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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to think house names are pretentious

107 replies

MrHankyTheXmasPoo · 26/02/2016 00:15

Fair enough if no number. In that case there is no choice.

am I the only one who has a chuckle at the likes of Dunroamin,3 ordinary street, etc

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 26/02/2016 00:18

I don't see the need unless you own a v old property that came with a name to suddenly make one up.

Not sure about pretentious just unnecessary. Like a lot of things.

bertiebuzzard · 26/02/2016 00:19

I think you might be to be honest.
Unless of course if it's BarryandJoansNest then I think you have a point.

RoseValleyRambles · 26/02/2016 00:20

Surely everyone should aspire to owning a relatively normal looking property and naming it Rivendell? Once came across a thornfield hall. It was an old folks home. I'm still being a thoroughly inappropriate name for our place, just for giggles...

BreatheandFlyAway · 26/02/2016 00:20

Yeah I used to, but now I think of the person in the house with cherished hopes, dreams and memories and - so what if their taste isn't mine, they clearly have something they care about, for which I admire them.

thebiscuitindustry · 26/02/2016 00:27

House names are creative and characterful, not pretentious.

Fozzleyplum · 26/02/2016 00:30

I don't have a view on house names normally, but there is one exception which I do find pretentious.

In recent years, I've noticed a few examples of people building a (usually ostentstious and in one example absolutely gawping) new house in a village, or renovating an older building, then calling or renaming it, "(name of village) House", when it did not have that name previously. I think I find it odd because it seems that they are to some extent designating themselves lords of the manor.

BreatheandFlyAway · 26/02/2016 00:33

Yes Fozzley that I do agree with - deluded and pretentious!

TypicallyEnglishMustard · 26/02/2016 00:35

I live round the corner from the Dun Facebookin' house. I like it, makes me laugh.

gooseberryroolz · 26/02/2016 00:38

It depends. Some of the old victorian villas have names and numbers.

Sparklingbrook · 26/02/2016 00:42

Growing up we had a name and number. I never bothered using the name.

GuiltyPleasure · 26/02/2016 00:42

Reminds me of an episode of "Escape to the country" a few years ago, which I was interested in because the houses were in the area I live. One particular house had a name "Micklynn". The presenter tried to make it sound like an old house name but it was blatantly obvious it was an amalgamation of the owners' names. TBF there could be worse name combinations.

Sparklingbrook · 26/02/2016 00:43

Remember CasaBevron in Brookie? Grin

miaowli · 26/02/2016 00:51

Oh, I've always wanted a house with a pretentious name! Our lawn is covered with moss, on a slope, and a bit bumpy, so I thought 'Mossy Banks', maybe?

ILoveACornishPasty · 26/02/2016 01:04

Cass Bevron!!GrinGrin

ILoveACornishPasty · 26/02/2016 01:04

Ha ha or DalenTrace from the original Birds of a Feather (showing my age...)

bakeoffcake · 26/02/2016 01:12

Most of the houses in our village have a name, there's only one area with numbers and a street name, so no it's not pretentious it's just a bit of history.
What I do find pretentious is that someone recently moved into a property which is called X Cottage. They changed the name to X House! They obviously though a Cottage was beneath them.

NoncommittalToSparkleMotion · 26/02/2016 01:23

I'm not in the UK so I think it's awesome.

My DD calls our house The Butterfly Cottage. It's stuck for us.

RosyCat · 26/02/2016 01:31

My mum once wished me a "pulchritudinous barbarity of roses round the door" in a card.

I now dearly wish for a cottage that lives up to that description, and I would give it the moniker of Rosy Cottage and in it would live many RosyCats and RosyKits.

Looking for a bit of joy in life is no crime.

TitClash · 26/02/2016 01:53

My favourite is one I saw where Albert and Irene combined their names to make Renal...

RubyChewsDay · 26/02/2016 02:10

I think its nice, like naming your car. I would rather see a twee little house name on my neighbours wall, than a mattress in the garden and a shitty lawn Grin

PitilessYank · 26/02/2016 02:32

I think house names seem fun. I would love one, but I am in the US, and it's not common here.

My aunt who lives in the UK has a house name rather than number, and I have always found that very romantic and cool.

ChickyChickyParmParm · 26/02/2016 02:41

The new build homes with names are very funny to me (not from UK). I really want to buy one and call it Excaliber Cottage, a la Alan Partridge.

YokoUhOh · 26/02/2016 02:59

You can try naming Alan Partridge's house for yourselves:

www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/partridge/life/iap_new/house/house68.shtml

I liked his girlfriend Sonja's suggestion of 'Our House' Grin

Atenco · 26/02/2016 03:05

Mmm, the house I grew up in had a lovely and unusual name, then the council gave it a number, but we still thought of it by its name.

hogbreath · 26/02/2016 03:14

My neighbours growing up built there own house and named it "costaplenty"