggy patern. Since then, I've always wanted a boy and girl dog so I could name the Bob and Marley.

 

[Tony M.]

Nope.

It works like this:
1- You choose a guitar. (Sometimes a guitar chooses you.)
2- You take it home and play it for a while. (Times may vary greatly.)
3- The guitar decides whether it likes you or not. (Times may vary again.)
4- If it likes you it may decide to tell you its name and gender.

 

[ScottR]

Nope.

It works like this:
1- You choose a guitar. (Sometimes a guitar chooses you.)
2- You take it home and play it for a while. (Times may vary greatly.)
3- The guitar decides whether it likes you or not. (Times may vary again.)
4- If it likes you it may decide to tell you its name and gender.

I can dig it...

 

[Sybo]

https://imgur.com/a/VPUk1G4
“Black Betty” bam alam………..

 

[Boogie]

This going to sound weird.

Since my guitars are an extension of me, I think of them as attitudes. When it’s time to convey a certain emotion, feeling, or whatever’s brewing in my head, I reach for the right vehicle. And it’s not exclusive to one emotion per guitar, it’s a selection of the part of me that can speak what I want to say. It’s like they all have a different accent.

See? Weird…

 

[ScottR]

This going to sound weird.

Since my guitars are an extension of me, I think of them as attitudes. When it’s time to convey a certain emotion, feeling, or whatever’s brewing in my head, I reach for the right vehicle. And it’s not exclusive to one emotion per guitar, it’s a selection of the part of me that can speak what I want to say. It’s like they all have a different accent.

See? Weird…

Makes perfect sense to me...which should scare the sh!t outta you.