What’s in a name?

by | Friday | May 21, 2010 | 83 comments

Thank you for all the thoughtful and heartfelt responses yesterday. I still have no idea where my head it at. To be honest, it probably wasn’t the best idea to watch the Grey’s Anatomy season finale when I was in such a melancholic mood since it didn’t really help the situation. My GOD. That was the most intense 2 hours I have spent in front of a TV since Saving Private Ryan.

Shall we lighten it up a bit? Did you all see Dr. Patty Khuly’s USA Today article about what vets think of the names people give their pets?

The question she poses is, “Do vets pass judgment on you based on what you name your pet?” and the answer is, “Yes.”

Well, OK, guilty as charged. I’m human. I also judge people on what they name their kids. We all do. This is why I am glad my mother went with “Jessica” and not “Jesykka”, why my kids are named what they are and not- well, at the risk of offending someone, I’ll just leave it at “not something really weird.”

Dr. Khuly’s article is pretty spot on in her assessments, that cute human names (Brody) are OK, but very normal human names (Joseph) are kind of weird. Cats are more likely than dogs to have overly strange obscure reference names (Bubastis). My personal addition to the rules: When in doubt, names from Greek mythology are always safe and make you look kind of intellectual.

The old adage is repeated once again. You all know it by now: Don’t name your pet, say it with me, Lucky.

And she tops it off with the pinnacle of offensiveness, the people who give their pets crassly crude names. To be honest, I don’t see it very often. When I was volunteering at a clinic that worked with the pets of homeless people, I saw it all the time. Perhaps it is part of the culture. All I know is that is caused me physical pain to put on a cheery face, hold up a little fuzzy kitten, and say, “So how is A****** doing today? Aww, S******* is such a sweetie.”

I was younger and nicer then.

Filed: Daily Life
  • http://www.dogspelledforward.com Eric Goebelbecker

    The sad thing is I bet a few of those cats were named Bubastis for the Watchmen comic and the people had no idea it’s an Egyptian reference.

    (Every once in a while the comic geek comes out. Sorry.)

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      And I am sure my husband knows exactly what you’re talking about. LOL. (You should see how many boxes of comics we have in the garage)

  • heather

    the weirdest names for pets i’ve come across so far, “ask him” and “he’ll tell ya”.
    those poor two cats. made for some interesting introductions though.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      That is just….bizarre.

  • http://www.kusine.com Jessica

    I’ve always wanted to have a really big dog, name her Kitty, and call “Here, Kitty!” when a salesperson comes to the door… :)

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      A big male Rottie! :D

  • wikith

    My fiance wants to get a grey cat and name her Misty. I vetoed this as too lame, but “Ashes” is at least a little better.
    I also talked him out of naming his first dog after his childhood dog by luring him with the prospect of “Optimus Prime.” Geek boys are at least easily plied. Seriously, who names their new pet after a dead one? No expectation there or anything…
    My favorite name amoungst the brood of pets I know belongs to my vet school roommate’s kitty. She was my junior spay cat and came from a shelter in, shall we say, not the most highly educated portion of NY state. Her shelter name was “Phobe.” Her prompt adoption was about 50% due to her overwhelmingly sweet personality and 50% “ahaha, what an awesome way to misspell Phoebe!” We promptly amended her “full name” to Lochiaphobe… one who is afraid of childbirth. He will never, ever have a problem with a too-common name getting mixed up for another.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Aw, that is really funny. Lochiaphobe! I’m sure she’s not the only one.

  • Kim

    If we don’t like the name they come with, we usually resort to characters in movies or TV. Sometimes we aren’t at all creative. Ally was named because when we took her home, Ally McBeal happened to be on FX in the background. It suited her so it stuck. Done.

    My college allowed pets (and actually disallowed them by my third year because of the problems it caused). A guy at my school (who ended up dropping out) named his dog “Ellis”. Ellis bit quite a few people and was eventually banned from campus. Ellis’ last name? “D”. Yeah.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Ellis D….groan

  • http://puppynerd.blogspot.com puppynerd

    I admit. I lied to the vet about my cat’s name for this very reason.

    See, the cat is named Fuu. It’s a Japanese girl’s name, and she’s named after a character in an obscure series.

