Your home, your castle, your sanctuary - does it have a name?

[rosarugosa]

I was crazy about houses since I was a kid, and I knew some by name, Castle in the Clouds, Carcassone, and as I got older Naumkeag, Chesterwood, The Mount and Santarella. I was always sure I would have a magnificent estate one day, and it would have a grand name of its own.
Step forward into reality, circa 26 years ago, as we bought this weird little cottagey-type place. We were told that the elderly blind woman who had lived here was "older than Jesus' mother" and had buried 3 husbands, one of whom had apparently built our house out of the odd scraps and bits. Hmmm. We fell in love, fast and furious, but she remained nameless. Actually, a name seemed a bit pretentious for a place such as this. (One friend suggested that this was the house that The Crooked Man had built, and had historical value.) Although I would venture to guess that we loved her more than most residents of Buckingham Palace loved their home, and we were easily twice as happy. But her name was just "Home."
In 2007, we had a wonderful week at The Inn By The Sea on Cape Elizabeth in southern coastal Maine. Almost the best place ever! DH located it on Google Maps, and as a reference, located where we lived. And he said "I love the Inn by the Sea, but I love The Cottage by the River best of all." And there you go, question answered, because Cottage by the River is her name, and will always be as long as we live here. After we're gone, who knows? Buckingham Palace? Probably not. ;)

[HappyHiker]

Our home does not have name, though sometimes it reminds me a Monopoly toy house from its shape. If I were to name it right now, still doing more post-Irene yard work, which is beginning to feel endless, I would call it Pine Tree Purgatory or Pine Cone Palace. Pines, the kind we have around the house, are messy--one big one fell, many limbs came down and huge drifts of pine needles are everywhere--or pine straw as they call it hereabouts. And pine cones? They must number in the thousands and we've not gotten to them yet...

[JaneV2.0]

The Albatross? Chez Decay? ;)

When I'm feeling more charitable, I like to think of my little knob of land as Crow Hill.

[Wildflower]

Yep, home sweet home. :)

Love my home! It is small and cozy, and I often feel it wrapping its arms around us to keep us safe and warm on a cold or stormy night....

[Float On]

I've never called it anything that stuck but always thought it would be nice to have a home with a name. I remember having a penpal from Scotland when I was in Jr High and her home was called "Old Smitty Cottage". There was no street number or anything. Apparently their cottage property was once the blacksmith shop 150 years ago or so.

I've tried 'cliff house', 'between the lakes', 'lizard glade','cedar glade'....but nothing sticks other than 'home'.

[Marianne]

The neighbors call our place 'Meyer's Mansion'. It's a big house.

I call it 'the house of halls'. We have 4' and 5' wide halls. We aren't getting any skinnier or any younger. This way we can have wheelchair races.

[Stella]

Bryn Dail The girls and I got it from this BBC Wales House Naming application.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwales/nameyourhouse/

We were learning about their various ancestors and their Dad's side of the family is Welsh. We stumbled on this and decided we had to name our house. It means "Hill of the Leaves" which is very appropriate as we live on a house on (and partially in) a hill with lots of trees around. We even got a hand-carved stamp with little owls sitting on a branch with leaves and the words Bryn Dail underneath to stamp in our books and use when we go letterboxing. We're nerdy like that.

[CathyA]

Haven't really named our property yet, although I've been thinking about it for over 30 years! We have TONS of invasive stuff.....japanese bush honeysuckle, poison ivy, bramble bushes, hops vines, other vines of all sorts, and on and on and on. So I was thinking of naming it "invasive acres".
We love our property like crazy, but man, the invasive stuff! About 28 years ago, we had some friends for dinner one night and they had a young son. They asked if we had named this place, and he yelled out "FARMHEAD!" So sometimes we call it that just to be funny. And sometimes we refer to it the same way the previous owner referred to it when trying to sell the place......."A Little Bit of Heaven"......which it definitely is!

[Madsen]

I'm in a neighborhood and so the other houses are too close by for a proper "house name". If I was a little more isolated I think it would be cool to have a name ... "Madsen Estates" lol

[Mrs-M]

I have always loved estate/castle/mansion names. Re: our home, we don't.

