There’s a famous line spoken in the play Romeo and Juliet where Juliet asks, “What’s in a name?” That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Why do we give things names? It doesn’t change what the thing is. Giving your new pipe a name won’t make smoke better. People like to attach names to inanimate objects, aka anthropomorphize them for a variety of reasons. My favorite piece is a bubbler named Priscilla. A friend of mine and I named her that because the bubbler is a bright pink color and shaped similar to a platform heel, which reminded us of the movie Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. So why do people name their pieces?
Personalize Your Smoking Experience
Stoners usually choose names for their pieces based on shape, color, or what they were talking about when they smoked out of it for the first time. Naming your piece makes it more unique and sets it apart from other pieces in your collection. It gives your piece a personality.
You’re More Likely To Care For It
When your piece has a name, you are humanizing it. This means that you are more likely to care for it properly and therefore less likely to break it. Some superstitious stoners believe that naming a piece makes it a lot less likely to break. This superstition probably coincides with the tradition of naming important ships before their maiden voyage. It was believed that if you didn’t name a ship then something bad would happen. The same could be said about a new piece.
He/She Is Your Closest Friend
Some smokers say that the only thing they feel they can really count on is their favorite pipe, bong, etc. You’re going to be spending a lot of quality time with your piece. It will see you at some of the highest points in your life, as well as the lowest. Some stoners consider their pipe to be their girlfriend. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with her, so you might as well give her a name.
You Have A Cool Story
I love hearing the stories behind why my friends gave their pieces a specific name. I had an extra long sherlock pipe, which I named Gandalf because it resembled the pipe from which the wizard Gandalf smoked his “pipe-weed” in Lord of the Rings. A friend of mine from high school had a foot and a half tall glass bong with a double percolator, which he named 3PO for two reasons: because of the gold bubbles that covered the base and because we moved like droids after smoking out of it.
Of course, you don’t have to name your piece. I know a lot of stoners who don’t. I have pieces that I haven’t named, either because I don’t use them enough, or the right name hasn’t come to me yet. Naming your pieces or not naming them won’t change the quality of the piece, but it does make you feel closer to it.
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What have you named your favorite piece? Let us know in the comments!