Have you ever changed your doll's name or character?

I was wondering if anyone has ever renamed their doll or maybe even changed their character.

My poor blank ddh07 head went through two names and characters before I decided on a set name and character. ^^; 

My character for him is Milo and he likes cookies, well I haven't developed his personality much yet. 😅

I initially named my SD16 Sabrina.  But after a mere day I realized it didn't fit her, so she became Charlotte which stuck with her.  Nothing else changed.  I just initially gave her a name that didn't fit.

My DD Matoi is currently in character limbo.  I know I'm going to give her a different name.  I know I'll probably be giving her a different character since I know absolutely nothing about her source character.  But for now my partner and I are just calling her Matoi instead of "hey you."

 

I've changed the names of my dolls a few times. I think of new looks or names that I like more and suit them better. 

Personally I don't name my dolls until I have settled on a general look and personality that I like for them. This can result in a list of dolls *coughcurrently7cough* that don't yet have an official name.

I did change one girl's name, though, when I adopted her sister. I thought her name suited her sister more, so I gave the name away and renamed the first girl.

my only actual AZONE, a 2004 "Chinese Fantasy" Maya that i originally renamed "Apple Lee"

but, more recently, repainted her eye color and converted to VOCALOID Kagamine Rin;

 

 

 

I had several Hanayos until the definitive. My holy grail was so impossible so I named a similar sculpt as hers, so when I finally had the chance and the savings for obtaining the grail, I had my old Yuki renamed to Koyuki ^^

So its normal ^^

Rename, nope, they've all kept the name I've given them.  As for personality, for the most part they keep them, only one has changed some.  But just like real people, their personalities are fluid and change over time with the experiences we have together.

My Len got to be Len for about a month before I turned him into Mel, although i’d planned to do that from the start. Otherwise, I originally bought Tilo’s head to be MDD child Mel, but it ended up not working at all for that and I decided to do something completely different, getting a wig colour I thought would compliment the faceup colours, and the character kind of just jumped out on his own. It took me like a year to decide to do that though.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Monty

Yes! I was actually wondering if I was the only one who changed so much of their doll's character before seeing this post!

 

Name changed and her personality flipped a bit. It's kind of almost like she arrived and them told me who she was and how wrong I was initially. I'm not sure how else to really describe it. My little socially awkward tsundere student..... ^^;;

Tsunemi evolved from nasty badass girl by time. Transformation started than she transfered from barbie avatar to obitsu 1/3 avatar. When Anna came, they became friends. With Kuremata it seems like Annna and Tsunemi are like parents and Kuremata is like their child - metaforically. Anna Magichi is DvD player in Doll-games and also instagram vlogger and Tsunemi is gallerist. Kuremata wants to open game-store but it takes very long because of birocracy.

I'm always changing my doll's names, right up until I find a name that really 'clicks' for them. My DD girl has been through a couple of name changes and I'm still not really feeling her current name, so she'll probably get a new one sooner or later. In comparison, I have a resin BJD called Ari who I've had for 2-3 years now, and her name suddenly came to me only a week or so after I first got her and I wouldn't dream of changing it - it just feels right.

So yes, I am a serial name-changer! XD

I never really give my dolls a set character, although I often have a vague idea about their personality or clothing style. (I used to plan a full character out for them before them arrived, but they never stuck to it, so now I don't bother lol) Their character tends to evolve over time and once it's settled I don't usually change it that much

I have renamed a few but I have the most problem with characters doll. For some reason, I cannot rename them. Miku for example,  I had the plan to use her sculpt as another character but she always end up being Miku and stayed as Miku the character as well. 

I've been trying to figure out what to name my Matoi for a while now.  And when Rem arrived, she presented the same problem.

I don't know anything about the characters these girls are based on or their source material.  They'll end up "original" characters in my household, despite a total lack of customization.