    But….. it sounds like ‘foo’ which is a drop-dead stupid name for an animal. And we live in a rural area. So I lie. I put down ‘Faye’. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to recognize that name either. *facepalm*

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I actually would have thought Foo was cute- but I grew up singing Little Bunny Foo foo. That being said, I totally understand your position. :D

  • Georgia Jewel

    My lab-corgi mix was named Shorty when I got him and I didn’t have the heart to change it on him. I always apologize when I introduce him because “Shorty ” sounds like an insult. At home, I call him “ShortCakes” or “My Little Fuzz Fuzz”

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I think Shorty isn’t bad at all :D but of course I am partial to shortcake. mmmm, shortcake…

  • Tisha_

    Our cats are usually named real names. But, we have a few that are obscure in the family (we’re a whole family of cat owners, mostly.)

    My parents have Stanley, Henry, and The Beast. They also take care of my cat, The Dude (Lebowski) since Keith is highly allergic to him. He’s lived with them for 10 years now.

    We have Cami, who Keith is NOT allergic to for some reason. She’s named Cami because she looks like she’s wearing camo.

    My cousin has Bird (girl) and Bacon (giant fuzzy orange guy). I have no idea how she came up with their names, but the seem to fit them.

    My other cousin has Merlin. He’s INSANE. Seriously, if he was human, I’m pretty sure he’d be on psych meds.

    My parents also feed (and give flea meds to, and take to the vet when they are sick, etc) a couple of strays outside, and they are Gray Kitty and George. Black Kitty had to be put down last year. He’s buried in my parent’s backyard. He was a sweetie.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Bacon is cracking me up!!

  • Tonya

    My Lab was already named Clyde when I got him from the shelter. No offense to anyone here, but it’s not exactly my favorite name. And for a dog?! I wanted to change it, but my husband wouldn’t let me. Now I’m glad we didn’t because 1) he knows and responds to his name VERY well, and 2) I’ve realized that the name really fits him. He is a Clyde. When asked his name, I still offer the explanation, “Clyde – but I didn’t name him that. He came from the shelter with that name.”

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I think Clyde is pretty cute- we have a couple at the clinic, mostly Bassets if I recall correctly.

  • http://finnspawprint.blogspot.com/ Susan Montgomery

    Growing up I had a cat named Tinkerbell ( I was 5 and had just seen Peter Pan) a dog named Felix. Now have a cat named Katana (son named her) and a dog named Finnegan. I’ve had horses named Neysa, Shadow, Mythril, Symphony, Iceman, Killian and Oreo (yes, a kid named that one).
    I think names are important, and need to fit the personality of the animal, but you also can have some fun. Killian looked just like the horse on the label of Killian’s Irish Red Beer, Neysa looked like the Unicorn character in a book, Mythril’s reg. name was Finesilver so we went the the Lord of the Rings reference. Yeah, lots of geeky names, LOL!

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      And that is exactly why I didn’t let my 5 year old name anything. We would have had Cutie, Sweetie, and Cutie 2.

  • Lauren

    I have a 65-pound Shepherd mix named Garfunkel. Several years ago, my sister adopted a Boxer puppy and named him Rocky. My husband and I both thought that was, y’know, a cute name but pretty darn unoriginal. We started coming up with alternative names befitting of a Boxer and came up with Garfunkel (from the Simon & Garfunkel song ‘The Boxer.’ No Simon – too plain! – so Garfunkel it was). We decided right then and there to name whatever dog we got as our first dog, no matter the breed, Garfunkel. We get mixed reactions but most often it’s “Where’s Simon?” ;o)

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Garfunkel is hysterical! I love that.

  • Jamie

    When we adopted Chase from the shelter, he didn’t yet have a name and we went over and over and over… and someone said Chance. For the same very reason that Lucky will never be a name of one of our pets, I couldn’t go for Chance either. But later that day, Chase just came out and it fit him. (though the cancer and skin allergies all of his life surely came up on him like he was named Chance).

    Beethoven was already named that when we adopted him from a rescue. We tried to come up with something else, but it just kept coming out as Beethoven. It definitely fits him.

    We wanted something Asian sounding for Akira when we got her. DH actually came up with the name, as he heard it one time in an anime somewhere. (however, it was a guys name, but Akira was pretty feminine to me) It means “Bright” in Japanense, and her AKC name is “Star Lite, Star Brite”, (spelled funny, because Star Light, Star Bright was already taken) so it just stuck. She definitely fits her name though, I couldn’t imagine calling her anything else. (well, except the “kiki” nickname she has)

    I had a yellow lab growing up as a child, named “Dopey”… yeah, he was named that before I even had a chance to help with naming him, and that’s just what it was. That dog was FAR from Dopey however, so the name was pretty humorous.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I didn’t know Akira was a male name- I would have guessed female too.

