Picking Doll Names & Creating Characters

Guest column by Janis (Sarah’s Mom)

This special entry is dedicated to all doll owners who are searching for a new creative outlet, girl and woman alike.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. Since the Girls became adults, not one of our 49 named dolls has any resemblance to what AG meant them to be. We don’t read the books. With one big exception (and you all know who that is), we don’t keep the names. We rarely keep them in their original hair, and they often get an eye-swap for a different color. We prefer not to use AG clothing pieces together as they came in a set and love to mix-n-match them with off-brand clothes. Having been raised to “be your own person” certainly has colored the way the Girls name and characterize their dolls. And their plush. And their Playmobil figures. Even Elizabeth fell prey to the bug. When she was about five years old, she decided that she wanted to be called “Amy”. It lasted for a year or so, and we occasionally humored her. Then we learned from her that it wasn’t “fair” that she had to learn to sign all her papers with a name that had nine characters, while her sister Sarah only had to sign five. Once she had a strong hold on her signature, Amy just disappeared.

(Nanea would like you to know that it’s not her fault that she’s got an AG name. She wanted to be called Minnie. And, yes, she loves Disney’s Minnie Mouse. But the girl she’s always wanted to be named for was born on December 17, 1825. Louisa was a real live girl who we “met” while researching a family in England (not ours). We don’t know why Louisa’s family called her Minnie, but she holds a special place in our hearts, girl and woman. We’ve tried several times to call Nanea “Minnie”, but it doesn’t work. And you’d have to live with Nanea for a while to understand why nothing about her can ever change. Our Nanea is one of the “Immovable 5” on Islandshire, and you just don’t fool around with perfection.)

Most of our dolls are based on real people, some we’ve known, some we’ve just known of. A few are fictional characters we’ve run into across the years, one even coming from a computer-game character. Nearly all of our dolls (and all 49 have names and characters) are modern girls or boys who have a long pedigree of ancestors and many old “family stories” that they like to talk about and remember. Like our own, their “houses” are filled with lovely “old things” that remind them of the people who came before. As a family of historical readers and researchers, we learned long ago that people have never really been different inside, no matter how many hundreds of years have passed. They just wore different clothes and hairstyles. Fundamentally, there is “nothing new under the sun” about people. They just lived in a different time. They had good times and bad times. Liked certain clothes better than others. Had favorite foods and secrets to keep. Loved or hated wearing hats. And had more time for things that mattered, because their lives weren’t overrun by all the timesavers we have now. So, just like our family that lives with the stories and belongings of previous generations, our dolls live in today’s time with a special fondness for those “gone but not forgotten”.

How do we match a name and character to a doll? Good question. After so many decades of “living in the past”, we have more people we like to remember than we could ever have dolls. Often, it’s because we were researching . . . let’s say, the history of glass-bead making in Africa. If that really catches your imagination, then you just have to have a doll that sells glass beads. But they live on Islandshire, where everyone is “color blind” (i.e., no one even notices skin tone). Our island residents are from anywhere and nowhere, really, so the names don’t necessarily match the looks. We just pick what makes us happy. Aside from real people we know (of), we’ve gleaned names from movie and TV credits, video games, newspapers, and children’s books. Names of characters that seem interesting to us. Usually nothing more than that. We don’t use name lists, because it’s usually the personality of the character (whether fictional or historical) that calls to us. It’s funny, but the name and character don’t always stay together, either. And we’re not afraid to try a name/character combo and then change the doll’s appearance, when it doesn’t quite work. But a change of name always gets a makeover. We never leave a doll as it is and just change the name. Elizabeth is more likely to be swapping her characters out, but she’s usually quick to change wigs and eyes to make a “different look”. (We learned early on that it beats having to buy another doll, trying to get one that you like for that name. Sarah does the wig changes, and Elizabeth does the eye swaps. Saves a lot of space and money.) Sarah’s dolls tend to be based on real people, and she tends to like them to have at least one of the characteristics of the original person (hair color/length, height, eye color, etc). That said, she has no qualms about changing the looks of her dolls in big ways. Same name and character, different looks. Naming and assigning characters to our dolls bring us a lot of “happiness points” and makes for a  close-to-everlasting interest in them. The dolls are interested in what interests us, so we get to indulge our imaginations in hobbies that we could never do ourselves.

We share the naming process. When the Girls were little, they had a rule for their plush: they couldn’t go to bed until the new ones had names. (And these identical twins NEVER NEVER NEVER wanted the same name.) Considering the fact that they had hundreds of “plushies”, it made for lots of giggles and eye rolling. But we’d been the public library’s best customers (140 books on cards at any given time, for many years), and the girls had plenty of names and characters to choose from. Even the many Beanie Babies had their names changed! Fast forward to American Girls. When the Girls were young, they had historical dolls and knew the stories. Those dolls kept their AG names, because they had characters built into their names, right? When the first 20 Girl of Today dolls came out, the two of them spent literally hours staring at the catalog and dreaming of owning #11. They were going to name it Lauren Elizabeth (for Lauren Bacall and Queen Elizabeth, two of their favorite people), and it was going to be “them” in modern clothes with a story they’d make up for her. Alas, the family budget did not allow for another doll at that time, and Lauren Elizabeth never came to live with us. Fast forward again to 2018, and the three of us rediscovered a love for AG dolls. One trip to the “new” (new to us) Columbus store, and we were hooked. By that time, however, the Girls wanted to name and characterize their own dolls. It was like the “plushie” days all over (smile)!

