A Little Bigger Than the Brady Bunch

May 29, 2018 7:44 PM

A colleague just gave me the idea of naming the school instruments I check out to kids, and I need help thinking of categories of characters (fictional or non) to name them after and put on their identifying tags. Difficulty: a couple groups of 20-40.

Think: the way they name litters of puppies at the pound, but on a larger scale. This is a genius idea for a couple reasons; if crusty viola #4 is, say, Dumbledore, a middle school kid is going to be more likely to remember that than viola #4 *and* is perhaps a little more likely to take some ownership over it and care for it a little better.

The problem is that I have a huge inventory and would like the categories to be somewhat familiar to kids (and, ideally, a little fun) and more or less timeless. So, I’m looking for a characters/historical figures that could cover groups of 45, 20, 20 and 10.

Ideas so far include Harry Potter and the Muppets. What else have you got for me?

posted by charmedimsure to Grab Bag (34 answers total)

Presidents! Use for one of the smaller groups and you can avoid repeats.
posted by studioaudience at 7:46 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

For the big group, Pokemon. Definitely Pokemon. Maybe stick with first gen to maximize recognizability? (New MeFi question: what are the top 45 first gen Pokemon?)
posted by brook horse at 7:48 PM on May 29, 2018 [20 favorites]

Cartoon characters -- Peanuts, Garfield, Looney Toons.
posted by TrishaU at 7:55 PM on May 29, 2018

Greek gods
posted by crazy with stars at 8:00 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’d go with ancient mythological heroes and monsters, but I favor the old school.

Can cover the Greeks but also Norse and African, Americas, etc.

Nothing says ‘timeless’ like characters that we’re still talking about thousands of years later :)
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:03 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Star Wars characters.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 8:04 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Star Wars characters. I once named servers after each of the six Three Stooges.
posted by rhizome at 8:04 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Pokémon.
posted by rikschell at 8:13 PM on May 29, 2018

Marvel Universe has lots of recognizable characters: Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, and so on.
posted by sacrifix at 8:19 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was going to say Game of Thrones, because man does that series have a lot of characters, but I don't know if school aged kids really watch that show.

So what about The Hunger Games?
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:20 PM on May 29, 2018

Famous composers/instrumentalists/musicians
posted by wats at 8:35 PM on May 29, 2018 [5 favorites]

I like famous musicians because you're more likely to be able to get a nice mix of genders and ethnicities.
posted by b33j at 9:21 PM on May 29, 2018 [11 favorites]

And further to the famous musicians, you could have make posters with their face, name, and a little bit of their life story and include a picture of crusty viola #4 who is named after said muso.
posted by b33j at 9:24 PM on May 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

This looks like a good resource:https://www.thefamouspeople.com/musicians.php
posted by b33j at 9:25 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

How about storybook characters? (Sort of like in Once Upon a Time) Pinocchio, Snow White, The Seven Dwarves, various princesses, princes, Robin Hood, the list is practically endless.
posted by Sassyfras at 9:26 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Most of these suggestions include notable musical characters, e.g. Jigglypuff, Dazzler, Figrin D'an, Schroeder, Celestina Warbeck, and, uhhhh, Richard Nixon. On the one hand, these would be pretty obscure to most kids, but on the other, I wonder if you'll wind up near that point anyhow if you use 20+ names from one domain. I still think it's a great idea, and it might be a bonus if the associations are easy to pick up on and remember but not so well-known that kids actually have an opinion about them.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:48 PM on May 29, 2018

Lord of the Rings/Hobbit characters. Should be enough characters there to name most if not all. Dip into The Silmarillion if you need some more/more exotic names.
posted by quinndexter at 9:54 PM on May 29, 2018

Use the periodic table of the elements!
posted by just_ducky at 10:08 PM on May 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

If you went with Norse gods, many double as Marvel characters.
posted by greermahoney at 10:09 PM on May 29, 2018

Why not let the kids name them? That would probably enhance the sense of ownership and affection even more.

