"Thingy," "that thing," "thingamabob," and "whatchacallit" are all valid ways that myself, my friends, and my family refer to items. Sometimes there's an adjective or relative descriptor used to clarify, like "that spiky thing," or "the blue thingy next to the TV."

Do you also sometimes go through the alphabet when trying to find a word? Usually if I can figure out what sound/letter starts the word I'm looking for, I can find the rest of it.