[jania]

I've always liked the idea of naming property but as my little house is in the middle of a big city it just doesn't seem to feel right. Whenever I give a gift from something that I've made or harvested I like to attach a little tag and usually call the place "Three Tree Farm" because of the three fruit bearing trees I had. One tree died though so I have plans to try another in the fall. "Two Tree Farm" sounds kind of lonely. However, I don't talk about my place by any name on any other occasion.

[jp1]

I've never had a name for any place I've lived, but I used to have friends who lived in a rundown farmhouse in upstate NY. Among their many ways of earning a living was selling eggs so they had a sign out front "Fresh Eggs". They thought it was hilarious that I said they lived at Fresh Eggs Estate.

[Sissy]

We call our place "3 Oaks" because there are three large oaks across the front of our property. The first one that is pretty much centered is a triple oak tree, the next one is a double and the third is a double. "Three Oaks" seemed a bit pretentious since our house is definately nothing special (except to us) and even crooked and quirky, but not in a cool way. I always like to see those trees as I come home from work.

Miraculously, those trees survived with little damage during the bad ice storm of 2009? Most of the rest of the trees were pretty well broken and ugly still.

[Mrs-M]

Wow you guys, so many great names!

[iris lily]

I"ve lived in this house longer than any place I've ever lived: 22 years. Same for DH. I love this house and the neighborhood. But no, it's not got a name.

[Polliwog]

I wish I had a name for my small abode. I will think about coming up with something. I used to live in a very small duplex at the beach and I referred to it as my little "mouse house."

[Spartana]

The Crappy Flop House! OK it's not THAT bad :-) but it's functional for my lifestyle. Inexpensive to buy and own and maintain, easy to lock up and go without too much worry, safe area for me and the pups, and close enough to the sis (only family) and friends, beach and mountains. Someday I hope to have a less-crappy flop house in the form of a tiny one bedroom condo or apt in a cool little city.

[janharker]

When you turn into our driveway you'll see a stone that has carved in it Heort Kiarr. It's Old English for "Where the Deer Nest." The DH's ancestors came from Scotland--thus the choice of language. There are many deer in our woods and we can often see them sleeping on the hillside.

[dado potato]

Mama Gnocchi and I recently purchased a house which I think I may name "Villa Mariposa". I intend to reduce the area of lawn and replace the bluegrass with butterfly gardens.

Mind you, the house is in Price County WI ... USDA Zone 3. So our garden will be for hardy butterflies!

[RosieTR]

When I'm feeling uncharitable about the house in Phoenix: "Millstone in the Desert" (for the especially hot days, "Millstone in Hell"). If I were to market it or something, perhaps "Hummingbird Haven" because there ARE a lot of hummingbirds year round, and DH keeps the feeders full. They fly around and fight over territory and stuff, and if you stand fairly still they will buzz right by your head or just hang out right in front of you, checking you out.

The Flophouse thing made me laugh, Spartana!

[Cypress]

Last winter, we had a tremendous amount of snow and ice that piled higher and higher on everything including my old roof. I found a strong young man to clear off the pile at the end of February. At this point, I was afraid and grateful to find help with the task. When I saw how much snow and ice was cleared off, I was shocked and named my house Little Atlas. It's actually a wee little place and old. However, I learned how sturdy the house was and praised it for holding up so well.

I have not ever sensed a presence to this house although many people have lived here. Little Atlas was built in 1890. Not that I want a surprise, but I don't sense the house the way I sense say the forest or yard. I don't get that.

I haven't quite named my backyard yet. I tinker with the name Tranquility Vale. I am waiting for the name to come to me rather than make a selection.

[Cypress]

Oh yes, I visited Naumkeag this year and found it quite the place.

[cdttmm]

We sometimes jokingly refer to it as E-Z Acres (the E and Z are a reference to our last initials), even though it is anything but easy! We have an apiary and apple orchard on our property, so our honey is branded as C & C Orchards (a reference to our first initials). I always wanted to come up with a cool Norwegian name for our property, but my partner doesn't understand my fascination with naming things so I just let it go.