Naming your cabin - your own "Shangri-la?
Naming your cabin is serious business but it can be a lot of fun! It's like welcoming a new addition to the family. The question on everyone's mind - what will we name it!
What did you name your place?
Tell us!
Read what some of our site visitors have named their places!
You may be comfortable with a simple name such as your last name and a descriptor of the property - "Thornton's Cabin" or Smith's Lodge". Certainly this approach will work well on signage and aid people in finding your place.
Or you can put on your creative thinking cap and find a unique solution to naming your cabin.
Here are some ideas to help get your creative juices flowing.
Your name can come from a theme related to you or your property. For example:
Unique landmarks or features
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The scenery
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The Wildlife
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The vegetation
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Alliteration
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Financial
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Retirees
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Just for fun
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A variation of your family name
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Readers' stories and comments
Our retreat house was named "Dunnington Cottage" by the original owners. I thought Dunnington was their name, but the realtor told us it was actually an old hotel in town (long since demolished). She sent a great old photo of the hotel, which I had framed. The photo hangs in the great room as a reminder of its namesake's hospitality.
After a weekend visit by three progressively larger bears, I got the idea to call our cabin "Bears Repeating" and got busy designing a sign. However, my more safety-minded spouse urged me to stop putting-out quite so much of the attractant; deer corn, in an effort to stop the bears from visiting so frequently and in such numbers. Conceding to her practical suggestion, I now enjoy the deer more and appreciate the occasional visit from the local black bear. Our cabin is called "Bear With Us". We have a custom sign with this name.
Mountain Therapy is what we named our cabin because it is total therapy when we are there!
"We named our cabin F.R.E.D. which stands for "freakin' ridiculous economic disaster". We purchased F.R.E.D. for only $19,000 6 years ago. He was built in 1912 and had no electricity or plumbing. We had to move him a few yards to put in our septic field (the only place we were allowed to put it was where F.R.E.D. stood). By the time all was said and done, F.R.E.D. cost us about $60,000. We now live in F.R.E.D. full time as we are semi-retired and haven't regretted one cent we put into him.
"Our friend named his shed "Crams-alot-inn" because that's what he does with it."
Our cabin plaque: Walela is Cherokee for hummingbird.
"When we were building our cabin, we would check the progress on the weekends and maybe have a picnic lunch with friends. One weekend, our friends, Brad and Gayle, joined us. Brad brought his backhoe to dig the hole for propane tank.
"While he was working, Gayle and I were surveying the tile work in the cabin when we heard a fluttering noise coming from the living room. Stopping our chattering for a second, the noise went away. After a minute or two, we went out on the deck. That's when we saw through the glass in the living room door a tiny hummingbird trapped inside between the door and a stack of framing lumber.
"We ran back inside.
"Gayle opened a window and I moved the pile of wood just enough for Gayle to scoop the little birdie up in her hands and let it go through the open window. Away it flew! That was our first local visitor to the cabin so we named the cabin after the hummingbird in anticipation that we would have lots of visitors come to our cabin.
"The cabin sits beside a creek in the foothills of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains which was home to the Cherokee Indians. The Cherokee name for hummingbird is Walela. So we named our cabin Walela at Creekside. I even designed a cabin plaque that hangs beside the front door. We love telling the story about our hummingbird visitor!" Diane
"We named our cabin, Cabin Fever because I've had a fever for a cabin all my life! Now, I never want to go anywhere, I'm nested!" Joanna
"We named our cabin "Contentment". My 5th-great-grandfather came from Switzerland to be the first Amish bishop in America and his homestead in PA was named Contentment. Our log cabin is in Amish country in the hills of Adams County, Ohio ... so the link between ancestry and lifestyle seemed appropriate." Jan
"We named our cabin "Bear" Necessity because my husband is afraid of the bears and because it was my bare necessity!" Shannon
"We named our cabin The Luney Bend. A play on words my name, Luna, and it is on the bend of a creek. Motto abnormality is the normality at this locality. It is on our century old farm and made out of old tobacco barn logs." Luna
"We have named our retirement home after our hobby business, which is DenDee on the Creek. The name is a combination of both our names and, yes, we do live on a creek." Randee
Unequa Lodge
"When we bought our cabin it was already named Unequa Lodge. I thought it was a kind of stupid name until I looked up the meaning. Unequa (or Unicoi) is a Cherokee word meaning cloudlike. When we look out from the front porch we are looking at the clouds nestled in between the mountains. Now I love the name!" Joanne
"We named our cabin that we recently purchased Northern Comfort." Cindy
Have some fun with the process!
Once you have decided on a name, you will want a welcoming sign at the end of your driveway!
You might want to design an official cabin flag!
And maybe even a "motto." Seriously. Our motto is "No Grumps Allowed!" This was developed for our grandchildren and it has worked very well! They all know the motto! When they get grumpy we simply remind them..."what's the lodge motto?" I haven't had a sign made for the driveway (yet) but I'm going to!
Tell us about your cabin or retreat's name!
