Monday, September 10, 2012

The Name Game

I've always been excited to name our farm. Even if we ended up in a house on 0.25 acres, I probably would have named it. I think it comes from growing up in California, in Pebble Beach and Monterey, where so many of the houses had names; some funny, some mysterious and some romantic. My favorite was always "Three Gables" because it reminded me of my favorite book series as a child, Anne of Green Gables.

Naming our farm has turned out to be a bigger challenge than I expected. The first challenge is that I have another person to consider, Brian, and he really isn't a fan of the cutesy names I come up with (like "Pitter Patter Farm" after the animals we will have, and the fact that the farm used to be owned by the Patterson Dairy). The other factor we have to consider, the WORST factor, is that just about every farm name under the sun has been taken by another farm. The reason that matters is because I plan to have sheep that I use for my business, and I can definitely see us producing to much produce, eggs, and honey and needing an outlet to sell it, like at the farmers market.

I have a list of over 20 names, almost all crossed out because the names exist already. I've tried to use all sorts of descriptive words that describe us, the farm, what we want, where we live, etc but we haven't come up with the winner yet.

I started by thinking about what we are and what we want to be. Dictionary.com helped us here. Are we a Ranch, "an establishment maintained for raising livestock under range conditions."? I don't think so. Are we a Farm, "a tract of land, usually with a house, barn, silo, etc., on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood."? Quite possibly. How about a Farmstead, "a farm together with its buildings."? Yes. I think that works. Or would Homestead fit better, "any dwelling with its land and buildings where a family makes its home."? I think that fits too. From there there are other descriptions such as plantation, estate, hobby farm, acres, etc. I think for us Farm or Farmstead would work best.

From there, there are descriptive words about the area we live in; Mission Mountains, Flathead Valley, and Big Sky. There are words to describe our land and what we have here; 2 canals (or creeks), Willow, Cottonwood, and Maple trees, owls and feathers, menagerie, meadow, windy, sunny. We could describe us; we're both B Wilson.

From there I have come up with (names that have all been taken by another farm) Twin Brooks Farm, Big Sky Meadows, Hidden Acres, Flathead Acres, Eli Acres, Featherwood Farm, Willowbrook farm, Super B Farm, BnB Farm, Peace B Farm, Breezy B Farm, Featherwind Farm, Feather Brook Farm, and a host of others. The one's that aren't taken but we aren't super excited about are Peaking Mountain Farm, Sloping Meadow Farm, Pitter Patter Farm, Feather Meadow Farm, and Feather Run Farm.

I know there's the perfect name out there. I just need to learn to be patient. Any ideas?

10 comments:

girlwithahook said...

there's a school called willowbrook, so i say no to that one. not fond of bnb farm...makes you sound like a bed and breakfast. Feather run farm sounds like you're a chicken farm. I like incorporating Big Sky into the name :) naming is hard!!

pumpkinhaus said...

Right off the bat I like:

Big Sky Meadows
Willowbrook Farm
Featherwind Farm

I can see where it would be so hard to come up with something so all-encompassing and still be unique to your farm! Is there any quirky history or funny stories you have about moving in or some of the work to be done?

storiedyarns said...

This IS really hard! I think it would be cool if you came up with a farm name that has the initials BW so your logo/brand/whatever can have your actual initials and your farm initials as a double meaning. Something like Breezy Willows Farm or Breezy Wind Farmstead, Blowing Winds Farmstead, Bright Wishes, Breezy Wishes, something like that? The actual name eludes me but I just thought BW would be cool.

Jess :)

Sara said...

I love Jess' idea of BW names. Blissful Willow Farm, Bustling Woods (the owls!), Bri Woods (since both of your names start with Bri), Boho Willows. Or, on another track, Yarn It Anyway Acres (when can you use Acres?), "Over Hill, Cloverdale Farms" (do you know that song? Over hill, over dale). Ok, my creativity for naming things is limited. But, it is fun to do! :)

Bohoknitterchic said...

I was trying to think of special things about our move in/experience and that's how feathers keep popping into my head. Since we've moved in I have found a huge amount of owl feathers, I go out looking for them every day. I really want to spin some into my yarns :-)

Bohoknitterchic said...

I love the BW idea! Brian would really love that too. He wants to make us a brand (not that we're going to be branding anything), but BW would be perfect!

Bohoknitterchic said...

You're very creative Sara! I love Bustling Woods and Blissful Willow. Great ideas!

craftypuppylover said...

The BW idea is great! Big Willow Homestead? LOL. Brian could giggle about that one.

But...weren't you tossing around Super B for a while?

Unknown said...

The W could stand for wing(s), to tie in the feather thing. Check a thesaurus for a fitting B word.

FairyintheCastle said...

How about whispering owl willows? ..or, Boho cottage farms? :)