What made-up names does your child use for favorite media?

June 6, 2009 6:51 PM

What made-up names does your very young child call favorite movies, books, games, or television shows?

I'd like to compile a list of some of the names that toddlers or other very young children have made up for their favorite entertainment: books, movies, television, games, whatever. I am interested in seeing if there are patterns there of sufficient interest to write about.

For example, my 26-month-old son calls Elmo in Grouchland "Elmo Blanket." Elmo Visits the Firehouse is "Elmo Firefighter." (Firefighter is his name for a fire truck, not for the people who fight fires.) The Muppets were, for a long time, The Puppets. All the Lion King movies are "Baby Lions." Richard Scary's Cars and Trucks and Things That Go is "Goldbug Book." The Wizard of Oz is "Dorothy Dog" (since Elmo has a goldfish named "Dorothy" my son feels the need to say that he's talking about the Dorothy who has a dog). The video game Pacman on my phone is known as "Ducks" (they're yellow and they quack, right?).

posted by Mo Nickels to Media & Arts (33 answers total)

Not a show, but I called Cocoa Puffs "Bootoroobits". Go figure, considering my mom never bought 'em for me- but I did see the ads on TV.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:53 PM on June 6, 2009

I called McDonald's "Dashyoo's" when I was little.
posted by nitsuj at 6:59 PM on June 6, 2009

My youngest wanted to watch a dvd when he asked for the 'comote control to turn on the DDD'.
posted by UseyurBrain at 7:03 PM on June 6, 2009

I know a 2-year-old whose name for Snow White is "Fite."
posted by illenion at 7:11 PM on June 6, 2009

My 23 month old girl calls Cookie Monster "Cook Doh!" as well as her Sesame Street book. Instead of calling her favorite nursery rhyme "Ring around the Rosey," she calls it "hashes hashes." Funny thing is that she can say, "Oh shit," "Oh God," and "You jackass" perfectly well. Such is the irony of our home.
posted by mrmojoflying at 7:23 PM on June 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

My friend's son calls Whole Foods 'The Cookie Store.'
posted by umbú at 7:32 PM on June 6, 2009

He's two and a half.
posted by umbú at 7:33 PM on June 6, 2009

I don't have any kids, but I have a 7 year old niece. When she was a toddler, these are the things I recall her saying:

Bob-Bob for SpongeBob
Doraboots for Dora the Explorer (and Boots the Monkey)
Watchfish (watch fish) for Finding Nemo
Happies for Care Bears (I think maybe there is a Happy Bear?) She also had a Care Bear blanket that she called her Happy Blanket. Everyone should have a Happy Blanket.
posted by ralan at 7:36 PM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

My nephew's name for Chick-fil-a is "Chickful Play."

Uh, I guess that's not media. But it is adorable.
posted by Neofelis at 7:44 PM on June 6, 2009

Two from my 5-y.-o.:

1) McDonald's = McNuggets

2) Lego Aqua Raiders = Occurators (his dad and I think this would make a great gadget for Harry Potter. "Quick, Ron, grab the Occurator!")
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:46 PM on June 6, 2009

Shorty calls The Biscuit Brother's television show "ghee-kah" (his pronunciation of guitar) because there are always guitars (and mandolins and fiddles and banjos) to be seen on the show. It's also the only show he watches, so lord knows what other gems lie hidden beneath my non-permissive parenting.
posted by Seamus at 7:52 PM on June 6, 2009

Not brand specific, but my three year old who can navigate the iPhone with ease always wants to know if he can "load-down" a new game yet.
posted by shinynewnick at 8:06 PM on June 6, 2009

My friends' twins used to refer to Cars as simply "Piston Cup" -- more accurately, "Pituh Cuh."
posted by Madamina at 8:38 PM on June 6, 2009

The Adventures of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is "Buzz Snakes".
posted by obiwanwasabi at 8:57 PM on June 6, 2009

The various Rankin-Bass Frosty The Snowman cartoons (and by extension, all snowmen) were known to our daughter as "Fotty Mo-man".
posted by Rock Steady at 9:15 PM on June 6, 2009

My 2.5 year old loves astronomy books these days, and calls Saturn "Mookie James Fantasti-Planet." Not sure that helps, but it's pretty hilarious. (She also calls asteroids "Saturn poop.") More to the point, I think kids this young have a very limited world-view, and assume everything is connected to everything else; this combined with a limited vocabulary = the darndest malapropisms: Curious George is "Gorgie Porgie," anything disk-shaped is a "CD," and a tall new hotel being built downtown is "The Remote Control Building."
posted by turducken at 9:43 PM on June 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

My current tot is too young to have real names for things, but my cousin (who is now a college graduate) used to call Sesame Street "Sumset", and her father, when he was little, used to call Lassie "Lassie Come Back From the Water."
posted by Doctor Suarez at 10:18 PM on June 6, 2009

My 2.5 year old loves astronomy books these days, and calls Saturn "Mookie James Fantasti-Planet."

