anagramofbrat | Naming of things is a difficult matter...

Do y'all name or otherwise anthropomorphize your cars? What about computers? And what gender do you tend to assign to them?

Obviously, I do, but that's because I name goddamn everything. I always have. Even occasionally household appliances if they are quirky/annoying/amusing enough to warrant a name and a personality. Of course when you start relating to inanimate objects as not-quite-people, it does make them harder to let go of sometimes - case in point the ancient computer tower I've still got in storage and refuse to get rid of, lol. Hey, my Master Freak was a good little computer! He got me through the hell that was college, okay?

Reason I ask -

cell23 and I were debating the gender of cars last night - he holds that cars, ships and other vessels are always female. Clearly, considering Hanzo-san, I disagree with that sentiment, and also know a few people with male vehicles (

captainlove and Mr. Sundance, for example.) Course, when you think about it, all my machines are kind of genderfucked - EPEEN's name is essentially "electronic penis" but I use feminine pronouns for her.

Anyway. ASSUAGE MY CURIOSITY INTERNET MONKEYS.

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My Camaro is female and named Samantha. My old Firenza was Lenore, but my Ford Taurus is the first "boy" car I've had and is named Kyle. It fit.

I name and genderize, though then I don't always refer to my car or computer by that name. My first car was William Thomas and he was a drag queen, and my second car was Betty but she was totally butch. Really, it tends to vary and I choose the names by feel, I suppose. My computers have been female--Shere Khan in college, and now Suzie Q my laptop--but the comp my family had in high school was Bill. My old iPod mini was Sam Carter, but my iPod touch is named Cromwell...it's all relative. I'm just weird.

Yup, we name all the computers around here. The ones Jeff & Kt brought with them all have "bug" names like Scarab and Firefly -- and another is called Kafka. :) I followed that convention when I named the Gnat. K didn't, when she named her netbook the Oracle. But that name's significant for her. The computers don't have a gender -- at least, I don't think they do. Maybe they're asexual.

K and I have named our cars sporadically over the years. Our old Jeep was Babe the Blue Ox, because it was blue. And my current car is WALL-E, because the first three letters on the license plate are EVE. But all cars are female, regardless of the name we assign them.

I don't remember what name I gave to my own PC, but my bf's PCs are always called Pretty Hate Machine[number] :)

it may be a Dutch language quirk, but appliances/ vehicles etc are usually called "he", though "it" would be correct Dutch. As in "he's broken" "he won't start" "have you rebooted him"

That's an interesting point - other languages have gender assigned to things already. English, pretty much everything inanimate is automatically neuter, so using a gendered pronoun is a slightly bigger deal.

I usually name my electronics, and my car has a name- though she is the first car I've had that got that treatment. My car is Anamaria, my iPod is Cyprus, my computer is Addison (though the external hard drive is Edgar), and my laptop is Alyth. So... three female and two male?

I never name my cars nor think of them genderified. I'll call them "baby" but in a non gendered way.

My computers have always had network names and usually been masculine just by naming convention patters. I used to use names from 5th century Athens for everything. When I rebuilt my PC last year so that the only thing leftover from the original was the hard drive, I renamed it "Cliff Steele and when Ali got a new machine after that we named it "Rita" and the printer is "Larry".

My cars have been female so far and have female names. I'm pretty sure Aerith's car is a boy (he tells me that Firebolt is a girl, so I guess I was wrong).

As for computers, my stationary computers had male names: Howard, Howard II. However my mobile electronics get female names: my iPod is Sharon, my iPhone is Izzy and my laptop is Elektra. OTOH, I think my work laptop is male (but it doesn't have a name) and my external drive has a male name (but i don't remember it right now).

Aerith's computers tend to be male, but once again, they're towers.

I only name things if the names come to me.
One of my swords has a name, the other does not. My car had no name until someone else named it.
My computer has a name, and I treat her like a pet...because I am notoriously destructive to computers, and she functions better for me this way.

My computers have had names- Like this one, Nyx, and my old tower, Fatty (Francis) who is still sitting in our closet because I can't bring myself to toss him. (So yeah, I understand!)

My Da's always named cars, and most of my friends name theirs. My Mp3 player has one and so do my gaming consoles.

I don't name anything... feel kind of dull now.

My ex fiancee' twice removed referred to her cars with a feminine pronoun when they ran well, and by a male pronoun when they were being difficult.

Her slogan, "If it has tires or testicles it is going to give you problems..."

She'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together.

My car is the Hellbox because the A/C doesn't work. Which is fine in January but not so fine in August. No gender, really.

My computer doesn't have a name other than piece of shit, because that's what it is. Once I get a new one, that one will most likely have a name.

ETA: OWAIT...my computer is TOBY. Dunno why. Probably male.

Edited 2010-01-30 16:46 (UTC)

I don't usually name cars, really. I'll call them by their model and usually "she" (leftover Navy-bratness), thus, most vehicles are "she".

I will randomly name things, though, like Chilly Willy the portable air conditioner and Vicky the steamer. All of my computers since my first Mac Plus have had the same name, except for an external hard drive named Hocus Pocus. (It was made by Focus.)

Also, I did name one of my husbands guitars, he built it himself of walnut from the tree in his parents back yard, and spent months working on it. I noticed there is a figure in the grain of a buxom female along the bridge and thus dubbed it his "Mistress".

While my car doesn't really have a proper name, I do often refer to it as The Slackmobile. As for gender, I usually address it in the feminine when it's acting up and in the masculine when it isn't. Doesn't help that in Russian, the word mashina is feminine and the word avtomobil' is masculine.

As for computers, I've been naming my desktops Zombie since the 486 days, increasing the version number each time I upgraded. I'm up to Zombie Mk.V.

the only plants ive ever named have died, so i stopped naming plants.

ive only owned two cars, one of which was mama cass. suffice to say, i don't name my cars anymore, either. ;) (altho that one came pre-christened.) cass was somewhat genderless, or maybe transgendered, since the name was feminine but the personality i considered masculine. i think of my current car as masculine, too.

my computer has been zakaree from the time i built it in 2001. ive replaced/upgraded several components since then, so i could wax philosophical about whether it's still zakaree at this point, but you get the idea.

Car, yes. Computer, no.

I've always thought of my cars as male. The idea that they have to be female is a decidedly (and ironically) patriarchal one.

Of course my cars get named! And they are usually a "she." The current model is named "Honeybun"-- not my choice, but it fits! My grandmother named her before giving her to my then 16-year-old brother-- she had a wicked sense of humor.

The computer is usually just "you bastard."

Naming of things is a difficult matter...

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