I must have been a British artistocrat in a former life, because I can't help but be obsessed with all things gentry. As you know from this blog, I like the warmth and texture of gentlemanly patterns, such as herringbone and plaid, and materials, such as leather and wool, for the downstairs of my house and the femininity and romance of ladylike designs upstairs. What you may not know is that I'm also fascinated by the other trappings of British artistocracy, such as family crests and the tradition of naming their estates.
I know that it sounds exceedingly silly for me to want to name my little house in Rochester, NY - for sure a far cry from the manor houses of England's countryside - but I'm certainly not alone in this pretension. I did a little research on the history of naming houses and here is what I've found:
Naturally, everything traces back to ancient Rome. During the Roman Republic and Empire, an elite, wealthy Roman would live in a compound outside of the city center known as a villa urbana, very similar in nature to the country houses of England. They didn't have street numbers back then (first introduced in Paris in 1512) so these estates were identified by names, either descriptive (Villa Magna) or from the family name (Villa Adriana). Many of these villas were located in modern-day England and had a real impact on the Britons emerging from the Dark Ages, when the upper class began to form, distinct from the nobility. Medieval castles led to castellated manor houses, which were generally either named after the family or the location, and these manor houses, in turn, led to smaller estates with the rise of the middle class and the suburbanization of the landscape. These smaller estates were almost always named after the location, such as "Highlands," "Foxhill House" and "Greenacres." In the late-
19th century, even the regular, run-of-the-mill middle class got into the name-game by naming their houses after the grander properties in the area (e.g. "Ferndale" from "Fern Hill").
Today, it's pretty much just for fun. According to a survey done in 2003, the most popular house name in the UK is simply "The Cottage." Common themes in the top 50 house names include trees ("The Willows" #10), plants and flowers ("Primrose Cottage" #40), and a general yearning for the countryside ("The Old Vicarage" #16). Of course, knowing the British, puns factor into a lot of new house names too. Some commentary on the current economy:
"Dunbankin"
"Stoneybroke"
"Kantafordyt"
"Llamedos" (read backwards)
In the rest of the world, many rural areas still depend on house names rather than numbers to identify a residence. This is particularly true in the tropics (or so it seems from House Hunters International, where everything is "Casa This," "Casa That." But I don't give a lick about the tropics, so you can do your own research on that.
What should we name our new house? I've already lived in a couple of houses with informal names (in college, I lived in a house called "The Mansion" and my family always refered to my grandmother's house as "The Beach House"). My best friend's mother keeps a pied-a-terre in Paris that she calls "La Petite Genevieve," because it is located on the Rue de la Montagne Sainte Genevieve and Mr. Marshall has family in Alaska who live in "Blue Heron Haven," presumably because they have heron there or maybe just because they like them.
If we named our house after its size, it would be "The Cottage," but seeing as how that name is so popular, I'm going to avoid it. It could be "Brown Cottage" or "Maple Cottage," but neither of those names has enough oomph for me. If we named our house after its location, it would be "Highway House" - not so nice. Though, that highway used to be the Erie Canal, so we could call it "Canal House," but then people would be confused when they came to visit and there was no water nearby. If we named our house after local fauna, it would be "Squirrel's Run" and while there's nothing inherently wrong with this name, it seems a bit cutesy to me...OMG, the perfect name just came to me! I'm confident that none of you will understand this name, but here it is:
"Das Oachkatzlschwoaf Haus"
Literally, this means "The Squirrel's Tail House" in Bavarian German. Saying Oachkatzlschwoaf is the most common way to test whether you can correctly pronounce this regional dialect and it's just a totally awesome word. Why this has particular meaning to this house is that, when the inspectors were inspecting the house for structural defects and pests, they found evidence that squirrels had at some point jumped from the tall Silver Maple in the front yard to the roof of the house, chewed their way through the wood and set up home in the eaves (not to worry - this is not a major issue and is being remedied by the sellers). Why this name is even more relevant is because right after the inspector investigated the squirrel hole, he ran into a baby squirrel on the ground and snapped a photo of it for the report:
Apparently, baby squirrels don't have big, bushy tails like adult squirrels do. See? It's all about the squirrel's tail! Perfect name. And no, we won't make you address letters to The Marshalls at Das Oachkatzlschwoaf Haus in Rochester, NY, but I will make a little plaque to hang on the front door. Yes, I will.
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