  • Fiona

    I spend a lot of time naming my animals, using internet sites, family traditions and the personality of the cats. I have 6 cats (close to being the crazy cat-lady, I know). They are Maxx, a grey tabby (it just suited him, strong & independant), Sammi Angus , an orange tabby, (named after an AC/DC guy), Willi (named after my home town), OP, a tortie chubbette,which is short for Olivia Phyllis, who was for a couple of weeks Oliver Philip but turned out to be female. She was an orphan bottle fed by us so named after Oliver twist & my best friend, and Hammy aka Hamish, a brown tabby named after a favourite cartoon boy. All these were rescues so needed names that made them know they were wanted. Then I have my only ‘purchased’ cat, a boss kitty, siamese, more like a dog than a cat in that he follows me around, and chews wires like a champ. Every appliance/lamp/electronic item in my house had thick cable cover over the wires now. His name is Takoda which means ‘loved by all’ in Sioux.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I love that you put so much time and effort into it! And eh, 6 doesn’t seem CCL to me but I’m not the most objective person either.

  • http://www.championofmyheart.com Roxanne @ Champion of My Heart

    My best dog name so far went to our current big boy, a lab+greyhound. We named him Ginko because he had such a good memory as a pup, and because is has that B-i-n-g-o ring to it. His middle name? Oh, yes, he has one … it’s Cornelius, which makes me laugh.

    My very first dog (as an adult) … a Dal … I named Penelope Grace. I’ll never forget the time the vet hospital staff came out and called her “Pen-a-LOPE,” like she was some kind of melon. Still cracks me up.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Oh dear. Penalope. Makes me weep for our educational system.

  • Leigh

    The worst name we have at our hospital is a cat named Buttface… but it’s a bengal that doesn’t have the best disposition, so it kind of fits… LOL. The best I’ve seen are two cats named Fish and Chips. LOVE IT!

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Fish and Chips FTW!!

  • heather t.

    I’ve always do,what I call, the “yell” test, before naming a pet. If I can yell it in public, like when one of my cats sneaks out the front door, then it’s approved. I can’t tell you how many names I’ve vetoed because there’s no way I’d feel comfortable yelling it out on my front lawn for all the neighborhood to hear;)

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      So true. I have a goofy neighbor with a dog named Max, whom she calls “Maxi Pad.” Yell test fail.

  • Dusty

    I’m bad.. I had two cats named “This” and “That” It was pretty darn funny but mostly because my boyfriend at the time could not think of names. Then he wanted to get a dog and name it “The Other’… that didn’t happen.

    I now have 3 cats, Odin (LOVE THAT NAME), Molly and Megan. I usually name my cats after names that I like but don’t want to name my kids. Then there is Rudy, my dog.. Rude Dog, Rudy tuti.. and so on. My ex picked her name (yes a female). I don’t know where he came up with it.. but it suits her perfectly.

    I’ve had many other pets with interesting names: Ferrets: Cramer, Jenkin, Funka, Slinky (I didn’t name any of them). Snake: Zit (he had a boil on his nose that looked like a zit..) Chinchillas: Inigo Montoya and the other came to me named Lucifer(BAD) so I renamed him Ande after the Andes Mountains. Oh.. and a Guinna Pig named Russell.. He was pretty awesome. Sadly I don’t have any of them anymore.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      This and That reminds me of a Dr Seuss book! Dying over the Inigo Montoya name, how I love that movie.

  • Nicole

    I am cracking up at the Fish and Chips cats. I don’t usually go for the matching names (says the woman who considered naming two rats Smith and Wesson) but that is too cute.

    My mom struggled over renaming a shelter dog for almost a month once. We knew she needed a little old lady name–she was just such a little old lady–but it took us ages of tries (Dorothy? Mildred?) before we realized she was a Ruby.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Aw, Ruby is an adorable name.

