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The 2011 UK census revealed that almost half of all pensioners have given their house a name. The most popular of these were combinations of the occupants’ names, such as Dunromin (Duncan and Rominda), The Lodge (Thelma and Odgen), Mildew (Mildred and Ewan) and Dormat (Doreen and Matthew). However, this conventional approach can create problems and in 2015, the parish council of Primley in Shropshire banned the use of house names after receiving numerous complaints about the 3ft high fluorescent sign erected by Wanda and Kermit Bishop.
In many cul-de-sacs and similarly discrete situations, the names are often chosen to conform with a relevant theme, such as Bryan Close in Pudsey, where all the houses are named after Yorkshire cricketers, Peake Park in Mottingham, where the house names include Steerpike, Prunesquallor, Muzzlehatch and other characters from the Gormenghast trilogy, and Marleybone Mews in Penge, where the houses pay tribute to reggae musicians who share their names with parts of the human skeleton.
In general, the smaller the home, the more likely it is to have a name, with 68% of bungalows, 73% of tree houses, 85% of bird hides and 96% of affordable homes being so entitled.