No, David

Cora wasn't two yet when I went looking for a simple doll that could be taken into the wading pool with her.  The other baby dolls around here were partly made of materials you wouldn't want to get wet.

I looked around at Walmart and found such a doll for a reasonable price.  She was dressed in pink panties and a sort of cape/hood thing.  We didn't name her; none of the dolls Cora plays with here had names, we just call them "the babies".

Cora, typical for a child her age, ripped off the pink panties and removed the cape.  If, in her absence, I re-dressed the doll with her meager supply of clothes, as soon as the girl noticed it, off they came.

Typical for a toddler.  I stopped fighting it and left the babydoll in her shameful nudity.

A few months later I was reading a book to Cora that had been recommended to me:  "No, David".  I actually loved this book the first time I saw the cover, and for a while Cora enjoyed it too.  We had many discussions about the pictures, talking about why David's mother was telling him "no" in each picture.

We especially enjoyed the part where David went running down the street naked.

One day as Cora was playing with her naked doll, I said, "Hey, your baby is always naked, just like David was when he ran away.  We'll call your doll David!"

Toddlers with a good imagination don't care about small details (like the absence of male genitalia on the doll), so Cora played along.  We talked to David, soothing him when he fell and singing him to sleep.  He was constantly present when Cora was here.  If she was playing on the swing set, David had to swing too.  If she was riding in her little car, there he was, like a guardian angel.

A couple of months ago I found an outfit that looked like it would fit David.  It was cheaper than most doll clothes, so I grabbed it.  I also bought Cora a doll baby carrier to use as a "car seat" in her Barbie Jeep.  This put David in a pink outfit and a pink car seat:  He had turned back into a girl because I was too cheap to buy boy clothes or a blue car seat.

Children, though, are so innocent.  Cora liked the clothes just fine and now leaves the baby's clothes on.  And we are left with a girl doll named David.

You can't just change the name of a girl's best friend.