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AIBU?

Is having a house name a crap idea?

137 replies

IsabellaofFrance · 09/02/2015 12:55

We are moving in a few weeks.

I would like to give our house a name, but DF laughed and said 'oooh how snobby'.

Has anyone house got a house name?

OP posts:
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FoolishFay · 11/02/2015 23:37

Our rural house is fairly new but replaced an older house on the same site and was given the same name. We have no road name either - just house name, village. I was most excited about this before I moved in, thinking it somehow glamorous and intriguing but no one has ever passed comment on itHmm

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DropYourSword · 11/02/2015 23:08

And if people don't like it magimedi, then sod'em!

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EllenJanesthickerknickers · 11/02/2015 19:16

A school mum has named her Victorian doorstep terrace in the midlands, Seaview. It's ironic, apparently. Hmm

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merrymouse · 11/02/2015 12:23

I think its fine to give your house a name. However if it already has a number not many people will use it.

As others have said, houses with a name and no number are a pain if people are trying to find your house.

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shovetheholly · 11/02/2015 12:19

It clearly is a terrible idea, since it is something my PIL do. Grin

Years ago, PIL moved into a rather horrible house called 'Velosten'. Took them 6 months to work out it was an anagram of 'Love nest'. Cue much indignant huffing and puffing from FIL, and a swift name change to something Scottish sounding. (They have no links whatsoever to Scotland but insist that they are really Scottish by some distant cousin ten times removed).

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magimedi · 11/02/2015 12:14

Gomorrah is what I'd choose.

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steppeinginto2015 · 11/02/2015 11:37

my parents lived for ages in a village with no road names, and no house numbers. (it is impossible to give and address on a computer system with no road name)
The houses all had similar names too like this:

The Manor
Manor Farm
Manor Farm Barn
Manor Farm House
The Barns
Manor Barn
The New Barn
The New Manor

The postman was ace. My mum once posted some cards in the local box with no addresses on 2 of them. He collected from postbox, sorted them at sorting office, asked his mate who delivered to the next village to ask the recipient of one card who they are from, got the answer back, Mrs X, so then he knocked on Mum's door, gave her the cards back and asked her to address them!!
Same area, they get post forwarded from old house to new. We use to live in same village, different name, different address, but postie knew they were my parents, and after we moved dropped off our post at their house. Then Mum and dad moved. Every now and then post comes to our old house. The postie doesn't deliver it, he passes it on to the postie who delivers to mum's new house, and it arrives there.

Ahh the rural life!

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ZebraLovesKnitting · 11/02/2015 11:31

Our house has both a name and a number. It's a very old cottage though, used to be a farmhouse & the rest of the village was gradually built on the farmland over the centuries.

Trouble is, you can't see our house from the road. Our access is up a long driveway that just looks like part of the commercial building which is at the roadside. So from the road you wouldn't know there's a house up there (Google Streetview is completely pointless for our house!) The other problem is that the numbering on our street is all over the place. For example, we are number 148, and the main road goes: 134, 136, commercial building, 152, 154... (Incidently, the other side of the road opposite us are numbers 321 & 323. Numbering hasn't worked out too well here!) So nobody can ever find our house. We use the name & number now though because we met so many other people in the local area who had no idea what house I was talking about from just the number, but as soon as I said X Tree Cottage, they knew where I meant. And yes, we have an "X" tree in the garden!

Not sure if this makes me snobby or not tbh!

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Flingingmelon · 11/02/2015 11:28

We don't use our name but it's 'the dairy', which is what it was. Every now and again we get post to 'The Diary', which always makes me laugh.

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lurkerspeaks · 11/02/2015 11:23

I have relatives who live in a village where loads of the houses have names. They built a new one in their garden and it has a name as there is no numbering at all on their street. In that situation a name is not naff it is essential.

My relative is a local history buff so the name is pertinent to the area and the houses location.

I do raise my eyebrows at names on modern (1970s onwards houses.) What on earth is wrong with a number when your house sits on an estate/ developed street with lots of other houses all of which have numbers. Personlise your house by painting the front door orange for goodness sake.

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TheCunnyFunt · 11/02/2015 11:13

My MILs house is a name, on the hill where she lives there is a cemetery, a hotel and MILs house so a number would be pretty pointless!

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BuzzardBird · 11/02/2015 11:08

Yes...the scrap men use a harp around Rubery it's so idyllic Grin

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Sparklingbrook · 11/02/2015 11:00

Ssshhhhhh BB. Don't shatter the illusion. I am sure I have seen the thatched cottages from the dual carriageway. Wink

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BuzzardBird · 11/02/2015 10:59

Rubery, a village? Grin

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OTheHugeManatee · 11/02/2015 10:57

I'm sure I remember a poster on MN talking about a house in their area called 'Thistledome'. They'd imagined it had something to do with prickly wild plants until they spoke to the owner who explained they'd viewed it and thought 'This'll do me' and bought it Grin

Our house has a name but it's had the same one on the Land Registry since the 18th century. That said we also have a number

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MumSnotBU · 11/02/2015 10:49

There is a bungalow in our town called Dunwerkin.

They are probably retired, I think.

Smile

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FuckyNell · 11/02/2015 10:46

I know a house called nil desperandum.

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Sparklingbrook · 11/02/2015 10:38

'Village' is over egging it a bit Alice. Sad

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AliceLidl · 11/02/2015 10:17

Apparently Rubery is the name of a village in Bromsgrove and means "a rough hill" Interiors.

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InteriorsMum · 10/02/2015 23:22

Our house is called Rubery according to the plaque on the fence, have to say though never used it and didnt even know it had a name until after we moved in, have no idea what it means, will google it one day, can't believe names affect house prices Hmm

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AliceLidl · 10/02/2015 23:18

Do what you want OP.

All these old houses with names were new houses with names once upon a time.

There's a house near me with a big metal sign on the wall with the owners names on it. Think 'Ken and Irene' in big swirly letters. It might not be for everybody but their post never goes next door by mistake.

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2rebecca · 10/02/2015 23:11

I don't care if your house has a name as long as it also has a number, clearly displayed so I can find it if I come to visit.

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UsernameAlreadyInUse · 10/02/2015 23:08

Parklife?

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TheWildRumpyPumpus · 10/02/2015 23:02

We've just bought a house next to a park. You'll never guess what it's called...

It's not old but was given the name when built. All the houses on our lane have names rather than numbers.

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DragonMamma · 10/02/2015 22:55

We have a house name as our house was built after the others on the street

It's bloody annoying and I spend too much time explaining to people where it is as there's no numbering with it.

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