  • http://thegirlblogger.com Adri

    My response was getting a bit long, so I blogged my response :)

    http://thegirlblogger.com/2010/05/21/whats-in-a-name/

  • http://www.ragingtechnoholic.com Kevin Workman

    My next weiner dog will be named “Mr. President” :)

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Why does that not surprise me? LOL

  • Diane N

    My favorite name, which I “researched” but didn’t test drive, was Tyro. It’s Latin for recruit, named that for when I was training Navy recruits, but it’s also a Greek goddess. Found it in a 7-language dictionary, which sounds uber-intellectual, but when people would pronounce her name, it would always sound like Tyrone, which was the wrong gender, or even Cairo, which I didn’t mind but they should listen better! Also had a Bentley (Maltese) and a Lancer (Cocker) whose names I really liked. Had a friend whose son named their pets One and Two.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      You go through all that work and research and then end up with everyone calling her Tyrone. Isn’t that always the way?

      I just found out Brody is licensed as “Brady”. Not nearly so bad but he is so not a Brady.

      • JC

        :) One time they licensed our dog “Whiskers” as Whispers…lol

  • http://www.leavethelightson.info/ Robyn

    I live in Houston, and we adopted a kitten two days before Hurricane Ike hit. I named him Pinto for his spotted pattern, like a pinto horse. When I told the vet we got him around the time of the storm, he actually THANKED me for not naming him Ike. Apparently their patient database now has several pages of Ikes!

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Oh dear. What a strange thing, to name your pet after a natural disaster!

  • Shannon

    I used to feed what I thought was a stray cat. He was a shiny black color, so I named him Obsidian. Obby, for short. It turns out he was the neighbor’s cat…and his name was Vern – as in Vern from the ‘Ernest’ movies. Obby suited him much better, in my opinion.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Obby is much more sophisticated. ;)

  • beccity98

    One cats name is Amy, but she came w/her name. I’m also not really for naming pets people names. Our black cat is Luna. After i named her, I realized thats the black cat from Sailor Moon, so I wanted a white boycat to name Artemis. When we did get one, though, he named himself. He is Loki, not the god of mischief, short for Locutus of Borg, from Star Trek: TNG-where Picard is turned into a borg and has a laser eye. Loki has one blue eye that glows red. If Loki’s sis had been male, she would have been Riker, cuz she was born first, so she was #1. My in-laws had a black dog and cat named Athur and Merlin, & for awhile had a girldog named Gwenevire (or however its spelled).

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I love the TNG references. That is so awesome.

  • Erin

    I would love to name a dog Pavlov!

    My sister had a cat named Salad, which was hilarious. I met a three-legged dog at the dog park named Tripp. So cute!

  • http://dearprudie.wordpress.com Ashley

    I either go for human names or really weird not-names. Right now I have Prudence the pup (she was either going to be Prudence or Eleanor. I was on a Beatles kick.), Harry (or Harold) the kitty, and Gracie Lynn the kitty. Eventually when I adopt another pooch I really want to use the name Rutabaga.

    • Leigh

      :::hugs::: to another Beatles fan!

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Rutabaga is awesome.

  • K

    My current dog came as a Fluffy, which didn’t resonate with me… but I am a huge fan of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so for a week I did the recall command with just “uffy” and then slid the B in for “buffy” and it worked for us. :-) For some weird reason I always wanted to have a dog named Loki (I know, right, asking for it with that one) but so far, hasn’t fit.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      What a difference a consonant makes. Fluffy is sooooo not right for her.

    • http://dearprudie.wordpress.com Ashley

      I’m a big BtVS fan too! I once had three fish named Spike, Oz, a Xander. And I kind of want to get a kitty and name her Kitty Fantastico :D

  • Alicia

    As a groomer we see odd names too. We have one family who always names their dogs the same thing, when one dies they just get another and name it the same thing.
    Another weird thing we ran into was a client with 2 dogs of the same breed. Both dogs had the same name. When I questioned the owner she said it just makes it easier then I just call one name and they both come.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Oh geez, people are so weird sometimes! How lazy can you get?

  • http://thedeanna.deviantart.com Deanna

    I have to say I’m pretty bad at naming things (..and I’m 6 months pregnant..), I too hate the stupid spelling changes people seem to make with normal names now-a-days!

    My pets have always had.. odd names. When I was 15 or so, my dad’s dog had puppies (much to my horror, may I add, old guys don’t seem to care when you tell them there are already too many dogs in the world). ANYWAYS, I ended up giving all them hilarious names (Dracula, Boatworm, Lil Plow, Conan, President’s Choice, TentPuppy etc) My dad ended up keeping one named “AL” but Al was a girl. I kept ChibiDee, who a friend named.. But I changed her name to Chili as I got older.

