Naming your new friend that is stuffed with love is the initial phase in making its personality. It will also assist you with building a stronger bond with your plushy companion. Some soft toys already have names like Beanie Babies or licensed character toys. While these names do seem to fit the plushies well, they are often unoriginal and don’t get your creative juices flowing! Skip the premade stuff, and name the plushy yourself.
While it sounds simple enough to choose a name for your new friend, it may not be such a simple undertaking. The most common name for a stuffed animal is boring old “bear”. This is largely due to the fact that bears are the most popular stuffed animal. “Bear” isn’t necessarily a bad name, but again, it lacks originality. If you want to pick out a cool and unique name for your new friend, look no further! We have gathered some ways you can come up with name ideas for your stuffy.
Develop a Character
Living in dreams and imagination will help you keep on developing your mental capacity and positively affects your psychological well-being. A practical way to apply this in your life is to develop your very own character through a stuffed animal. That is why some the best plushies are not based on TV and movies. Okay, so coming up with a character sounds a lot harder than coming up with a name, but don’t fret! We have a solution!
Think about any basic name. Odds are you probably know of someone in your life, an actor, or even a different fictional character who has that name. When that name pops into your head, you think about that individual. Taking that a step farther, you might even start to associate personality traits to the name. Think about the name “Karen” or “Ken”. You probably immedialty thought of certain character traits associated with these names. You can apply this to your plushies. Think about your plushies and what qualities you want it to have. Then try to some up with names that you associate with those traits.
Look at the Appearance
Look at the color of your stuffed animal. Look at the fur. Take note of the eyes and even the tail length, if it has one. All these visual characteristics can help you come up with a name. A plushy that is white might have a winter name, like Blizzard or Frosty. A stuffie with lots of hair might be a Fluffy or Snuggles. Or maybe even base it off of specific feature that animal has, like a duck name Bill or a lobster named Pinchy.
Use Irony
Irony is a thing of comedic genius. Coming up with an ironic name for your plushy is sure to delight others who meet your new friend. One really easy way to do this is to name it by an animal that it is not. For example, take that really boring popular name of Bear and apply it to something other than a teddy bear, like a shark. Or give traditional dog and cat names to other types of creatures. Call that unicorn, Spot, or that sloth Mr. Whiskers.
Articulate with Alliteration
Alteration is when you have words together that start with the same letter or sound. It is catchy and easy to remember. Some examples of this include, Olly the Octopus, Bella the Beaver, or Pete the Panda. Some real life examples are Donald Duck, Kim Kardashian, and Willy Wonka.
Rhyme It
Similar to alliteration, names that rhyme stick in your head. Just lookup some words that rhyme with a name you’re thinking of or the type of animal you have. Some examples are, Ziggy Piggy, Charlie Barley, or even Hogg the Frog. Search for a rhyming dictionary for help to find words that rhyme.
Location, Location, Location
There are lots of countries, cities, and even streets that already have cool names! You just have to find them. Did you go somewhere on vacation that had an interesting name? Hawaii alone has lots of ideas. Waikiki, Oahu, and Maui are all places in Hawaii and would be cool names for a stuffed animal. Or look more local and name your plushy after a street name in your town. Some real street names we like are Keeneland, Loganberry, and Sir Galahad.
Foreign Language
A simple way to find a name for your new plushie friend is to find the name of the animal in another language. It might sound unimaginative, but there are many languages to choose from and you don’t have to just choose the animal name! You could use generic descriptive words like fluffy, soft, or furry. For example, furry in Italian is pelosa and stuffed in French is farci. If you’d rather be more direct you could do Spanish for cat, gato, or Japanese for bear, kuma. They seem unoriginal, but it does require some thought and you end up with a name that sounds unique and exotic!
Whatever name you choose for your new furry friend, make it your own. Stuffed animals are special and you should treat them as such. They really are great companions and have shown to help bring calm to humans. We want to know what you named your stuffed animals! Did you use a method from this list or something else? Let us know in the comments!