I have been thinking about a name for this home for quite a while now. Actually, if I am honest, I’ve been dreaming of, and living in, this house for the last 15 years. So ‘quite a while’ takes on a little more meaning.
The first custom home we built (early 90’s) was designed by yours truly - with the use of pencil and graph paper. Those efforts generated a LOT of eraser dust and I should have purchased stock in a paper company (I feel badly about the number of trees I probably ‘felled’). I took that graph paper to an engineer and he transcribed it “as-is” into a properly detailed house plan, and away we went. I could quote you every door, window, and other framing detail to within 1/8th of an inch.
For our next custom home, I started with a rough sketch and we worked with a local architect who designed all the custom/parade homes in the area. There was some push-and-pull and a little tug-of-war, to work our vision into the details, but we got it done - mostly. It was a beautiful home but didn’t quite capture all we wanted it to be.
Next, we had 2 fairly large-scale remodels - which were nowhere near as satisfying as building from scratch. They seemed to be just as difficult, maybe even more so in some ways, without the reward of seeing something beautiful being created from scratch.
During those years, after moving out of our second custom-built home, we knew we had 1 more in us. One more chance to create ‘the one’ - the home that captures the essence of what brings us joy, makes us smile, calms the inner storm, and creates the feeling of peace. Our home, our style, our way.
So - I got all fancy and purchased some home designer software and started working out plans on my computer (no more dead trees!). I don’t know how many homes I’ve actually created - probably over 100 variations in the last 5 years - all with the same theme. I started with what we did and didn’t like, how we wanted to live in the space, how we wanted it to ‘feel’.
The refining process has been informative. “Oh - that’s a great idea”, “That’s BEAUTIFUL!”, “I’d love to have one of those”, you get the drift. But sometimes being pulled into too many directions or trying to capture the latest fad, doesn’t really work. You can have a house full of beautiful ‘things’, ‘accents’, ‘trends’, etc - but it is very difficult to create a beautiful, cohesive, and timeless house. Which is what we are trying to achieve.
Someone once asked me - “What do you want your new house to look like?” My response was “We want it to look like a 100-year old bungalow that has some stories to tell, that someone has brought back to life with new modern additions, and it’s ready for another 100 years” - I have to figure some way to account for ‘our’ (really my husbands) oversized 2-car, truck, and RV garages. ;-)
So - we took my plans to another (different) architect who designs custom/parade homes (praying we’d have a different experience this time) and he helped capture OUR vision by taking my existing design and helping to refine it where it needed to be refined.
We are finally at the point where we are “this close” to digging some dirt and getting the ball rolling on this next BIG adventure. I hope that the fact we’re still married after 40+ years AND we survived through all those projects means that we can handle another one?
Which brings us, the long way around, to today - Naming Day.
I had a lot of things all tumbled up in my brain - so I turned to my family for help. They are a never-ending source of….. what’s the best word for it ….. well, any way, they keep me grounded AND give me wings at the same time. Funny how families work like that.
I sent out this little note:
“Hi Family!!!! We need to 'name' our house/project. Chatted with our builder and because they do a lot of social media (but want to protect the privacy of the home owner) - they use a 'name' for each project.
I want to do something tied to the lot/style etc. I played with stream, creek, etc but really like Brook...... something like Brookside ..... It's the ..... that I'm working on. I want to pull a word from the craftsman / mission / bungalow era - maybe something slightly obscure old fashioned sounding.
SO - please put your thinking caps on and let me know your thoughts..... :-)
AND - we’re off…. I started to get responses (some good - some… well - they were responses)
On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 8:31 AM XXXXX <XXXXX > wrote:
Housey McHouse Face
On Fri, Aug 28, 2026 at 9:19 AM ME <ME > wrote:
LoL - it has a kind of ring to it (I'm not saying what kind though) ;-)
Then they put their thinking caps on for real, kicked off some AI requests, and started to come up with a LOT of good ideas. Some were fun ‘play on words’, others were a nod to notable figures of the mission / craftsman era, all were exciting to read and consider. But now I had the problem of ‘too much of a good thing’!
**Brookbourn** — brook + bourn (small stream; intermittent stream)
**Bournside** — beside a bourn
**Meadbourne** — meadow + bourn
**Brookleat** — brook + leat (mill channel)
**Leatside** — beside a leat
**Racebrook** — race (millrace) + brook
**Millrace** — channel that drives a mill wheel
**Rillside** — beside a rill (tiny brook)
**Brookrill** — brook + rill
**Beckbrook** — beck (northern brook) + brook
**Beckside** — beside a beck
**Ghyllbrook** — ghyll (stream in a cleft) + brook
**Brookghyll** — brook + ghyll
**Inglebrook** — ingle (hearth corner) + brook
**Brookingle** — brook + ingle
**Settlebrook** — settle (high-backed hearth bench) + brook
**Brookcroft** — brook + croft (small holding)
**Croftbourne** — croft + bourne
**Brookmead** — brook + mead (meadow)
**Meadbrook** — mead + brook
**Brooksettle** — brook + settle
**Inglebourn** — ingle + bourn
**Leatbrook** — leat + brook
**Croftmead** — croft + mead
**Brookingle Mead** — brook + ingle + meadow
**The Brookcroft** — the brook croft (small holding by a brook)
**Bourncroft** — bourn + croft
Gamble Place, Gamble Brook, Gamble Creek, Stickley Place, Greene Brook, Greene Creek, Gustav's, Morris's, Carolwood, Ginkgo, Ferron, Fishlake, Boulder Ridge, Copper Creek, Lakeside Lodge (Any of the names above with the word LODGE at the end), MacGregor tied to Wilderness Lodge, Leopold (Stickley), Artisan Park, Olmstead
After a lot of review and deliberation I started narrowing down the list and asking for help fine-tuning. We got the list down to a manageable number to consider:
Brookside Court
Craftsman Nook/The Craftsman’s Nook
Stonehearth Brook
Brookside Bungalow
Stonebrook Cottage
Brookstone Manor
Belcourt Hearth
Autumnbrook on Belcourt
The Inglebrook
Then we got REALLY serious and started checking with Mr. Google to make sure we weren’t using a name that was used for something ‘bad’ (no strip joints or massage parlours) or ‘unintended’ (like the few that came up with assisted living centers)…. I then asked for everyone’s top 1 or 2 contenders:
Brookside Bungalow - always love a same letter start and feel this is both easy to say and gives clear indication of what type of house you’re building which is likely easy for the broader public to align with on their socials and would hit more search results. Brookside Bungalow seems to be used ubiquitously for an Etsy shop, some VRBo's and some random home listings. I'd go with "The Brookside Bungalow" if I had to pick...that would differentiate it as a 'thing' not a 'vibe'.
The Inglebrook - I like the root word meanings but think it would translate to broader public less easily and The Inglebrook sounds like some builders' house plans and not custom.
The Craftman’s Nook - sounds like either a ship location or restaurant name to me
SO - we finally have a winner - drum roll please -
The Brookside Bungalow
It incorporates something from the land (brook) and what type home/feel we are looking to create (bungalow). I hope it resonates for you, as it does for us.
We can’t wait to get things going! Our builder and team have been wonderful to work with so far. We are excited to partner with them in bringing our long-awaited vision to life.