[Harry J. Fletcher]

Ever give your sword a personal name? If so you are in company with some historical greats. Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway 1093 - 1103, called his sword LEG BITER. Roland's sword was named DURENDAL (enduring) and Charlemagne's was JOYEUSE (Joyous) while the Saracen Emir Baligant named his PRECIEUSE (Precious) so it would not be inferior to Charlemagne's.

To prevent confusion (or maybe even to copy Charlemagne) I gave my Windlass 13th century sword the name BIG UGLY. The Cheness Oniyuri Bujinkan was named REPRIMANDE and the Yamakami SGC Is called THE BEAST. My Valiant Armory Celtic anthropomorphic was called GRAINE (Irish for fearsome woman) while my Spartan Lakonian was named after LYCURGUS (Wolfwork). My Reeve from Albion presented a problem and I finally settled on PARAGON since it was so well made.

Let's hear the names you have given your swords. I bet they are imaginative.

[Joe Fults]

"The Munich"

"The DelTin"

"The Arma Bohemia"

Not very interesting but sufficiently descriptive for me.

[Harry J. Fletcher]

Joe, don't let your imagination run wild now! LOL

let's see...the Muncher? Del Monte? Big Bopper?

How about ...Mincer? Can Opener? Big Bo?

[M. Eversberg II]

Here you go!

M.

[Jean Thibodeau]

Here is a Topic thread asking basically the same question with a lot of replies you might find interesting:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=1311&start=0

[Jean Thibodeau]

I usually don't name my swords past what the maker calls it i.e. my " Black Prince " or my " Doge " or my " Sovereign " etc ...

But with a special custom piece I did give it a name: RavenWolf

Here is a pic from the maker's site: http://www.ollinsworddesign.com/osd-custom-RW.html

There is a link on that site page to a Topic on " myArmoury " giving the background for the name as well as the whole design and the " making of " process.

Here is the link to the Topic to save time:
http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=8131

Again to save search time as the Topic is a very long multipage one, here is a quote from that thread where I explain the choice of name:

[Pauli Vennervirta]

As a joke, I told on another forum that my rather girly transitional rapier by Darkwood would deserve a name of a period lady. A friend came up with Doña Catalina, after a historical person, Catalina de Erauso. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalina_de_Erauso

And the rapier:


So, Doña Catalina it is.

[Jeremy V. Krause]

I have a seax made by Tod of Tod's Stuff which sort of has a name,

It has "luetfrit" inscribed on it so I might sometimes call it that- or little Leutfrit- just to be cute. I am just as likely to call it My Seax or The Seax.

Honestly I would kind of feel like a dork if I naked my weapons but I'm very self conscious.

Jeremy

[Harry J. Fletcher]

Jean, sounds like you really put a lot of research and thought into selecting a name for that very special sword. Valkyrie and Wolf as mythological concepts united in a single name was an excellent idea. I only put some thought into naming LYCURGUS, my Spartan Lakonian, as Lycurgus was the founder and law giver of the Spartan way of life. He is supposed to be a manisfestation of Appollo who sometimes takes the form of a wolf. In fact Lycurgus means wolf work.

Everyone can have a Tinker Pearce Viking, a Black Prince, or even a Reeve and there are hundreds of these swords out there if not thousands. But I want my sword to be special and so I give it a name. Each sword has its special qualities for me and so deserves a special name to distinguish it from all the others out there. Kind of like "...this sword is mine...there are many like it...but this one is mine..." To merely differeniate my swords from all the others I could simply call them LARRY, MOE, and CURLY; however, since each sword has its special qualities for me it gets a special name. I think that the Great Kings and Knights of history felt that way too.

[Harry J. Fletcher]

I think DONA is an excellent name for a rapier...a really and truly great name! Right on, Paul!

Jeremy, LITTLE LEUTFRIT sounds like a good fit, use it. It's a good name.

If the great kings of history did it, and the knights did it, you can do it. Go ahead and call your rapier and seax your pet name, it will endear it to you even more.

[David Wilson]

One of the finest swords in my collection is a migration-era style "ring hilt" sword with pattern-welded blade, by Vince Evans. It is an award-winning blade (not meaning to brag, but to pay homage where it should be paid -- to Vince!). A beautiful sword it is.

It's name is "Jerry".

No, I didn't name it. Neither did Vince. But it was named, and so the name sticks.

Imagine a Dark Age Saxon warlord drawing his sword before single combat: "I shall smite thee down with the fearsome blade of -- JERRY!!!!!!"

A Pythonesque scene perhaps, but maybe that's what was meant....?

[Harry J. Fletcher]

I posted a humorous or I thought humorus missive about the name JERRY but I realized it wasn't all that humorous so I deleted it. If JERRY IT IS...THEN JERRY IT WILL BE ! Just don't smite me with JERRY. My first impression of my Windlass 13th century was it was so big and ugly. Somehow the name stuck. After some cutting with it I was impressed and attempted to rename it FORMIDABLE but BIG UGLY stuck because I kept forgetting FORMIDABLE.

I suppose I shall have to change the name of my Reeve from PARAGON to QUID QUO PRO since it cost me a pretty penny (for my budget anyway) while giving me a well made sword in return. I made a special stand for it which leans against the living room wall but perish the thought of calling it WALL LEANER! If I hang it on the wall I am certainly not going to call it WALL HANGER!