Lego piece naming

[TooMuchCaffeine]

Dunno if anyone saw this article on how families come up with their own language for naming bricks, but I thought it was quite interesting...

http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/ ... milies.php

[kelderic]

That is sort of interesting. I remember that before I found Bricklink, I'd call things all sorts of names. The 1x1 round bricks, we'd call ''bombs" and bricks were 'thick pieces' while plates/tiles were "thin pieces". Always used the grid system though, "2 by 4" "1 by 1". Anyone else have some interesting names?

[RichardAM]

Really fascinating, I guess it depends entirely on what you tend to build- each piece in the table there will each have it's own specific purpose according to the builder. On that note, up until a few years ago and joining the online community I would always call 1x1 cylinders "bullets"- when I was younger their sole purpose was as cannon ammunition.

EDIT- kelderic is spot on with his naming conventions, yes.

[Rick-Ricks]

We always called plates "flat pieces", 2xwhatevers "Thick pieces" and 1xwhatevers "thin pieces." But we always referred to their length by how many studs they are. So when using complete terms it would be something like this: "Could you hand me that 2 long thin piece?" We would then have names for specific bricks like "The one piece that only has one stud on top but takes up two spaces" and others like that.

[Elephant Knight]

We always called plates "flat pieces", 2xwhatevers "Thick pieces" and 1xwhatevers "thin pieces." But we always referred to their length by how many studs they are. So when using complete terms it would be something like this: "Could you hand me that 2 long thin piece?" We would then have names for specific bricks like "The one piece that only has one stud on top but takes up two spaces" and others like that.

Hehehehe, for the most part, that is what me and my siblings did as well. There are a few differences. "Hey, can you pass me a three long?" meant I needed a 1x3, and "Can you pass me a thick three long?" meant I needed a 2x3. The only other peice that I can think of of what I used to call, was 1x1 with a stud on one side, I called them gastanks, cause that is what the were most comenly used for. a gas tank of a car.

EKnight

[SavaTheAggie]

My brother in law had a few LEGO bits growing up, and gave them all to his kids when they were old enough. I was happy to have my nephews and niece interested in LEGO, but he taught them all backwards... 3x1s, 4x2s, etc.

I've also met a guy who refers to all bricks and plates by the number of studs on them. A 2 would be a 1x2, an 8 would be a 2x4, etc. Not sure how he differentiated between 1x4s and 2x2s, though.

--Tony

[Heir of Black Falcon]

an awesome article! My wife and I had different terms for everything a few years back... we are uniform more or less now, some seven years married. To be fair it was never that hard to know what piece it was except with slopes...

Heir

[nanuck95]

That was pretty funny. I guess my brothers and I weren't the only ones that called them "spinny pieces". Thanks for sharing!

[Evil Ben]

I've also met a guy who refers to all bricks and plates by the number of studs on them. A 2 would be a 1x2, an 8 would be a 2x4, etc. Not sure how he differentiated between 1x4s and 2x2s, though.

--Tony

Sounds familiar. My sister would sometimes name them that way - where it was necessary to differentiate 1x4s would be long/thin fours, and 2x2s short/fat fours.

[SlyOwl]

Very interesting. I read this in the library, and my loud laughter got me a lot of funny looks

I used to call parts by four-er, two-er etc, and always used to call this piece a toilet!
It would be interesting to see what AFOLs call parts nowadays, and how accurate they are to Bricklink names! e.g. I call the 1x1 brick with studs on 4 sides a travis brick, and conform to the use of cheeser, grilled cheese, headlight brick, macaroni, stud, SNOT brick etc, when a lot of people use the conventional names.

Am I the only one who thinks that there may have been some mistake/misinterpretation with Max's answers? They sometimes seem inexplicable, and from my experience there is always a reason for some sort of name, yet these are a little too far-fetched.

[Dr Kilroy]

Funny! I name my bricks by Bricklink names, expect headlights (washer machine) and this piece: (travis).

[Gumby]

Hehe interesting article. My wife calls this a picnic basket:



Nomenclature has always interested me, so I'm quick to adopt the official naming scheme. The funny thing is that our naming scheme (one used on Peeron and Bricklink) differs slightly from LEGO's. Then again, LEGO refers to its pieces by its multi-digit code...

[Albatross_Viking]

Interesting question. Ive always called standard bricks thing like two´ers, four´ers (actually, i call both 2x2s and 2x4s this) etc.
Tecnic pins like this one: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4459a do i call "bombs" or "dynamite", since that was what i first used them as.
And this one have always been a camera: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=4070
I think its funny what different people name different bricks.

A_V

[KarenJ]

One of the things that has always bugged me is those "clippy bits". A horizontal clip (visually) is actually a vertical clip- because it holds something (flagpole) vertically, yet the clip itself exists on an obviously horizontal plane. Same for the vertical clip- it's vertical, yet holds something horizontally. My storage bins for these parts are not well understood- I have to open all the drawers simultaneously to see where the parts go. Sad.

http://www.peeron.com/inv/catpic/save/456071021

People who are dyslexic like me should not be allowed anywhere near Lego nomenclature.

[DarkTemplar]

Hmm you know I've done it all my life and never given it much thought. I think with age more accurate terms are used but I still remember my friend and I referring to the Turn Plate 2x2 assembly as a "Ted Turner" . Great article, thanks for the submission.