What qualifies as "nicely named"?

[soullessheartofsteel]

Sometimes people in the trading hub will ask that the parents of any dragon being offered be "nicely named", but is there any general consensus on DC for what makes a dragon nicely named? I tend to give my dragons humorous names, and I worry that I might be irritating people by offering them dragons whose parents are named things like "shredded chungus" or "dan the panini man".

[Tini]

Generally they mean without tags like CB 2G etc. Roman Numerals are generally accepted. Some people name them like Snow-3g-aether-code which isn't what they're lookin for.

 

Humor names your mileage will vary I think. Some people will love them others will decline.

[Ruby Eyes]

Some may also insist on proper capitalization.

However, you can often use the forum to PM the trader and ask. To search for a trader on the forum, look in the top right corner of any forum page, click the magnifying glass, select Member Search, and put the trader's scroll name into the Dragon Cave Username field to find their forum account.

 

But yeah, it is always a matter of taste. When I saw someone express unhappiness about humourous or non-dragon/non-serious names and posted as an example "Kawaii Spaghetti Monster", of course I had to go and name a dragon exactly that.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Ruby Eyes

[soullessheartofsteel]

12 minutes ago, Tinibree said:

Generally they mean without tags like CB 2G etc. Roman Numerals are generally accepted. Some people name them like Snow-3g-aether-code which isn't what they're lookin for.

 

Humor names your mileage will vary I think. Some people will love them others will decline.

 

Good to know that it's less to do with the seriousness of the name and more about what it's being used for by the owner. I feel a little less trepidation about offering up the offspring of some of my weirder dragons.

 

2 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Some may also insist on proper capitalization.

However, you can often use the forum to PM the trader and ask. To search for a trader on the forum, look in the top right corner of any forum page, click the magnifying glass, select Member Search, and put the trader's scroll name into the Dragon Cave Username field to find their forum account.

 

I didn't know you could find people that way, I'd actually be wondering about it for a while.

 

Thank you to you both!

[LadyLoki]

What Tinibree and Ruby Eyes said, basically. They also probably don't want names that are long and strung together, like: LokiShouldn'tHaveGoogledCarmine

[soullessheartofsteel]

3 minutes ago, LadyLoki said:

What Tinibree and Ruby Eyes said, basically. They also probably don't want names that are long and strung together, like: LokiShouldn'tHaveGoogledCarmine

 

Lol! Honestly the 32 character limit is the only thing keeping me from going entirely crazy with the names. A dragon named "icyhot pain relieving gel" is probably going to have niche appeal.

[Chaosdawn]

33 minutes ago, Ruby Eyes said:

Some may also insist on proper capitalization.

 

I am one of those. I don't mind funny/witty/weird names but all lowercase letters seem wrong to me and I typically won't take them for projects just based on that. At least the first letter has to be capitalized.

[Aqub]

Personally, I would be thrilled to end up with a dragon whose parents are named things like "shredded chungus" and "dan the panini man" 

[Tiira]

This is very useful and interesting because I've often wondered the same thing myself. "Nicely named" seems such a subjective definition to me. Perhaps some would also prefer shorter names that fit on a single line (especially for checkers)? Sometimes people ask for short names but not as often as nice names, maybe. I just did a search on the hub and got a few trades with nice ("nicely named" etc. so not just "nice offers") but nothing with short.

[purplehaze]

1 hour ago, Varislapsi said:

"Nicely named" seems such a subjective definition to me.

It is. It means different things to different people. But at least you know if your dragon is unnamed it is not going to be accepted.

[Tiira]

1 hour ago, purplehaze said:

It is. It means different things to different people. But at least you know if your dragon is unnamed it is not going to be accepted.

 

Yep! I name all my dragons but mostly their names are Finnish words so it would really be hit and miss to offer their offspring on a "nicely named" trade.

[dragonpuck]

other things like" CB" or generation indicators  can be turned down as "not nicely named"

personally I dislike ALL CAPS and random odd comments

i put "x" when I've bred for lineages, but try to remove them when breeding for others

[Aie]

Yeah, what is considered 'nicely-named' is very subjective, but unfortunately, the trade hub character limit makes it difficult to be more specific. Some qualities that a person looking for 'nicely-named dragons' might find off-putting include:

• tags like CB or numbers in the name, e.g. "CB Black Dragoness", "Black Dragoness 2G", "Black Dragon CB-f-ACCzU"
• so-called dog breeder names with a suffix, e.g. "Aie's Black Dragoness"
• very long names that take up more than one or two lines on the lineage view page
• lack of proper capitalisation or extra spaces, e.g. "blackdragoness", "BLACK DRAGONESS", "D r a g o n e s s"
• unnamed dragons, e.g. "(ACCzU)", "(2cAtS)"

There are other things that some might find undesirable, of course, such as humorous names, which I personally don't mind, and there are exceptions as well. A lot of people accept name codes (like Abysa) that are properly capitalised, myself included. Personally, I don't mind extra spaces either, unless they mess up the linebreaks. Some people also prefer lineages and pairs where the dragons' names are of similar length; I do too.

