House naming

[jack]

Many of my friends lived in shared houses after graduating from university, because they enjoyed the company, didn't have families yet, and didn't afford a whole house in an urban area to themselves. And as a practical matter, it was a mouthful to say "shall we go to Alice and Bob and Carol's house?", so many of these houses acquired a name, often a whimsical abstract concept such as "Relativity" or "Oblivion".

I picked up the habit because I enjoyed the process of finding a name which I thought suited the important features of a house, even though it didn't really have any practical benefit.

The ground-floor flat I lived in for a long time I started calling "Cartesian Heights" after my username, although I also want to use that name for all my houses. Before that I called it "Ambiguity" as a nod to its lack of an official name, although it didn't really stick. The temporary house on Peverel Road with the slightly pretentious interior was called "Cair Peverel" after the palace in Narnia. The temporary first-floor flat was called "Das Eyrie" because I liked it and it was the first time I'd had to live in a flat.

I don't want to be premature in naming this house, we've promised not to be attached to it if things can still fall, but it's a useful symbol of an emotional attachment which I'd like to form (soon) but often doesn't happen unless I consciously think about it.

For this house, I'd like a name that reflects its general niceness, and also that it's hopefully a true home for Liv and I together. We tossed around several names, but none that we both really liked. Are there any suggestions?

We thought of drawing from fiction that suited both of us, but couldn't think of anything very appropriate. We thought of Sandman, but most of the places were scary and sad. Fiddler's Green is beautiful, but it would be strange to live inside Gilbert. Destruction and Barnabas' house is a lovely refuge, but isn't named.

We thought of the Vorkosigan series, but nothing seemed house-like, or happy. Most of the planets are famous for wars and disasters and mind-police. Escobar seems modern and the last invasion was quite a time ago, but doesn't seem house-like. Vorkosigan House would be too ostentatious and too non-home-like. Vorkosigan Surleau is the most home-like, but doesn't work as a name. We thought of Dendarrii house, but that seems too militaristic. One of the space stations would be reasonably positive, but a bit too clinical.

Rachel suggested Convergence as continuing the "abstract noun" theme, which I like as a name, but I don't like an abstract noun name, because I think people would get it muddled up with other abstract noun names.

We don't object to Tolkien, but feel most of the obvious names have already been taken. We called the first house I went to view last year "the first homely house".

Are there any suggestions for names we might like?

Comments

[liv]

You know how we saw a house called Maison d'Être? Can we still have that house name?

[ceb]

:-)

[hatam_soferet]

I was going to suggest Pumbedita, but I like this better.

[liv]

Pumbedita would be an awesome name! It may be too much of an obscure rabbinic reference a) for being really associated with Jack and b) for other people to spell and pronounce, though. Thank you for suggesting!

[hatam_soferet]

Well, the Jack connection is kind of because Pumbedita was a place where Jews hung out with non-Jews and flourished.

[jack]

I completely forgot, where did we see it? But I do really like it. Somehow it feels like a nice pun, although I know many friends would disagree :) My biggest worry is that it must be commonly used already, are we risking too much duplication?

[jack]

I'm not sure about the name, but I like the mixing and flourishing reference. I think it's ok to have names which are more appropriate for one of us if they just happen to click with the other.

Maybe another Jewish/other mixing reference?

Or given the amount of thinking we're likely to do, a seminary reference would be appropriate. Beth [jack reference]? Beth Jack? Beth Maths?

[liv]

I think if we choose a Jewy name, Pumbedita is much more appealing than anything with Beth in it. Because it's a place where migrants and people in LDRs met, not just Jews and non-Jews. And it's definitely homey, and it connects to Boyarin whom we're both fans of. My only problem with it is that it's too obscure.

[liv]

I can't remember where we saw the house name but I'm fairly sure it was outside Cambridge. It's the cutest name, but I'm not sure it's specifically us or specifically Atkins Close.

[jack]

I liked "Pumbedita House", I'm not sure, but I think that's the front-runner :)

[ewx]

Did you come up with a name yet?

[jack]

Thank you! We're currently going with "Pumbedita" or some variant, altough we're not making it official until we've actually exchanged.