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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

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:

TheFantasticMrsFox · 09/02/2015 17:54

We have a name and a number

In fairness, our row of cottages is very old and they have had their names for years. I only really use the name if I wish to sound grander than I am :o
Sadly the advent of Google Streetview has allowed people to check up on me and see for themselves how small our cottage actually is :o

Bananayellow · 09/02/2015 17:54

It's really tacky unless it is an older established property. Then it's sort of ok.

skylark2 · 09/02/2015 19:05

When I was growing up, our house had a name, the house at the end of the lane had a name, and the one in the middle was "3 Villagename" (the lane doesn't have a name). As far as I'm aware, it's the only numbered house in the village.

I always planned to call my house "Rivendell" having walked past one for years as a teenager and thought it was the coolest thing possible. I didn't - I've never owned a house with a name, but if I ever have an idea I want to use, then I'd give it an informal one.

TinLizzie · 09/02/2015 19:13

We had an old farmhouse and the address was frequently misheard as 'Love Street Park Farmhouse'!! We still got our mail - good old Post Office and only one postie for years!

Fabulassie · 09/02/2015 19:47

Both of our houses have names. I think numbers are just so cold and impersonal. I couldn't live in a house that didn't have that sort of history and personality. I did once live in a flat in America that was ... brace yourselves... on "Main Street." I had to actually write out "725 Main Street Apartment 6." It was really quite nasty.

There are many reasons why I moved back to civilisation from the Hell that is Main Street USA and that is only one of them.

Everything I just wrote was utter bullshit. But it was fun to write.

Yesitismeagain · 09/02/2015 19:50

Where I live there are very few numbers, every house seems to have a name. It is a pain in the arse as it is very hard to work out where people live.

It is a village and whether a £2m+ house or 2 bed cottage, they all seem to have names.

It is a village kind of thing. Where are you buying?

Plomino · 09/02/2015 20:47

We live in a very rural part of Norfolk , where the postal address for as long as there's been houses here was House Name , Village Name , Norfolk , Postcode . Then last year the council gave the road a really boring generic name without consultation , gave us all a number , and then wiped all the house names off the address finding software thingy in one go, not only removing over 300 years of history , but causing the entire village credit problems as well , as we ended up having two addresses , which occasionally proved problematical with credit agencies . Thanks for that .

And no one , no one at all uses the numbers anyway . Not one person changed their address , and the postman delivers to the same houses as he has done for the last 20 years .

Bakeoffcakes · 09/02/2015 20:51

Our village all have names too. I like it but do feel sorry for delivery drivers trying to find houses. We don't even have many normal street names either, just areas of the village.

poshfrock · 10/02/2015 06:44

My DH's aunt and uncle's house is called "Chaos". I have never used this when addressing stuff to them.

I also have a friend whose child died from SIDS. After the death she moved house and named it after the dead child. She now says she can never leave said house because it is "his". I find the whole thing very morbid and a bit odd. Unfortunately her house doesn't have a number (not sure why, fairly ordinary 1930's semi) so I have to use the name.

TheAnalyst · 10/02/2015 06:46

Call it OESOPHAGUS 9.

Wrongornot · 10/02/2015 07:58

Our village doesn't even have street names, just House Name, Village.

We built our house here five years ago and mumsnetters named it (who else?). I still love it.

MiaowTheCat · 10/02/2015 08:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

darkness · 10/02/2015 08:36

Whilst I haven't named our house, someday it may be the oldest one around here, I like to think of it going forward through time like one of those speeded up movies, with all the landscape rising and falling around it....
So I really don't see why naming a house is pretentious, unless you are imagining having it blown up when you leave, or that the whole neighbourhood will suddenly disappear all at once. Surely your house will be older and full of character at some point, even if it's not now. Iyswim.

darkness · 10/02/2015 08:38

Is there supposed to be an appropriate age to name houses then? Who knew!

shakemysilliesout · 10/02/2015 08:41

It's ok if you're setting up and naming a bed and breakfast. Maybe a holiday let. Otherwise it's naff. But I collect figurines so naff is my middle name.

MythicalKings · 10/02/2015 08:42

Naff unless it's historic.

Only1scoop · 10/02/2015 08:44

Not unless old and already named....

Has name and doesn't require a number....

You have built it....

Anything else naff

ElphabaTheGreen · 10/02/2015 08:44

I lived and worked in a part of the UK where the vast majority of houses over a very wide area only had names as that is how it had been since the year dot. Very pretty and quaint unless you had a job like mine in the health service where I was always having to find where people lived. It was AWFUL and I longed for numbers. Fortunately, I only ever work during the day. I can't imagine what it was like for ambulance drivers in the middle of the night when there wouldn't be a local or postman on the street to ask for directions. In that scenario, house names instead of numbers are just dangerous.

marshmallowpies · 10/02/2015 08:52

My parents are in Wales & have not only all house names in their village (except the modern estates which have been built on the edges) but lots of very similar sounding Welsh names. There must be some duplicates, I bet, but I've never spotted one yet. The only time it's a real problem is when the regular postie is away and the holiday cover postmen get very confused .

Shockers · 10/02/2015 16:27

Who gets the role of deciding what's naff? Is it an elected post?

We have no choice; our house was built behind the High St, so was issued with a name, rather than a number. It's not historic (1960s), but there's chuff all I can do about it. I take mild exception to someone stating it's naff as a fact, rather than just their opinion!

Andrewofgg · 10/02/2015 16:31

I spent part of my childhood in a new house which had a name because the Post Office had buggered up the numbering - it was they who insisted we choose a name.

Frusso · 10/02/2015 16:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AngelsWithSilverWings · 10/02/2015 16:41

I live on a 1930's estate of semis and a lot of the houses ( our's included) have a name , usually etched in glass or stained class above the door). But no one uses the names as the houses are all numbered.

When we got the deeds pack sent to us after we bought the house I found a letter dated around 1939 from the local council advising that as part of a move to number all properties the dwelling known as "" would be given the number 1** and must be used in all correspondence.

I like the name being on the house as it's a little bit of history but I'd never use it.

Stinkle · 10/02/2015 16:52

My house is modern (12 years old) and has a name. We don't have a number though. We don't have a road name either, which makes everything nice and confusing.

My house is a converted farm building in a little estate at the end of a farm track. The original farmhouse is (for eg) Clifftop Farm House, and we all have related farm-y type house names, followed by the farm bit, so we're The Stables, Clifftop Farm, X Town.

It becomes a bit of a nightmare as only real local locals know where Clifftop Farm is. Our regular postman is fine, but Christmas when they get all the agency posties in they haven't a clue and I spend half my life collecting stuff from the sorting office. Visitors have no idea. There's a sign at the end of our track, but it's a NSL road so most people whizz past us without noticing it. I've become very adept at "third oak tree on the right, if you see the pylon you've gone too far" type directions

WilburIsSomePig · 10/02/2015 16:53

There's a house in our village called after the names of the couple who live there.

DaveAnn.

Warms the cockles it does.

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