 

I think it's safe to say that usually, it's less about the meaning of the name and more about the visual appearance of a lineage. At least I haven't had any problems trying to trade offspring from my dragons with names in Finnish, Hungarian or pure gibberish.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Aie

[UnicornMaiden]

The big thing that I avoid when looking for "nicely named" dragons is the tags that indicate generation and scroll page number and things like that. I know some people name their dragons that way to maker them easier to organize and/or find on the scroll. Names like  "3g black pink checker male pg 24". Also, I personally tend to avoid names that are all caps, especially if I'm looking for things to work into a larger lineage project because it can throw off the visual balance of the lineage.

 

Names that are silly, comedic, or in other languages are fine as far as I'm concerned. They can even be nicer than some more standard-sounding names. It's all a matter of personal preference though.

[Shadowdrake]

Wow, honestly I just assumed most people who say this tend to want 1-3 part namelike names. It's super subjective and is basically a gamble, I suppose.

[Moriaty]

what about names used for song lineage projects? For example, say I have a dragon named "The wind is howling like", or "It's time to see what I can do To", are those considered nicely named?

 

I've also seen people thrown off by a pair where one dragon has 2 line name and the other a relatively shorter one...it's really super subjective as far as I can tell ": /

 

Another thing I'm curious about - what do people think of renaming my dragon just for trade purpose? I typically name my dragons with tags (not only G1, G2, etc, I even have a M/F tag for them) but I would rename things if people I'm gifting to nor trading with specifically ask for no tags. 

[soullessheartofsteel]

1 minute ago, Shadowdrake said:

Wow, honestly I just assumed most people who say this tend to want 1-3 part namelike names. It's super subjective and is basically a gamble, I suppose.

 

Same here. Like, I guess the worst that can happen is that they decline the offer, but even still, I just wanna be really sure so I don't seem rude and overly forward. Trading on the forums is a bit easier since the character limit is much higher, but most users don't have an account here and aren't interested in making one. I'd love if the trading hub had more room to be specific, because there currently it's too cramped to specify what type of parent name you want if you care about that, but that's something to talk about in the suggestion thread.

 

11 minutes ago, Moriaty said:

what about names used for song lineage projects? For example, say I have a dragon named "The wind is howling like", or "It's time to see what I can do To", are those considered nicely named?

 

I've also seen people thrown off by a pair where one dragon has 2 line name and the other a relatively shorter one...it's really super subjective as far as I can tell ": /

 

Another thing I'm curious about - what do people think of renaming my dragon just for trade purpose? I typically name my dragons with tags (not only G1, G2, etc, I even have a M/F tag for them) but I would rename things if people I'm gifting to nor trading with specifically ask for no tags. 

 

*I* personally wouldn't be bothered by that, since I'd get to look at my dragon's lineage and enjoy the lyric lineage as well, but like humorous names, YYMV.

 

Most people are fine with that, because doing that is easier than finding another trade partner who has exactly what they want. And they know you're doing a little extra to help them reach their scroll goals and complete the trade so most find it a really nice thing to do.

[Paintra]

To be honest, the only assumption I really make if I ask for something from "nicely named parents" is no CB, generation, or breed name tag. I don't mind Surnames, or anything like that. Like everyone said here, it's quite subjective

[sorenna]

On 1/8/2021 at 1:19 PM, Aie said:

Yeah, what is considered 'nicely-named' is very subjective, but unfortunately, the trade hub character limit makes it difficult to be more specific. Some qualities that a person looking for 'nicely-named dragons' might find off-putting include:

• tags like CB or numbers in the name, e.g. "CB Black Dragoness", "Black Dragoness 2G", "Black Dragon CB-f-ACCzU"
• so-called dog breeder names with a suffix, e.g. "Aie's Black Dragoness"
• very long names that take up more than one or two lines on the lineage view page
• lack of proper capitalisation or extra spaces, e.g. "blackdragoness", "BLACK DRAGONESS", "D r a g o n e s s"
• unnamed dragons, e.g. "(ACCzU)", "(2cAtS)"

There are other things that some might find undesirable, of course, such as humorous names, which I personally don't mind, and there are exceptions as well. A lot of people accept name codes (like Abysa) that are properly capitalised, myself included. Personally, I don't mind extra spaces either, unless they mess up the linebreaks. Some people also prefer lineages and pairs where the dragons' names are of similar length; I do too.

