Dormouse Name Generator

Try a name for the animal you can barely see

Roll for dormouse names and picture a twig moving in a hedge. Someone sees part of a tail before the animal disappears between the leaves. Fern Hazel can suggest the place where the dormouse was seen. Blackberry Dozy could sound like an affectionate nickname in a story about the same animal. Read each in the first sentence of a story and decide how much the narrator saw.

Read two names together

Hazelnut Teacup and Rowan Teacup might be guests in a tiny tea-party scene. Put one name beside each place setting, then write a line for the host. If calling both guests Teacup makes the line confusing, use the first words in dialogue or try a different name. Willow Pip has a shorter rhythm. Try it out loud while keeping the same places at the table.

Change the setting and try the same name

Moss Yawner could suit the dormouse in a bedtime drawing. Acorn Nook could work in a fable where a character imagines a place to sleep. Give the dormouse another appearance later, when it moves along a branch or another character recalls it while standing on the path. Put the name into the new sentence. If the name only makes sense with the first picture, bring back a familiar branch or a curve in the hedge.

Keep two favorites. Try the full names under an illustration and then shorten them in the voice of a character speaking quietly. If you keep both forms, show them together once so a reader can connect them. Ask someone to read just the short line and point to the dormouse in the picture. If there are two animals, give each one a different action before you test the names again. The dormouse at the edge of the table can curl up, while the one outside follows the hedge into the next picture. Read the two lines in reverse order to see whether the names are still easy to tell apart.