A name is one of the cultural markers of a fandom’s relevance. If you need a name for your community, it’s because it is big enough to need something to distinguish it from others.
The fandom name can be a marker of a fan’s identity, an indexer for finding content online, and sometimes, it can even become an intellectual property asset for an artist (did you know many artists trademark their fandom names?).
But who baptizes a community of fans? And how to choose a fandom name?
There are no rules, but there’s a culture around fandom-naming. In K-pop, fandom names got to have a special meaning and may not be at all words derived from the artist’s name (for example, ENHYPEN’ fans are called “ENGENES”, a word that works both as a paronym to “engine” and a reference to “gene” as in to mean a DNA connection between the group and the fans). But in Western pop culture, fandom names are usually inspired by the artist's name (i.e., Taylor Swift ➔ Swifties; Justin Bieber ➔ Beliebers, etc). In all cases, the fans must identify with the name.
For Sabrina Carpenter’s fanbase, the journey towards finding their name was very organic.
In 2015, when asked by a Twitter user about what her fandom was called, the singer and songwriter answered: “Carpenters?”. The question mark shows that not even she was sure of the answer, nor did she want to impose anything on her fans. Nevertheless, the name stuck.
Aside from eventual confusion for anyone familiar with the famous 1970s pop duo of the same name, “Carpenters” sounds just perfect for Sabrina Carpenter’s fans. It’s a reference to the artist’s name, but it also works as an adjective (it sounds good to describe yourself as a “carpenter”). Also, it allows for cute or witty wordplay and references. Carpenter herself plays with the name: at her Coachella set in 2024, she wore a shirt with the words “Jesus was a Carpenter”.
To this day, “Carpenters” is the most adopted name to define Sabrina Carpenter’s community of fans. But this isn’t to say there is a consensus about it. You may find Sabrina Carpenter fans being called “Sabrinators” as well. The “-ator” suffix is commonly found in fandoms of pop singers, such as the Selenators (Selena Gomez fandom) and the Arianators (Ariana Grande fandom).
Regardless of how her fans are called, it’s undeniable that Sabrina Carpenter has amassed a passionate fanbase and puts effort into nurturing it. After dominating the charts with 2 songs at once in June 2024, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”, the singer announced a collaboration with Spotify to give fans exclusive access to tickets for her Short N’ Sweet tour, which will kick off after the release of the album with the same name.
As Sabrina Carpenter cements her name among the biggest 2024, we shall see how her fandom also shapes up to become bigger and more active.
— Ana Clara Ribeiro
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