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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Is it pretentious to give a house a name?

127 replies

SarahAndQuack · 10/05/2022 22:32

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?

OP posts:

starlingdarling · 11/05/2022 08:08

I find it a bit pretentious if it's joined to other houses that are numbered and don't have names but more so when it's a new build in a new build estate. If it was an old house I'd just assume you kept the name and the other neighbours switched to numbers for ease.

DH and I drove through a beautiful village this weekend and spotted a thatched cottage with the name "The Thatched Cottage". Seemed sensible until we got further down the same road and saw 3 more thatched cottages. I do wonder if those owners curse the name.

MadameDragon · 11/05/2022 08:11

I think anything you do for your own appreciation without any thought of how it appears to others can’t really be pretentious.
Walking past a local Apple Pie Cottage always cheered me up, so if you choose the right name it’s a contribution to the community.

dun1urkin · 11/05/2022 08:13

We live in a row of nice but unremarkable three bed Edwardian semis. There’s 12 in total. Two, ours and next door, have names, whilst none of the others do.

I’ve always thought it was to make the people who bought ours and next door feel fancy; our houses wouldn’t have been as nice as all the others in the ‘development’ when they were built, being the only ones without an upstairs bathroom

Twattergy · 11/05/2022 08:13

We bought a house with a name and number. The name is inoffensive and bland and we don't use it. We got an additional address sign made for front of our drive and just put the number and road name on it because really the name is unnecessary. I always thought I'd want to use a house name, but ours is a 1950s house and I think really names are for period houses, I feel it'd be a bit pretentious of us to use its name.

DaphneduM · 11/05/2022 08:16

I don't think it's pretentious at all. Four of the houses I have lived in have had numbers, and three have been named. Two were very old cottages in villages who had had their names for ages, and one was a house built about twenty years ago in a large village where most of the houses around the centre of the village have names. Lol - our latest address sounds idyllic but the reality is that it's on the Mumsnet dreaded A road!!!!!!

Iwanttenofthose · 11/05/2022 08:35

I think it depends whether it has a unique style or position in its setting. If it looks different to the houses around it or is a detached house in a somewhat isolated position then I think a name rather than a number is quite fitting as people passing by will view it as a standalone entity in its own right. However if it's the same style as the houses around it or is a semi/terrace then it's a bit pretentious.

briancormorant · 11/05/2022 08:36

We used to live in Wisteria Lodge, it was a new build terrace house in East London. The name plate was cemented to brick work so left it.
Heaven knows where the wisteria was?

dudsville · 11/05/2022 08:47

We bought a house that already had a name, in a neighbourhood where no other house has one. Then we learned that 100 years ago the owner of our plot owned all of the neighbourhood, back when it was just fields. He had this house built and then the rest of the neighbourhood. The name of our house reflects this history, but it's weird, it's a word no one uses anymore. We don't use it as we also have a number.

Fernie6491 · 11/05/2022 08:48

When we moved in to our house many years ago it had a number but also a name in the transom over the door. It was 'Borden' but my DH thought it ought to be changed to 'Burden' , as paying the mortgage was exactly that! We removed the transom eventually and replaced it with plain frosted glass.

RollOnWinter · 11/05/2022 08:49

There's a house near me called "Westward Ho!" It's a semi-detached 1930s house (same as mine) and that's pretentious.

DilemmaDelilah · 11/05/2022 08:59

We live in a semi detached house on an estate right at the edge of our city, but a little bit separate from the rest of the estate and surrounded by protected green space. When (if!) we win the lottery we plan to buy next door and make one big house and then to name it. Think something like 5 Willowfield Road, which will then become Willowfield House, unless we can think of something else. Willowfield cottage wouldn't be appropriate as it would be a relatively big 1990s house. Definitely NOT going to be Willowfield Manor! It would probably also need a number - but not sure how to do that if it is no. 5 and no. 6 together......

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 11/05/2022 09:03

I have an incredibly average, 3 bed semi in the middle of a large town and mine is the only house I've seen with a name. It came with the name and we just haven't done anything about it.