About the only "customization" I do is change eyes and wig.  In terms of wigs, the options for these two are limited.  Rem is pretty much locked into a wig of a blue hue.  Matoi is locked into a wig of a silvery hue.  Both restrictions are due to elements of their faceups.  I had briefly thought about swapping out Matoi's eyes for blue ones, but her red eyes have very much captivated me.  I don't know about Rem's eyes.  The jury is still out on that one.

Anyway, today I think I've figured out what their names will be. 

I think my Matoi shall be dubbed "Pandora."  I think that suits her. She caused all kinds of inadvertent evil to my credit card balance.  Plus, even though she looks extremely sweet and serene, those red eyes have a bit of an edge to them.

I figure my Rem needs a simple and perky name, something quick to say with a ring to it, not something overly formal sounding.  Some kind of name that sounds almost like a nickname.  I've been thinking "Misty" has a nice ring to it.  When she wants to sound more serious she calls herself "Mist."

Anyway, gonna try them out for a few days and see if they stick.

Well, Abby's head was originally going to be Homura's. . . then Homura arrived, I liked the default head WAY more than I thought I would, and the head sat in limbo for like a year. 

I even pondered selling the head, and then finally just went, "Screw it, it's MY doll head, I can do whatever I want with it." I modded it a little bit, and started painting with the initial intent of making it into Shiro from No Game No Life. All of three brush strokes threw that out the window, but it was turning out too adorable to wipe it off, so I kept going. 

Later, @Somonul emailed me that he finally watched Young Frankenstein, and specifically called out the dialogue: "Abby . . .someone." "Abby someone. Abby who?" "Abby.  . Normal."

I looked down from the email to the head in my hand, and went "F***. Your name is Abby Normal, isn't it?"

I like to think Abby was in that head the whole time, and I just had to find it. 

I just don't have the imagination for this; I'm pretty sure I never have. Plus I've just had awful luck with the logistics of getting bits I wanted.

I have an unnamed floating head, that I had painted in a style I had seen in pictures that I liked; it took me three tries to get what I wanted there. Then I never could get eyes that were what I imagined, after buying too many different kinds from Volks trying to make something work, and I had a similar problem with wigs.

But more to the topic of the thread, I don't know how to name her and even if I did that she'd have no personality because the whole concept of somehow coming up with that is completely foreign to me. I guess I always knew this, but it's clear to me now I can only have character DDs that already have defined names and personalities because that's the only way I have any attachment to them. I'm sort of the same way with figures, though I buy those mostly on appearance and artistry and often from animes I know nothing about or ones I'm pretty sure I wouldn't actually like. In that case it's like as long as the character has a defined personality, even if I'm not familiar with it, that's fine.

When I started working on that doll, I didn't envision I'd be able to get character DDs I actually wanted like Ranko or Takane. Now that that is working out and I want to limit the number of dolls I have, I'm going to just sell this floating head and treat that as an (expensive) failed experiment for me, but at least I learned from it.

Edited November 22, 2019 by cfx

I usually get dolls with the intention of making them into my OCs (except for my Volks yo-sd Alice, who is just Alice). I have 2-3 sort of "groups" based on different storylines - my Dollfie Dream 04 head girl was originally going to be a side character from my "Journey to the West" based storyline, then when I realized I couldn't afford to make every side character she became one of the main characters, but the sculpt didn't really fit the characters personality and I eventually realized she was a character from my other more western-fantasy/DnD-ish storyline...along with my Volks resin f-17 boy who was also from the JTTW story before that and was originally modeled after Crowley from Good Omens... 

It's weird how much better you get along with a doll once you realize who they are instead of trying to make them be the character you thought they were.

My first doll was originally doing to be made into a Viking shieldmaiden; I even made some simple clothes for her, but even with a blank face, it didn't work at all. So I left my friend "do what she thought would look nice" when she did her faceup and now she's a frickin' princess. I hadn't decided on a name when I ordered her, so she's kept her name that I picked after her faceup was done. I lover her so much~

My DDH-05 was bought to be a punk girl and she's stayed that way, name and all. I did send her off to have her head be modded and customized more to better fit her personality.