Best name for anything ever.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:26 PM on June 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

I heard an acquaintance's daughter refer to Spongebob Squarepants as "Bob-Bob Pants-Pants." She was two-and-a-half at the time.
posted by dersins at 11:16 PM on June 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

My five year old doesn't do this any more, but here are some I remember from him:
Sophie = Howl's Moving Castle
Lightning Queen = Cars (Used to be, to ask to see this, he'd put his hands over his eyes and say "Speed, Speed!")
Cheese, Gromit! = Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Lew-lis = Meet the Robinsons
Hey, Let's Go! = My Neighbor Totoro
Action Fingers = The Upside Down Show
Jacka Show = Jack's Big Music Show
Der Pets = The Wonder Pets
Chocolate Tree = Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton Version)
Granny Puckett = Hoodwinked
posted by Shoeburyness at 11:21 PM on June 6, 2009

My daughter had a ton of these when she was about 2-3 years old but I can only remember my two favorites, which she still uses to this day:

Monkey George = Curious George TV show on PBS
Cooking Mouse Show = Ratatouille
posted by mathowie at 8:33 AM on June 7, 2009

My 5-year old calls C3PO "three pee-pee-O". Gets me every time.
posted by dylanjames at 11:06 AM on June 7, 2009

My daughter used to call "Little House on the Prairie," "The Girl Show"

And my son for a long time referred to "Cars" as "Cars Race Cars"
posted by Shohn at 1:12 PM on June 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

I work with a woman whose two/three-year-old also calls Spongebob "bob-bob". My three-year-old nephew calls Lightning McQueen "ni-ning ma-qeen". No matter what the show is, he calls all cartoons "toons".
posted by youngergirl44 at 2:17 PM on June 7, 2009

When my brother was little he called the Velveteen Rabbit "the Rabiteen Rabit." (To me it has the same gauzy profundity as Heidegger on "the worldhood of the world.")
posted by Beardman at 4:19 PM on June 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: Mookie James Fantasti-Planet
posted by Beardman at 4:21 PM on June 7, 2009

I called Kmart "the red K." Whoops, not media. Last I saw my friends' kid, she was almost two and, to my delight, saying "ba ba" to signify "They Might Be Giants' Friday Night Video Podcast."
posted by clavicle at 8:37 PM on June 7, 2009

When my son was two years old I used to sing Beatles songs to him before bed time. For a time, his favorite was "Bonna" -- Mother Nature's Son. ("Born a poor young country boy...").

Oh, and Bob the Builder was "Boddididah."
posted by Loudmax at 11:53 PM on June 7, 2009

When my 1 1/2 year old wants to play with my Itouch he'd just say "ta tou" so I pointed to my mouth so he'd watch and said "I TOUCH" so now when he wants it he points to his mouth and says "ta tou".
posted by beccaj at 1:55 AM on June 8, 2009

my 2 year old last night was playing with a toy truck, saying "Wubby, Bob da Builder, Wubby" we think "Wubby" was a combination of Bob and Wendy.

Pocoyo (best toddler show ever) is often called "Pocoyo Touch"

Any two round circles next to each other: "Elmo!" he sees Elmo everywhere. it's creepy.

not media, but we were on a bike ride a few weeks ago and he saw some horses: "deer-elephant...watzit?"
posted by jrishel at 8:50 AM on June 8, 2009

My little Latina Spanglish-speaking cousins called Power Rangers "Show-Shows."
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:05 AM on June 8, 2009

My cousin - Now a senior in HS - used to watch Jurassic Park daily when he was about 3 or 4. He called it "The Rah Show." He also called Toy Story "Lightyear."

My nephews call Cars "McQueen" and one calls his blankie "Nenny" - no idea why.

My brother used to have my mom sing Brahms' Lullabye at night, and because she didn't know the words she would just hum it. So of course, he called it "hmm hmm hmm."

I used to say "greem" for green and "byoo" for blue, and pretty much any man with gray or white hair was "Papa."
posted by Kimothy at 1:08 PM on June 10, 2009

My daughter (age three this week) has a consistent pattern of calling every show she likes by the name of the main character and some notable feature. Specific Sesame Street episodes she likes are "Elmo and the Hats," "Elmo and the Baby," and "Telly and the Triangles." Or she'll ask for "Dora and the Beach," "Dora and the Pony," and "Dora and the Stone Tower."

She refers to CD's (mainly Laurie Berkner) by her favorite song on them. So "5-4-3-2-1" or "Bumblebee."

She became a fan of The Muppet Movie, ("Muppets") so we bought her The Muppets Take Manhattan, which she calls, simply, "The Other Muppets."
posted by Pater Aletheias at 6:25 PM on July 2, 2009