    Now I have Chili, a cat named Crunchie, a snake named Egg, and a rat named Shooter McGavin. I did have some other rats with cool names, Philip J Fry (we called him Fry), Chubbs, and SCRAMBLES THE DEATH DEALER. My fiancé has a dog named Dakota, I guess that’s pretty normal, ahaha..

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I cannot wait to hear what you name your baby! :D :D

  • http://www.doggiestylish.com/store/blog/ Karen Friesecke

    I once knew a chow chow named Adam and an English Setter named Patrick. Giving pets human names is pretty tricky and most times it’s just odd.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Human names are VERY tricky. Those are too “normal” to work, I think.

  • Kira

    My husband and I have a cat named Charlie—he was already named that, and I couldn’t change it on him, as he is a few years old and felt that it would confuse him. The funny part is, is that my younger sister has a chocolate lab named Charlie. So now my family has a yellow cat named charlie offically know as “Charlie the Cat,” and my younger sister’s dog is offically known as “Charlie the dog.” It’s a good thing we live a few hours apart, or it could get confusing. Other animal names that have been in my family—Cody Allen(he was one of the first cats we had, and I can remember how it came about), Tippy(for the white tip on her tail), Kitty(she was a stray and that is all she responded to), Ringo(because he looks like he has a goatee), Holly(she was a family christmas present), and my husband had a cat for over 16 years named Misty—because she was grey, he also has a cat that lives at home with his parents named Chewie, short for Chewbaca, b/c when she was born she looked like a wookie!

    I suppose human names work, but if I get the change to name another pet I would probably go along the lines of a name of a favorite movie, tv or book character.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      Ringo is seriously an adorable name.

  • http://fur-licity.blogspot.com Barbara and Daisy

    I have an elderly friend who names her successive cats all the same name. She can’t remember the new names so that was a good solution for her.

    I’ve always left the name my dog came from the shelter with. I figured they had enough to deal with and didn’t need the extra stress! My present dog however was a breeder dog in a puppy mill for all her life. (8+ yrs). I didn’t like the name the rescue group gave her. I wanted a better “call name” in case she ever decided to come when I called! So she is named after a lovely Lab I lived with.

    • http://www.pawcurious.com Dr. V

      I love that you adopted a retired breeder dog. :)

  • http://www.fidoandwino.com Shauna (Fido & Wino blog)

    Ah, to be younger and nicer. That was cute, wasn’t it?

  • Megan

    I could write such a long post… But a couple of the cue ones I’ve seen lately: A newt named Gingrich, one of my techs just put her older ferret to sleep (he was very sick) but his name was Goliath Squeazel, and we had anolder longhair calico persian cat that was relinquished to us (mild kidney failure and ONE seizure and the owner wanted to put her to sleep!) who came in as a Scooter, but we promptly re=named her “Princess Callie Mae Fuzzypants.” Fits her sassy attitude much better.
    Some common ones I hear on a regular basis: Umbrella cockatoos named Snowy or Snowball, Sun conures named Sunny (we have one named Sunny D which I do think is cute), Ferrets named Stinky or Bandit, and rabbits named Bun Bun. I’ve also seen a few Sonic the hedgehogs and Puff the bearded (or magic – lol) dragons.
    My dogs came with their names. I felt weird about my little doggie Ruthie when I first got her. It seemed like such a “grandma” name. But it really fits her, and I call her Rufus sometimes too, so she has a cute nickname.
    I agree with Dr. V (and most other vets out there) For the love of all that’s good in the world, PLEASE don’t name your dog lucky!! Dogs named lucky tend to have the most tragic early endings out there.
    Thanks to all for sharing your animal names, I’ve enjoyed reading them too!

  • http://www.dogangeljewelry.com Amy V.

    For me, including the family’s last name always wins brownie points. It can be clever, such as the Newt named Gingrich, or have a lyrical quality, such a Zelda GaBORTnik. Sadly, because I am not an avid reader of fiction, I did not realize until the movies were made, how many Lord of the Rings characters I have met in my career. Embarrassed but L-ingOL.

