So Good We Named It Twice

When we bought our 'new' place back in August 2010 it came complete with a name which suited the house down to the ground - ugly inside, ugly outside and an ugly name to boot. It wasn't called anything remotely acceptable or relevant like Church View, Village End, Ugly 1970s House, The Money Pit, etc. No, instead we were landed with the delightful moniker of

AREOSA

Nice, huh? There were two things that always came to my mind when I thought about or, shudder, had to say out loud this dreadful name. (Even worse, whenever people asked for our house name or number I always, without fail, had to spell A-R-E-O-S-A, and pretty much always repeat 'no, that's E-O-S-A'.) Anyway, back to those two things that sprang to my mind:

1) Ponderosa - the name of the ranch in the 1970s 'cowboy' TV programme Bonanza
Ponderosa, incidentally, is Latin for heavy, weighty or significant (ie pnderous) - not exactly the stuff that dream homes are made of.

2) I can't even really say it out loud on here, so bear with me, and fill in the blanks: Hairy Ar*ehole. Yes, that's what our beloved house name made me think of. Fear not, I won't add any images for this one.

There's also a sort of number 3, since a friend of mine pointed out that we were just one letter away from areola (again, no images); coupled with number 2, that's probably only a good thing if you are a p0rn site.

Soooo, it wasn't long before we started thinking about a new name for our new house; in fact, we thought we'd come up with the perfect one over a year ago and I even had a slate sign made for hubby's birthday. We were to be the very fancy 'Springfield House' after hubby's beloved football team's former ground. Except that slate sign is now languishing in a dusty corner since we found out there was already a 'Springfield' in the village (anyone want to buy an unused, but slightly personalised slate sign?!) Just as there is also a Greenway (after Agatha Christie's home), which was our second choice, and a Church View (since we look out on the church tower) which also made it onto our list of possibles.

So we had to continue racking our brains and throwing possible names out there. Were there any particular features of the house/garden that we could choose? We have a part-walled garden from the time when the land the house was built on was the kitchen garden for the village's manor house - but there are already a High Walls (since re-named as it happens) and a Wall End. There are no trees/shrubs in the garden that we could take a name from, or if there are, we are unable to identify them since we hacked the entire garden back to bare earth and roots. What about the local wildlife, could that inspire us? Nope, 'fraid not. So, what about something that had a meaning for us personally? We toyed with the idea of 'New House' as that is what DC calls it; I suggested 'York House' or '(Upper) West House' in deference to our love of New York; and there was even talk of 'Brigan House' from the very twee marrying of Bristol (where I'm from) and Wigan (hubby's home town). But in the end we settled on, drum roll, please (but don't get too excited)...

BROADWAY

Firstly, it's a nod to New York (where we got married) and secondly there is a village nearby with that name, so it suits the area too. Yes, I know it's not overly exciting, but it's got to be better that the previous name. Hopefully, I won't have to spell it out to people too often. And, best of all, it doesn't conjure up an image of hairy-ar*ed cowboys everytime I say it.