 

I think it's safe to say that usually, it's less about the meaning of the name and more about the visual appearance of a lineage. At least I haven't had any problems trying to trade offspring from my dragons with names in Finnish, Hungarian or pure gibberish.

 

Aie did a good job here of summing up the common qualifiers!  The only thing I can think to add is possibly dragons with symbols/formatting around the name, e.g. " x-- Black Dragoness --x" or "oOo Black Dragoness oOo" ?

 

The trickiest bit is that any given trader might only care about 2/5 of them, so if you have, say, an egg from "Sorenna's Magical Goddess" and "This Is A Rly Long Long Name" it might be fine!  Or it might not be.  (I really wish people would be more specific, 😕 but with the character limits it's easy to see why they aren't.)

 

I'd venture a guess that the biggest two things they're looking to avoid are generation markers ("CB"/"2G"/"iii" etc.) and what I think of as "Job Lot Names" (where it looks like you just machine-generated a huge lot of names for similar dragons, e.g. "GaiaXeno M Jungle 46" or "2020-XcBrF-Diamondwing-B.")   Avoid those and I think it's at least fair to offer and feel you've made a good-faith attempt to meet their requirements.  They can always turn it down - and that's true even if it meets every criteria, after all!    You could parent names that meet every single 'nice' point, and still be declined because someone else offered a 'perfect' egg with less time than yours.

Edited January 15, 2021 by sorenna

[ValidEmotions]

See, this is just so treacherous to me :v "Nicely named" looks like, to me, a dragon named "Lawrence Bigglebottom G3". I'd even count "Bonzu Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the Third" as "nicely named". 

I quantify "nice" as lacking insults and swears while including slang, humor, lineage tags, etc. "Nice", to me, includes traditional names from non-Eurocentric cultures (names which I've seen and heard many claim aren't "normal sounding".) "Nice" includes spelling derivatives like Crystal versus Kristal or Abcde vs Absedy vs Absidy vs Absidee, etc. 

 

Point is: the dragon is yours to do with as you see fit. Name it however you want to name it, especially with how subjective "nicely named" is. So long as you're following site rules, the name is "nice" enough.

Edited January 17, 2021 by ValidEmotions

[Fuzzbucket]

Yes absolutely - but the issue is with trading. People ask for nicely named dragons, and - how do you know if yours qualifies ?

 

There's only one answer to that - offer yours and see if it's accepted. Because some people like some names and some don't. (I was gifted an egg the other day; it came with the offer "would you like me to rename the father ?"

 

And I usually find people who take naming seriously decline my weird Mervyn Peake line

 

https://dragcave.net/lineage/nBxMR

 

Because - as they say - "how could I name something to fit that."

 

Where I will usually take any names, but given the choice avoid superheroes !

[Long_Before_Sunrise]

I've picked up abandoned eggs only to find they have a messy lineage of dragons having an insulting argument with each other.

[DragonLady86]

1 hour ago, Long_Before_Sunrise said:

I've picked up abandoned eggs only to find they have a messy lineage of dragons having an insulting argument with each other.

I would keep something like that. Lol

[Sketch]

I do agree in that "nicely named" is rather subjective and it is up to the trader as to what they deem "nice".

I often specify that I'd like dragon parents to be nicely named because I feel like they make the lineage look neater and I have a much stronger preference towards offspring whose parents' names are well thought out, or it's obvious that an attempt was made to care about the dragon.

   When I ask for a dragon with nicely named parents for a checker project, I typically am against dragons with 'CB' or 'number (0-9)' tags, as well as dragons with S p a c e d out names or ones that are not capitalized. Too many caps also tends to throw me off. I am however happy with roman numerals as I read it as "the first" or "the second", rather than "one" or "two", but everyone is different.

[ValidEmotions]

1 minute ago, GalacticSketch said:

I have a much stronger preference towards offspring whose parents' names are well thought out, or it's obvious that an attempt was made to care about the dragon.

How do you gauge this though? If a name doesn't fall under someone else's idea of "nicely named", it doesn't mean the owner hasn't put any care into the dragon or fully thought out what to name it. Using the ATLA reference, it's a very funny name and often used for gags but it can also be perfect for a fan-dragon. I think it's a bit of a sticky thing to judge/assume who you 'feel' is putting care into their dragon(s) going beyond just subjectivity and enters into bias. I'm sure there are plenty who use naming schemes that follow non-English languages that would look like 'button smash' to many not in the know. The point is: you don't know who is or isn't putting care into their dragons and no one has the means of determining that.