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Original poster

Naming a house <hangs head>

50 replies

FluffyCubs · 12/09/2015 07:07

we've seen a house that we want to put an offer in....are house names irredeemeeaaably naff? (YES, but I don't care)....

I would bother normally, but it's already got a very ugly name and I really want to change it - how do I go about it? And what to avoid? What makes a name naff?

OP posts:

ENtertainmentAppreciated · 13/09/2015 18:52

Casa Bevron

I once lived in a named house with one of the most irredeemably naff names imaginable, something in the like of Dunroamin. To make matters worse the road name was fairly awful too. After I moved the place got sold and the new owners wasted no time in changing its name.

I'd say be very careful about how a name sounds when you say it out loud to people, particularly over the phone. I'd also avoid names ending in Cottage if it isn't one

Liltzero · 13/09/2015 18:54

I once bought a new build house that'd been built on a split garden so was given the number xyA. Must confess to giving it a name when we moved in. A name that meant something to us but was neutral and inoffensive. We still used the number and this mostly helped delivery drivers find us, though I did have some conversations along the lines of "xyA, it is next to xy!!!!" (silent grrrrr!).
I grew up in house with only a name, not posh, just a regular street full of regular houses. But if you are going to have a name make sure it is clearly visible from the road. I can still remembering guiding in an ambulance for DMiL. DFiL had previously decided that proper signage wasn't necessary!

Liltzero · 13/09/2015 18:54

Meant to add we added the name via the local council having filled in a form. I can't remember there being any charge.

Marmitelover55 · 13/09/2015 20:21

Squoosh

goawayalready · 13/09/2015 20:31

for some reason my neighbours have called theres "end terrace house" im really puzzled as to why i mean yes it is but?

DieSchottin93 · 13/09/2015 21:32

We have a name AND a number Normally I don't bother using it when I'm getting things sent to me but DM always does because she chose it (Welsh house name because she is Welsh)

LarrytheCucumber · 13/09/2015 21:49

There were three bungalows near where my in laws lived called 'Whichismine' 'Idunno' and 'The end un'. This was about 30 years ago, so subsequent owners might well have changed the names.
There is a village near us where all the houses only have names, but they tend to be of the descriptive variety 'The Chestnuts', 'Windy Ridge', 'Riverside' etc.
I've often thought about naming our house but haven't ever come up with anything suitable.

HellRunner · 13/09/2015 22:13

I bought a one off new build in the country and so had to name it - took ages to decide! lots of driving round looking at house names (most only have names here) trying to come up with something!

LyndaNotLinda · 13/09/2015 22:19

Some people have just moved in to number 36 on our road and given their house a name. I'm afraid there's been a bit of sniggering (and it's a crap name too which doesn't help)

Fizrim · 13/09/2015 22:23

One of our previous properties had a name (and a number including an A, built on the orchard of a much older property). The name wasn't registered with the Post Office so I happily used just the number at first. Until an insurance company missed the vital 'A' off our house number and we insured next door instead. The name became much more appealing even if it bore no relation to the house or the location at all

Pixa · 13/09/2015 22:25

Really nerdy but you must contact your local authority so they can make the relevant arrangements, and amendments to the Local Land and Property Gazetteer

NationMcKinley · 13/09/2015 22:34

My friend was brought up in a 1960s bungalow called Cair Paravel . I grew up near a house called (I kid you not) "Passing Wind" it had a fancy sign and everything.

TheExMotherInLaw · 13/09/2015 22:50

Street near where we lived had numbers. A house was later built in the garden of number 2. It therefore didn't have a number, so was given the name Minus Two.

carabos · 14/09/2015 09:18

House names seemed to be much more the thing when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s than now. I grew up in a house with a name and a number - most of the houses in our road had both. Within the extended family, the house names were used as a kind of shorthand for the relevant branch of the family, so we would be "Dunroamin" (name changed ), my cousins would be e.g. Fair Winds etc.

Ex PiLs went a step further and used to answer the phone with the name of the house . DS1 was at school with a boy whose house was named "Johnny's House" (name changed), which was genius and massively helpful to kids' parents when trying to find it amongst a maze of identical executive boxes.

BamBam21 · 14/09/2015 09:27

The people two floors up from us in our block of flats have given their flat a name. Now is the height of pretentious naffness!

FWIW I only really like names on old houses and cottages. It just doesn't seem to sit right on more modern places.

GudrunBrangwen · 14/09/2015 09:36

Ours has a built in name (hand painted on Victorian glass above the door)

I'd like to change it as it's not the most beautiful name, however I would feel wrong to do that as it's 115 years old or so. Doesn't seem right.

There's some lovely names about. Mainly Victorian or 30s type houses - there's a St. Cloud near us and a St. Margeret (yes, with the e) which I love - we nearly bought that one!

GudrunBrangwen · 14/09/2015 09:37

There is also a more modern (80s?) house near us called 'Itskintus' which is just, foul. I can't believe people put themselves into poverty for that pile of ugly bricks. They probably didn't.

CadleCrap · 14/09/2015 09:39

In my old house, where DH and I lived for 5 years, I asked DH as we were moving out why the previous owners had called the house kalamari?

The hadn't, I just hadn't looked at the name plate properly - it actually said Kalimna. did I mention that we lived there for 5 years.

IlPorcupinoNilSodomyEst · 14/09/2015 09:39

Our Victorian house was originally called Brookside, mercifully renumbered with the rest of the road in about 1960, I think.

IlPorcupinoNilSodomyEst · 14/09/2015 09:40

(But we are next to a stream)

Inertia · 14/09/2015 09:51

The houses in our road have names and numbers, but I think everyone's kept the original name (they were the plot names when the houses were built many years ago). We do use our house name, because there is another road with an identical name about a mile away- it reduces the risk of mail and deliveries going to the house with an almost identical address . It was made worse by a post office address finder glitch which mixed up the postcodes on the two roads- took me years of pestering to get them to change it (and some satnavs still use the incorrect version).

MaliceInWonderland78 · 14/09/2015 09:52

The worst offenders (IMHO) are those that give numbered houses names. A former colleague of mine did this (think Mrs. 'Buck??t') and the name comprised the first syllabal or her husbands name, and the last of hers.

Our house has a name (it's an old vicarage we bought from the Church) and frankly, it's nothing but ball-ache. Despite being next to the church, we still have our post delivered elsewhere. Thankfully we've got understanding neighbours.

In a nod to Father Ted, I wanted to call our house "The Old Parochial House" but Mrs. Malice wasn't having any of it.

tldr · 14/09/2015 09:59

There's one near me called Thislldo. Not even ThistleDo or ThistleDae or ThistleDaeus, just Thislldo.

Fizrim · 14/09/2015 10:23

I have never heard of a flat with a name, that has cheered me right up!

puffylovett · 14/09/2015 22:56

Well I like my house name! AND it has a number
In our defence all the houses in the street are named, to do with the local area. My house is called Sunnyside. And it is on the sunny side, so I like it!

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