I always loved the British tradition of naming your house. The only examples I can think of in America would be Elvis’ house being named “Graceland” and I believe William Randolph Hearst had a name for his mansion as well.
If you could name your house, what would it be?
I don’t think there’s much point in naming my place since it’s just an apartment and well, I’m not that fond of it. But my parent jokingly refer to their house as La Casa Vega. It’s on Vega Street and I guess they just have a thing for Spanish. I suggested they’d name their new boat La Barca Vega, but as it turned out, it already had a kick-ass name. It’s a sailing boat and the type is called Birdie. The boat is called Nam-Nam. Birdie Nam-Nam. Heh.
I live in a dorm room provided (free of charge, so I can’t bitch too much!) by the university I teach at… in Korean, dormitory is “Kee-sook-sa”… thus leading to my pet name for it: “Kee-sucks-sa!”
The room is about 10 feet by 10 feet, with a window that only opens about 3 inches, a radiator for heat that I have absolutely NO control over, and power/water/LAN services that go out several times a month (why? Hell if I know… Korea is NOT a third-world country anymore… supposedly…)
On the plus side: it IS free, and there is an air-conditioner (a God-send during the summers!!)
“Shangri-La” ?
“Dew Drop Inn” ?
“Mister Blanding’s Dream House” ?
“Money Pit” ?
“The House of Pain” ?
I live on a brownstone block in Brooklyn (say THAT three times fast) built mostly in the 1880s-90s. But across the street is a nice old block of flats built in limestone and dull orange brick, circa 1900, with three entrances. Carved into the lintels are
“The Serine”
“The Lillian” and
“Ontrinue.”
Always kind of liked that.
Our house, needless to say, is Casa Flodnak. 
Fella bilong missus flodnak lived in a house called Solstad when he was a teenager. (“The Sunny Place” would be a fairly good translation.) It was by no means a mansion or estate; he just happened to live in a little country town where all the houses were identified by name rather than street and number. His parents still live in the house, but it has a normal address now.
Interesting question. I usually refer to it as 8544, however it becomes “that damn house” when I have to clean it. Perhaps, if I give it a more personal name, the hard task of cleaning won’t seem so onerous. “Chez Moi” sound a bit too l’etat, c’est moi arrogant, doesn’t it? Chez Kiffa? - nah, no good becoz only y’all know me as kiffa and would I tell you where I live? I guess I should forget about naming my house other than … my home.
[hijach]
Omigod! I always figured you were male, flodnak! Do I feel stupid now…
[/hijack]
As the oldest of 13 kids, my folks named our three-story fiel stone house “Casa Llena.”
In small towns it is still quite acceptable for houses to have names as opposed to numbers and the post people know them. Of course, all the post people in our small town have been here forever so…
Anyway, my wife’s name is Winnie and she teaches elementary school here. We live on a corner. A number of years ago the children of my wife’s class lovingly made up a sign that we hung up on the porch of our small wood Victorian house. It read, “House on Pooh Corner.”
Now virtually everyone in town knows the intersection next to our house as “Pooh Corner,” not Fifth and Sherman as maps might imply, and visitors or new people getting directions from (especially younger)locals can become very confused.
We have received mail (especially from ex-students of my wife) addressed to Mr. and Mrs. TV time, The House on Pooh Corner, City, State, zip code. And the delivery lady just smiles.
There are two drawbacks however: 1.) Some people want to have their pictures taken with the sign on our porch. 2.) The word “Pooh” can have some negative translations (especially among small town high school boys).
Still we like it.
Euty-Hearst’s castle was San Simion (actually I think there is another vowel or two in there some place). I guess he like St. Simon.
Oh I love this thread - I was thinking about starting it myself (Thanks Euty!).
I am buying a wooded acre in a small Alaskan town, and I will be putting up a couple of cabins, one for me, one for guests and another for a quilting workshop.
I already have the guest cabin name picked out - it is dedicated to the dearest woman I ever met - she was the kind of woman I want to be as I grow older. Her name is Florence, but I thought I’d name the cabin “Nightingale House”. It won’t mean a thing to anyone else, but it will remind me of dear Florence every day. I have a few small pieces from her estate and they’ll go in the guest cabin as well.
I just loved that “House on Pooh Corner” story!
When my house is eventually built (I’m currently shopping for a site), it will undoubtedly become “Bag End”.
What else would you call an underground home inhabited by a short, stout, hairy-footed Tolkien fan?
Don’t forget Biltmore, one of the cosy Vanderbilt homes built with a few stray millions.
I’ve never thought about naming my house before. Maybe Mortgage La Feh?
It’s a big old Victorian (1874); red brick, front-gable Italianate. The closest anybody ever came to naming it was one of the Ex’s brain damged “former” girl friends. He invited her to a party and her first words to me were, “Ooooh, this looks just like the Amityville Horror House!”
What a twit. In fact there isn’t the slightest resemblence. It’s more along Addams Family lines–right down to my treasured Edward Gorey litho and the 'Poon’s “Amputee Frog” print hanging in the library.
I think I’d rather just leave it ominously unnamed; you know, that house, where the recluse lives…
Veb
I’ve always wanted to name a house “Lake Disappointment.” There wouldn’t have to be a body of water involved with the place (one of my old geography professors had a creekless home called “Breakfast Creek”), but I’m totally in love with the concept. Maybe someday I’ll visit the real lake, if only to see what inspired such a wonderful name.
I sometimes jokingly refer to my parents’ house as “SETI” because my dad is a ham radio operator, and there are so many wires and masts on top of the house that I’m sure the neighbors think we’re trying to contact other worlds. The big C-band satellite dish in the back yard doesn’t help the image much either.
When I was about 9, my family moved from the city of Charlotte to a new house we built out in the country in the adjacent county. It was built on several acres of land that had formerly been farm land.
We fell in love with a wildflower weed that covered the lot — the maypop, or passion flower. Not only were the flowers beautiful, but the plant was covered with big green seed pods about the size and color of limes that mad a very satisfying noise when you stomped on them. (Hey, I was 9 at the time.)
Since we were a family of 7 moving from a 1400 square foot house in the city to a 5 bedroom house in the country, my Mom felt it deserved a title. She dubbed it Maypop Manor. (Nothing official — that was just our pet name.)
A neighbor a mile or so down the road did have an official name for their place. They had a sign by their mailbox that said “Poppy’s Sarm” to commemorate what the man’s grandson had called his grandfather’s farm when he was a baby.
Whenever I live with a certain friend of mine, we call our place “Spaceship No Future.” We’re not living together at the moment, so we make do with a web site of the same name.
-fh
wherever i live, its always ‘el rancho malario.’
I called our previous house “Dead End” after the sign in the front yard labelling the alley beside it.
I used to live in a house with several roomates that was called Dog Joys. Just by those that lived there.
When I buy my own home I want a name like Mandecrest on the Moors.
We live in a 100+ year old Victorian called the ‘Sherman House’ after the family that built it.
But we usually call it the ‘money pit’.
Well, this isn’t the name of my house, and it isn’t American, but is in Canada. A favorite sf author of mine, Spider Robinson,had a house called Tottering-On-the Brink.