I don't know why. I always called the place I lived "the house" or "the apartment". I never said I was going back to get my purse from Bertha or The Fortress.
Maybe it's because they move. Unlike a stix and brix, these homes go with us. They "see" what we do. They are part of the adventure. In that way they are much more like vehicles and boats, which people do tend to name.
We take it personally when our rig isn't working right. We talk to them, encourage them, curse them. We have a definite love-hate relationship with them!
Bill and I enjoy a lot of the same things. Two of those are music and critters. We are particularly fond of reptiles and amphibians - and rock-and-roll.
We started looking for a "toad" to take on our travels. Called it that before we bought it, as many do. So we started looking at toad "names".
When we made the decision to go with a motorhome, and told others our home would now be on wheels, we envisioned a turtle or tortoise whose home is on its back. So we started looking at turtle "names".
A natural resource for us is music - bands and songs provide a huge database of potential names.
Bill introduced me to a SoCal band with minimal popularity and one song that I had heard. They are included in one of the playlists we listen to on road trips. Not a lot of people will make the connection, and we kind of like that too. We tried other names but kept coming back to them.
My kids grew up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and until one of our last garage sales those gazillion action figures have made every move with us. We know all the words to the theme song. Bill has boys the same age and is very familiar with TMNT as well. Unlike the kids, we didn't have a favorite character, and we didn't really want a famous painter name anyway. So Bill came up with the song reference and it stuck.
As far as gender, we seldom make the reference, but it seems that our toad is male, and our turtle is a female. Why? Who knows. Some things just "are".
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| Half Shell, our turtle |
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Wet Sprocket, our toad (Toad the Wet Sprocket is the band)
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If you see us on the road (we are going to get there) give us a wave and a honk!
Boy, that was a lot of thought for a name but so clever!! Glad you have settled on a name for the vehicles. We are still calling ours the motorhome and the Jeep!! Extra clever:)
ReplyDeleteSometimes simple is the best way to go :-)
DeleteWow you did some thinking about it and they both even wear their names on their plates. Pretty fancy. I just waited until the name showed up. Took a while for Ruby but WiNNona is spelled that way because she was a WiNNebago. Her first name was Wanda-r but we quickly met a couple who had a Brave same year whose name was Wanda and we didn't want to copy so she became Winnona. Will you keep your registrations in California while you full time?
ReplyDeleteI thought we might get a feel for their names but nothing jumped out so we started the search. It ended up being a lot of fun :-) The plates were a whim, checking to see if anyone else had them and when they didn't we figured they were supposed to be ours! The extra fees go toward environmental programs so figured there was a little payback for our impact. I love WiNNona and Ruby - perfect.
DeleteCute names! Funny how our kids influence how we think. Once we opened an AOL account for our kids, and wanted the main account to be accessed only by us. At the time, the kids were watching two cartoon programs in particular, "Fairly Odd Parents" and "Butt Ugly Martians". Both of those names were already taken on AOL, so we ended up with Butt Ugly Parents. LOL! That was all fine until we had to call tech support for something. Then it was kind of awkward.
ReplyDeleteLMAO!!! Love that :-)
DeleteGrowing up just down the street from the headquarters of Ford Motor Company, i have always been fascinated with Henry Ford. We named our F-350 'Henry' and our fifth wheel 'Clara' (Henry's wife)...because we all know that behind every man is a good woman. :)
ReplyDeleteJim
Great names and smart man :-)
DeleteVery clever!
ReplyDeleteWe aren't vehicle namers, we just get a kick out of others names! ;-)
Thanks Lisa :-) My dad always named his vehicles but I didn't carry on the tradition with mine. I think it was the toad thing that got us started with these two. It's been fun :-)
DeleteVery unique and personal names! We call our new Arctic Fox "Foxy." Shows you how creative we are. :-)
ReplyDelete:-))))) I was thinking George for Patton, but then remembered he was the Desert Fox......so never mind. Foxy is much cuter.
DeleteThat was quite a trail you followed to come up with those clever names.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it was one of those things that took on a life of it's own and became a lot of fun. Most won't make the connection, but for those who do it's been fun. Had a woman driving behind Sprocket taking a photo of the plate last week :-)
DeleteWe don't really call our vehicles by names when referring to them between us. It's kind of like this. The motorhome is the RV, the Jeep is the Jeep and the truck is the truck. I'm not so sure that's original. Is it?
ReplyDeleteLOL. I might have heard those names somewhere else :-)
DeleteI named our Ford truck Dusty, you know being the one in front gets so dirty and it sounds like and ole cowboy name. Our Montana 5th wheel is C. W. (Covered Wagon). So I thought Dusty & C.W. sounds like an ole cowboy & his horse. I know kinda corny, but we are from Arizona, guess maybe too much sun exposure growing up. Becki
ReplyDeleteLove those names and their meaning! We grew up in the desert so know all about that sun exposure on the brain cells :-)))))
DeleteFunny! I love them. Our truck is Hoss, so naturally the rig is referred to as the Ponderosa.
ReplyDeleteOne of my very favorite shows growing up! I cried when Dan Blocker died. Great names :-)))))
DeleteSeems sort of like boats that rigs need names. My truck is Tanzi, short for tanzinite. I tend to go with rock names and the truck is blue. My 5er is my wheelestate with no particular name. You really did give this a lot of thought. I like it, and the fact that you got the personalized plates.
ReplyDeleteWe're rock people too, love Tanzi! How fun to own wheelestate :-))))
DeleteLOL! The Wet Sprocket. Clever, you. I didn't realize you had JUST launched! YAY!
ReplyDeleteAnd my rig is Spud, for no reason other than a friend suggested it, and it made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteYep, we are definitely newbies!! I love Spud, I don't know why it just seems to fit :-)))))
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