Is it pretentious to give a house a name?

[SarahAndQuack]

Just that really. We live in a village where the majority of houses have names. A few have just numbers, and some have both. We rented the house for a while but now we've bought it and we like the idea of giving it a name. But is that weird? Do you only get to name a house if it's had a name already?

My mums house is an old agricultural worker’s cottage & it has a name & number although the name obviously existed first and all her mail is named not numbered. What does chi-chi mean?! 🤣

Our house name is a combination of two of the previous owners’ names! I don’t like it but it’s a hassle to change it

We’re buying a house which is ‘123 X Road’, it was build with two others 20 years after the rest of the road, so the numbers are 121, 123a and 123?! All detached and next to each other.

The house we’re buying was built for the fire chief, and we already call it ‘The Fire House’ so I have wondered about naming it this when we move in!

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Not necessarily pretentious, but as someone who visits peoples homes for a living, it can be a real PITA trying to find them.

None of the houses in our village (or surrounding villages I think) have names.

They are all old farmhouses/cottages. I think a house with a number would look pretty bizarre.

We’ve never had a problem with deliveries.

I’ve just looked it up and discovered I’ve been misusing it all my life. I just meant fancy and smart but apparently it actually means fancy but pretentious, oops!

If you name your house, keep the number too.

Be nice to postmen and delivery drivers!!!

I think it depends on where you live. Where I’m from a lot don’t have any numbers as it’s random houses that have popped up at various points in history so they only have a name. The streets that are newer with houses built at same time all have numbers but some of them have still been given names and it doesn’t seem out of place as so many others about have names.

We have both and most properties in the street do. They are extremely variable from modern flats to Edwardian detached. Mostly the flats don't have names. We replaced the name plaque outside our house with both the name and number.

We only use the number on post etc., but we have one set of friends who use the name when they post anything to us. Originally I think because their house only has a name but now probably because it is much easier to remember.

I like that it has a name as well as a number and I don't think it is naff to name a house that hasn't had one before.

🤣 in that case it is a bit chi-chi. Might start using that myself now

Our house has a name but there are no numbers on our lane at all, its over two miles long so getting a takeaway is a nightmare

Same. It's a ribbon development and there's no way of knowing where a specific house name might be. There are often delivery cars/lorries crawling along peering down driveways. If we ever order a taxi we look out for it and go out into the road to wave it in. The number of times I've wished we just had a bloody number. Lived here 40 years though, and nobody has chosen the name of their own house, they were all pre-existing since they were built.

Do the other cottages in your row have names as well as numbers? I think that’s important here. Otherwise will definitely look pretentious to give yours a name.

When we got the original deeds to our house we found it had previously had a name. Now just a number. There’s part of me that would like to bring back the name but I also worry pretentious. It’s a detached house in deepest suburbia built late 1920s. Some of the other houses on the road have names but they’re older. None the same vintage as ours I don’t think.

I take your houses and raise you a flat with a name!

The first place I bought was a top floor flat in a Victorian house. The previous owners called it Treetops. To be fair to them you could see Treetops for the bedroom windows.

When I sold it, it had reverted to Top Floor Flat as I'm a lazy arse.

We bought ours with a name and it’s a PITA!

Nobody ever finds us, we live quite rurally so I end up on the phone to delivery drivers most days saying something like pass the bus stop and the big tree etc etc. It’s even worse if you try and order a takeaway in the dark!

I desperately want a number but the whole street are named so I could be number one but it would make no difference. Stick with the number 😄

Haven't rtft but I'd go with
Lord house
Excalibur cottage, or
The cinnamons

Our house has just a name - it has never had a number since being built - and it's such a pain in the arse for people to find.

We live on a narrow country lane that's maybe 1 mile long and with around 20 houses well spaced out along it. The first few houses do have numbers which makes it even worse because anyone looking for us assumes there must also be a number - there isn't.

Our lane is all hills and bends so anyone visiting or delivering has little to go by other than the house name they're currently next to. We have to put instructions such as "8th house after junction with xxxx lane" but that obviously only works in 1 direction.

As an aside, if you don't have to have a name - I.e. you already have a number - I think it's maybe a bit like when people get private car number plates and try to change them to say a word.

When I read that at first I thought for just a moment the Tory candidate had actually called their house "Labour had a number"
In my defence I've only had an hour's sleep🙄😂

Our house is named. We're in a village and every single house on the road is named and have been since they were built, ours being 1930's.

DP wanted to change the name. I refused. 🙃

I see giving a house a name in addition to it's existing number as pretty harmless but...I do not associate it with a certain type of person due to my small sample (4) now.
All the people I know have done that are of a similar age and have similar personalities - age 65-75 now and could be described as mildly pretentious (slip things into conversation where it does really go to brag/name drop) but otherwise nice people. All of these houses were built in the last fifty years, and it would be incredibly unhelpful for them not to also have numbers.

Ours has a name which suits our life style, plus first line of address.

I'd love a house with a name.The prettiest one ive seen is Christmas Cottage and the Funniest is Fookem Hall.

A village where everyone's house is named is different to a street of 300 terraced houses where they're all numbered except for "Awkward Cottage".

We are going to reinstate our house’s original name. Wondering if that’s an option for you?