People may think it's weird. It's normal to us.

Nougat555 · 11/05/2022 09:10

If you do please do some research first to check it is unique.
Our house has had a name since it was built in the late 1800s as do all of our neighbours' (rural) but someone nearby with a very similar postcode (just a different last letter) decided to name their new barn conversion the same name as ours a couple of years ago. Their house does not exist on the Royal Mail postcode finder website but seems to get council tax bills as we still get their post, and they get ours.
It is a nightmare we have tried to sort out time and time again. Royal Mail is useless.

The other house is often rented out and last year when an important letter my daughter was expecting never arrived we went round to check whether it has been misdelivered again, the new tenants said they didn't recognise the surname on some of the mail, though it was a previous tenant and threw the all of the letters in the bin!

We're at the point of thinking about changing the name of our house as it's sucj a pain but not sure how it would affect land registry etc as it's been 'Old House Name' for 150 years.

Original poster

SarahAndQuack · 11/05/2022 09:13

Gosh, this took off. I know I said before but we'd definitely keep the number, we're not interested in making it harder for the post to get here! It is hard enough already as the street isn't officially named (though there is a sign up saying main street) and google thinks the postcode belongs to the next big village. When we first moved some very understanding woman got an awful lot of deliveries for us.

The other houses in the row aren't named; they're all rented out and will have been rented pretty much forever - I think they were tied cottages at one point. So I doubt there's an original name to reinstate (nice idea though!).

I don't mind being mildly pretentious, but this thread is making me feel it might be a bit more than that. I'm just so happy we got to buy it.

OP posts:

tabulahrasa · 11/05/2022 09:22

Names are a pita

The road we’re on doesn’t have a name, our house is a 1920s semi then there’s a detached house. I’ve changed the names obviously, but mine is north house, hillend cottage, next door is 2 hillend cottage and the detached one is hillend house.

Then the next nearest road that does have a name has a hillside farm and a hillside cottage.

The postcode covers about a mile and a half, it’s only about 9 houses but most have just names and no numbers.

I spend quite a lot of time giving lost delivery people directions and swapping post between houses 😐

Mandodari · 11/05/2022 09:32

My house has a name but then again I live in the back of beyond. Not much point having a number given that I don't have a road/street name, just a general locality.

womaninatightspot · 11/05/2022 09:39

All the houses round me have names (rural) It works out fine delivery wise as there is only three houses in our postcode. In your situation it would depend on the neighbours if they have names I'd go with it; if numbers I wouldn't.

Squealier · 11/05/2022 09:40

I think unless it's historical (such as coach house) it's pretty twee to name a house.

Phos · 11/05/2022 09:48

Mine has a name. It wasn't our choice, we bought it like this. All the houses on our street have names. It's a pain in the arse.

CounsellorTroi · 11/05/2022 09:50

There’s a house in our area called Strathoursurname. I’d have felt pretentious living there.

MadameDragon · 11/05/2022 10:53

The Westward Ho! House was probably named for its first owners’ honeymoon destination.
Now that 1930s houses are closing in on their century, I wonder if we will start to have more appreciation for their cultural aspects, including their names. We have a lot of reverence for houses only a few decades older which, if you read Lark Rise to Candleford, were definitely considered crappy pretentious new builds when they were put up.

Toddlerteaplease · 11/05/2022 11:00

My house is unofficially named Pondicherry lodge, from Sherlock Holmes. Solely because I love the name Pondicherry. I know of a house called Regoyce. 3 guesses what the name of the owners is. 😄

Whammyyammy · 11/05/2022 11:39

I remember Veta in coronation st calling her house the 'old rectory', I think it's up there with that

dumdumduuuummmmm · 11/05/2022 19:22

It's a pain in the arse. We have a name and no number. Couriers can't find us. Deliveroo struggle. It's just annoying. Postcode should work but it is so much harder without a number

Runmybathforme · 11/05/2022 19:25

So long as it has a clearly displayed number as well. Houses with only names are a bloody nightmare for emergency services.

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