What if I named my kids the way most apartment buildings get named?
My oldest would be “Girl 1.”
The twins? “Boy Twin” and “Girl Twin.”
And our fourth. She wasn’t exactly planned, but she was absolutely wanted. We’d have called her “Surprise.”
Functional. Accurate. Completely soulless.
You’d never do that to your kids. But walk into any apartment search site right now and that’s exactly what you’ll find. Streets. Numbers. Zip codes wearing a blazer.
“Elowen” tells you something. “8555 Aero Dr” tells you where to park.
A name is the first brand decision you make. Not the logo. Not the color palette. The name. It sets the emotional tone before anyone walks through a door or scrolls past an ad.
When a building is named after its address, it’s telling you: nobody thought too hard about this. And if nobody thought too hard about the name, a prospective resident starts wondering what else didn’t get much thought.
Your building deserves a name like your kids do. Chosen with intention, built to carry meaning, and good enough that someone would actually text it to a friend.
Naming is where I start with every building. Because it’s where every resident starts too.