Our plan here is to highlight some of the dolls owned by all three of us to share the personalities (or not) which we’ve created for them. I’d like to encourage every reader to step beyond “the box” and make your dolls into characters that make you happy. Or help you live a dream. Or just bring “happiness points”. And don’t forget the many perks for making your own characters. Your dolls get to do things you might not be able to do. And they behave the way you want them to, anywhere from naughty to Elsie Dinsmore. And they never ever have to worry about money or getting sick. Remember, they’re your creations, and you aren’t bound by anyone else’s ideas! Please try just one time. You’ll be amazed at how much fun even planning it can be. And it’s like doing exercises. Each time you express your own creativity and make your doll personal to you, it gets easier. And you might even get to a point where you can’t stop . . . like us . . .

A FEW EXAMPLES FROM ISLANDSHIRE

BENNY looks, talks, moves and acts just like Benigno, a Cuban cousin of the Girls’ dad.

KELLY looks, talks and acts just like the Girls’ cousin, Kelly.

BETHANY and LIVIE are miniature versions of the Girls’ really good friends, Bethany and Olivia (Livie).

GEORGE looks like but doesn’t act like Prince George of England. Sarah’s invented his personality.

TRUDY has changed from a #58, a customized BeForever Addy, to a Maritza wearing Claudie’s wig. How’s that for a change in looks?! Sarah loves writing, so Trudy’s character of Editor of the Islandshire Gazette exists apart from the doll. The name is her grandmother’s middle name, Gertrudis (Gertrude in Spanish). Gramma hates that name, but Sarah thought it was just perfect for her Editor doll.

JILL & SILVER are Sarah and Elizabeth’s little mini-me dolls. They do, think, and say everything the Girls would do, think, or say. “Jill” was one of those Amy names for Elizabeth, and she’s tried it on many other dolls. It’s found a permanent home, now. Silver was named for a little girl born c. 1821 in London to a silversmith named Kensington Lewis. Sarah ran across her, while researching her father for someone, and said she’d name a doll for Silver one day. She must have been waiting for the perfect small version of herself to use it.

MARIAMNE is named for a Russian girl born in 1906 (another research find). We don’t care for the woman or her personality, but the spelling of the name captured my imagination from the get-go. We’re still working on her personality, but she’s a lovely TM26.

SUN-HO was named for a character in one of Elizabeth’s favorite picture books, “The Fruit and Vegetable Man”, a story about a Vietnamese family with a fruit stand. Our Sun-ho runs the fruit and smoothie stall on Islandshire, and his sister Masami works with him. MASAMI was named for the Japanese wife of a man we knew, and she was a delightful person. Like I said, no one cares about brother and sister being based on people from two different countries. They’re a really fun part of our island play.

ZALE was named by Elizabeth for a woman diver in the old Sea Hunt TV shows. Guess what? Our Zale runs the Islandshire Dive Shop. Imagine that!

EYDIE was named for one of the Girls’ favorite singers, Eydie Gorme. She bakes for the island’s shop called “Eydie’s Gourmets”. Get it?

ELOY runs the Cuban store on Islandshire, and was named (and looks like) another Cuban cousin of S&E’s dad.

HAROLD is a very special member of the “Immovable 5” club, and I’ll leave that for Elizabeth to tell you about in a later entry.

AMMY was named for Queen Victoria’s daughter, Alice Maud Mary. The Ammy just sort of happened. Her personality has not presented yet.

SONJA was named for the original owner that we bought our TM18 from, while on vacation in Florida. (Doesn’t everyone spend their time in Florida looking on Craigslist?) The lady was wonderful and interesting, all rolled into one German ball of fire.

HIBBY was named for a character in a Rosemary & Thyme episode, Hibiscus called Hibby. We were looking for someone to buy the Health Food Store from Amabel (who’s moved on now), and Hibiscus sounded like an old ’70s health-food name. We just got MARIGOLD to help her in the store. That name gave the same vibes (smile).

MABEL was named for my grandmother (1897-1982). The doll looks a bit and acts completely like her. It’s one of the easier characters I’ve ever had to make, and she loves all the things my grandmother loved. One of Gramma’s lifelong and best friends was MAZIE (1898-1992). We just acquired an adorable TM21 that we immediately knew had to be Mazie. Unfortunately, I never knew Mazie, I just knew of her. That means we’ll be working on a personality for her. She’ll probably end up a lot like Gramma and her generation of strong women.

MINA was named for a character from a video game that intrigues Elizabeth. The girl in the game, stranded on an island, has to live off the land and manufacture everything she needs from salvage. While our Mina is not “stranded” on Islandshire, she’s the local potter, blacksmith, and fix-it girl. And she eats like three boys put together. That’s not in the game, but Elizabeth’s dolls tend to eat a lot.

I’ll leave the rest (and details) for a later blog entry. I just wanted to give you an idea of places to start. I know this isn’t for every doll owner, but we want to encourage those of you who need to express your pent-up creativity to look no further than your doll cabinet.