My other three DD's are Miku, Rin, and Len, and I've changed their wigs and clothes, but they've stayed who they were originally, just with the personalities I prefer to see them in. If I can ever get Luka, I have plans to completely change her character into someone else.

Now for my newest doll (DDH-06), she's going to be modded (body too) to be made into one of my OCs. I'm super excited about that!

My first doll, Kaede!

Or... was it Chai?

Or was it Solveig?

Or was it...

Anyway, my first doll, Sophie !

Sometimes the name and personality comes right away and it sticks like glue, as was the case with my DDS Mayu, Eris. Other times, things change a lot between trying new wigs, new outfits, or even just seeing them online vs having them in person! 

I changed Rigby's character and appearance but not his name or personality due to personal reasons. 

If I had bought Dollfie Dream Mirai when I had the chance. I'll customize her appearance and turn her into an Elf with different hair color and eyes plus her default outfit. I would name her Tira or Sapphire. She'll be based from high fantasy elves in Lord of the Rings, Shining series, and Zelda for example.

I do want a DD Mirai in the future, but do they cost an arm and a leg and about the same price as a expensive high end graphic card in suggested retail price!

Edited April 12, 2022 by ZandurFox

I've changed my doll names multiple times, but my licensed characters normally stay with their names - like Miku.

I also reshell my characters, so the former dolls that no longer fit will be renamed.

I am so guilty of this. I have changed my doll's names a few times. Most of my dolls had their original names for a bit until I settled on new names for them. Lana Jeanne was Jeanne, Moriko was Yoko, Estelle was Nero, Khepra was Kan'u then Khepri before Khepra.

As for character changes, my first Dollfie, a Yukino V2, went through so many changes, and eventually, I found that she just didn't click with me at all. Reina my DDP Rena, is in character hell, as I think I want to rename and change her completely to resemble Nene Yashiro, which will involve Mochi Ashi legs, a face-up, new eyes, a wig, and a new outfit 😅.

Long story short I change my girls all the time until I'm like "oh snap, that's them!" and I can establish their characters more.

I am also sooooo guilty of creating new characters for dolls all the time and debating on shelling them or not as it takes so much time, effort and money.

I honestly think it's pretty common in this hobby to change names and looks until you're like "ah perfect!" And if you never get that feeling with a doll even after those numerous changes it's ok to rehome them.

Edited April 13, 2022 by MagicalRozen
Oh no didn't mean to add to a necro thread...

The only one of my Kiddos that was changed was Tana.... 

Originally, she was to be Tohya Miho from the online webcomic Megatokyo....But, as I assembled her, got outfits and had more interaction with her, she didn't want to be Tohya...... 

Hence, Tana, aka  Recon Droid Unit #74N4 was born...  

Honestly, I really wouldn't go back and change any of it. 

My Kizuna Ai. Got her because admired a friend of mine's for a while, and her smile was just so sweet. Had no plan for her, but then she reminded me so much of Yui Komori from Diabolik Lovers that I'm trying to recreate her into that character, so she was renamed. I think my new girl coming will take the name I had for her.

21 hours ago, battrastard said:

Originally, she was to be Tohya Miho from the online webcomic Megatokyo....But, as I assembled her, got outfits and had more interaction with her, she didn't want to be Tohya......

remember good ol Ffm days??
back a few years ago I met someone from the site at AnimeBoston, and they absolutely styled their SaberAlter as Miho! Complete with impossible hair loops ribbon and everything!!

Anyways, I've got a resin keep renaming ... At first she was Drusilla (yes vampire) then Charlotte, which would be Lottie for short (as in Latte) OR Hazel .... Each time change her clothes a new name screams in my head, but am tryin so so hard to now end up with a food name....

It just takes a bit of tweaking before you really settle