Otherwise, I'd probably give them pet-like names, like Max, Spot, Tabby, Jenny, Rex, Fido, Kitty, Fluffy, etc. A name that's associated with something friendly, dependent, cute, vulnerable would probably have nice associations and reinforce the role of the student as caretaker.
posted by amtho at 10:41 PM on May 29, 2018 [4 favorites]

Disney characters? You can stick to animals if you want to avoid anyone's prejudice for or against princesses. Potential group of 20:

Mickey Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Donald Duck
Daisy Duck
Goofy
Pluto
Winnie the Pooh
Tigger
Piglet
Eeyore
Baloo
Bagheera
Scrooge McDuck
Chip
Dale
Huey
Dewey
Louie
Stitch
Nemo
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:44 PM on May 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Goetic demons!
posted by egypturnash at 12:12 AM on May 30, 2018

Diseases. “Okay who has Mumps”
posted by egypturnash at 12:18 AM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]

brook horse: "(New MeFi question: what are the top 45 first gen Pokemon?)"

Most-recalled Gen 1 Pokemon, according to this Sporcle quiz with 5 million+ plays.

Bonus points if you name your biggest tuba Snorlax.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:51 AM on May 30, 2018 [13 favorites]

You could do fewer proper names by coming up with a generic class of objects—say, animals—and coming up with one name from a-z. It’d make checking them back in pretty easy. Just check off the letters as you go and see that you’re missing J and G, even if the kids know them as Jaguar and Goose.

Famous cities, or state/regional capitols, or country capitols. Stars/galaxies/planets. Kinds of flowers.
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:24 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sports team mascots could be a big category, especially if you lump together multiple sports.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:45 AM on May 30, 2018

TVTropes: Loads and Loads of Characters
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:46 AM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Maybe adjective + animal? So you get Curious Giraffe, Lazy Antelope, Sleepy Badger etc. You can categorize by adjective or by animal group (ie big cats, birds).
posted by Harald74 at 4:53 AM on May 30, 2018 [2 favorites]

I love this idea!
Do you have any kids who are interested in science?
Minerals/gemstones (lots)
Elements (118 to choose from)
Women scientists (91)
and for the literarily-inclined:
Women writers (50)
posted by tuesdayschild at 5:46 AM on May 30, 2018

Word of caution here, and I hate to be the bucket of cold water here nor the guy who sounds like he's got a filthy mind, but...

gender on the names is potentially a trap. Kids already assign "genders" to instruments, so that the girl playing trombone or the guy playing flute or clarinet gets a certain amount of grief. Hopefully this has lessened, but 30+ years after my own high school years I still see very few guys playing flute, so...

And then if you name the flute "Harry" you may be adding some potential for griefing. "So, Ashley,* you take Harry home with you every day? Does he stay in your bedroom?"

So if you go with this I'd use animals, cities, or something like that.

source: was a band student who saw what happened sometimes when peers named their own instruments themselves and made this decision public. Also, I thought Excaliber was a great name for a clarinet, and got kidded about that too.


*or whatever name is trendy among high school girls these days
posted by randomkeystrike at 6:15 AM on May 30, 2018 [5 favorites]

Maybe you could use different nomenclatures for different types of instruments. EX: all of your brass could be Marvel characters, and the woodwinds are all Looney Tunes, and the strings are all Simpsons characters, etc. That way, you're getting the most recognizable characters from each group without having to reach for super-obscure names for the higher numbers.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:09 AM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

For one group, anyway, maybe you could just use proper names that don't relate to existing characters. If you wanted to minimize the effect randomkeystrike mentions, you could use gender-neutral names, and names from different languages. Surnames optional.

"Do you want to check out Chris Miller or Mrinal Acharya?"
"Are you returning Alex or Michi today?"
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:48 AM on May 30, 2018

I say go for the Hodgman hobo list located here. Plenty of room for growth.
posted by Dmenet at 3:44 PM on May 30, 2018

Response by poster: I say go for the Hodgman hobo list

omg you win all my affections but no.

Thanks for the ideas! I know my kids pretty well; they fast become a tight, kind, welcoming community (for the most part) and I am reasonably confident they will love this and nobody's going to get ridiculed. I'm not letting them choose the names for reasons of efficiency/personal convenience/uniformity...I think it would be fun to label the lockers and tags with pictures, and that's not a project I want to undertake yearly.

There's no good way to separate the groups into smaller ones; they're all string instruments (45 violins, 20 violas, 20 cellos, 10 basses). So far I'm especially liking famous musicians for the big group for reasons of gender and other diversity.
posted by charmedimsure at 5:53 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]