HI Rod,we named ours Billie(as in Billie Holiday ) a/ because we like jazz,b/ because we take her on holiday !? After more than 50yrs on ships,the van had to be female & as Billie is one of our favorites,it was a no brainer.However,like you,most of the time we just use " the van" Dave

We named our van 'Gretal' because the car is called...........? In both cases, no idea why and can't decide now whose stupid idea it was in the first place.

Doo Dah was the nickname of our late English Bullterrier, his real name was Casper. The softest dog you could ever know but mad as a hatter. Casper was the first thing to make us all smile since the death of our son 6 months previous to him coming to live with us. Our Eriba also makes us smile and gives us lots of pleasure so in Caspers memory we called our familia Doo-Dah.

No name for us, we are the same as Randa, it's usually called the Eriba, we don't refer to it as a caravan....

Well it became Erica the Eriba long before we even bought her. I had a building society book which we were saving up for the van and didn't want to get it confused with the others and just scribbled Erica on it and it stuck..............think if we had bought another make of van, it would still have been Erica. The car has no name...........well none I could put in writing at times!!
Chris and Keith

funny thing, tried to name eriba, but nothing really stuck, now the 'project' has been named and the oldie sewing machines, but not the eriba, the car is named by the first and last 3 letters .
one car was nef 'never ever fast'

Strangely The vans never seemed to suggest names for themselves.....................

The bear is Gladly from a cartoon book I read in hospital as a child having my appendix removed

As a vague character in "the perishers" daily mirror cartoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Perishers

Zitat

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Baby Grumpling

A toddler, possibly named after the "Baby Dumpling" character in the US Blondie (comic strip). In the early days of the strip he did not speak, because he knew that once he started he would be expected to keep talking all the time. When he finally began to speak he did so in lower-case letters. In the early days of the strip he was not related to the other characters, but was later revealed to be Maisie's little brother (a retcon – in an earlier strip Maisie had referred to Baby Grumpling's parents as if they were not her own). He enjoys causing mischief by digging holes in the garden (which he always blames on worms, a significant part of his diet, or moles) and by putting insects into Maisie's underwear drawer. He used to think that school was a kind of prison from which the older Perishers were temporarily released each evening.

He often discusses philosophy with the new baby (an unseen character in a pram). He is also frequently seen questioning the plausibility of fairy tales or nursery rhymes read out by Maisie, while at the same time vandalising an alarm clock or other household item. His teddy bear Gladly (short for "Gladly, my cross-eyed bear") puts in occasional appearances.

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The pepper bought from my local co-op was bought with the idea that he would become Sgt Pepper (I grew up with the Beatles and the stones as a child of the 60's and pirate radio)

Maybe I lack imagination but they always suggest a female origin as sleeping with another male would be improper

When we got together in 2003, Sue already owned Eric, a Familia. We used him together for a couple of years, then sold him and bought a white box, thinking we needed more space.
In 2011 we bought a Triton 420, which I was allowed to name Erica. The original Erica in my life was the German landlady of my local in the 70's, who terrorised her customers by pouring fresh drinks for them if she thought they were drinking too slowly. We had some lovely times in Erica before passing her on this summer to a couple from near Ipswich.
In April of 2014 we bought our Troll 540, named Audrey after Sue's favourite Auntie, who passed away in 2012. We used a legacy from Auntie to fund the purchase. We are up to almost 100 days in her, and love her dearly already. She has been on trips to France and Belgium this summer, something we know auntie Audrey would have loved.

Keith

Ok ours is Marmite coz you either love Eribas or you hate them. I love Marmite (the van and the spread ) and our girls have bought us lots of Marmite themed goodies to go in her. Trips away are called caravamping named by a nutty mate who claimed that as part of the van is canvas and part solid it's neither caravanning nor camping

Ours is called Lulu, I have not got a clue, ask the missus.............

We ourselves are not used to give names to our cars and in this case the caravan.
Referring to our cars we usually shorten the brand name, like Chevy (for our Chevrolet) and Caddy (Cadillac).
Until now when we talk about the caravan we call it “the Troll” or “the hut”.
The last one is short for “sleurhut”, a name a lot of people in the Netherlands use when referring to a caravan in a bit of a disrespectful way . Translated it would be “dragcabin” but I’m sure that’s not a existing word in English .

I’m curious to know why people name their cars or caravans. Is it country related? Because I don’t think it’s a customary thing in the Netherlands.

So for now ours is called the Troll. We will see if it stays like that or maybe someday another name will pop up.

Would like to read more of your name giving stories.

Corine