  • Heather

    in the past I’ve named a cat Gambit (after Remy LeBeau from X-Men), a pair of cockatiels named Luna and Soleil (sun and moon), Luna was grey and Soleil was yellow. then when Luna escaped I got another cockatiel, a really pretty cinnamon girl who I named Venus.

    now I have two cats, a tabby girl named Minion and a tuxedo girl named Boffin. Boffin is British slang for scientist/generally smart person. I was kind of going with an evil mastermind theme with me being the mastermind.

  • Heather

    also, never call a cat Smokey! I was doing some volunteer work at a clinic and we had a cat named Smokey who got caught in a fire. poor boy had all the fur singed off his face, burnt paw pads and his tear ducts were burned so we had to lubricate his eyes with drops. poor kitty, he recovered but I felt sorry for him.

  • Jen

    I named my cat Calliope after the Greek muse of epic poetry (not after Calliope Torres; my cat is older than Grey’s), but I’m working on my PhD in Classical Archaeology, so it was more apropos than an attempt to sound intelligent. Many of my colleagues have pets with names from Classical mythology, like ‘Hades’ or ‘Minerva’.

    I always took Calliope to the teaching hospital on campus when we were living there and every time, a different student, and every time, trouble pronouncing her name (just like the previous poster with Penelope). The phone calls reminding us about the appts were best because they would introduce themselves etc in what was obviously a set patter and then hit her name… there was always a long pause, followed with them mangling her name. Usually they settled on ‘Call-ee-ope’, where ‘ope’ rhymes with hope.

  • http://annora.wordpress.com Tassia

    We try not to name our animals weird things. The cat my mom let me adopt for my 15th birthday was Ushi Neko, Cow Cat in Japanese. She had the cutest milk mustache. Other cats in the house: Precious (after the One Ring via Gollum, she’s an ocicat), Scruffee (tiny fluffy silver-haired cat), and Charisma (big black boy).

    The cats I have living with me now, only one of them we actually named. We adopted Kitteh from the Victoria SPCA 5 years ago. There were many things we wanted to name him, but we were indecisive and called him “Kitty” in the interim. Eventually, he started recognizing that as his name, so we just added the ‘eh’ on the end like Cartman. NO KITTEH THAT’S MAH POT PIE!

    Tommy was my partner’s father’s cat, but he was the one who named him. He was a little boy when Tommy was born, and he fell in love with him, so he begged his dad to take him. Tommy is 18 now, and he lives with us because his master passed on 3 years ago.

    Yoshi we didn’t name, his younger step-brother did, but it’s a good name for a nerdy household like ours. Yoshi was kind of living off of people’s good will a few streets over, so we took him in. The three cats, despite being all male, get along very well.

    Chewy we named thusly because she’s mostly malamute, and she has a bandolier shaped patch on her chest and tummy. George Lucas’ inspiration for Chewbacca was his malamute, Indiana, because they make funny noises. We figured it was an appropriate homage.

    We’re getting our new puppy tomorrow, but we’re torn between Q, Moogie, Seven, and Dax. Those are all Star Trek references. I’m partial to Q, myself.

  • Stephanie B

    The normal human names can be tricky – my grandparents had a dog named Holly, and then discovered that their new neighbors had a daughter named Holly… Awkward! All of my dogs and horses have had a lot of thought put into the names, but it really takes a while to know what fits! My current puppy is Amelia (for Amelia Peabody Emmerson), but most people assume it’s from Amelia Bedelia. (She’s a Cavalier, and very sweet, but also very bright.) Hubby gets to name the next one, so it’ll probably be sci-fi or Japanese anime.

    Best names hands down? Two of the barn cats are named Gin and Tonic. Gin is very affectionate. :)

  • Nicole

    My boyfriend’s sister has a dog technically named Lila. She was introduced to me as Howard.

    “Why Howard?” I asked.
    “She looks like a Howard,” was the answer.

    I could not refute this.

  • Arwen

    My horse was called ‘Presley’ which I could not see myself calling through the fields. (and yes, he had a team mate called Elvis). I renamed him Rowan, which is human but not very common here. He’s a Welsh Cob, so it’s appropriate and I like the way it sounds. His official competition name is Rowan Roheryn.
    I adopted two shelter cats last week and they came as Gizmo and Tijger (Tiger in Dutch). Tijger sounds silly for a slender white half-siamese so that became Tijgertje (diminutive) and then Tijgje. I hated the sound of Gizmo and settled on Roo, because I like the sound, and because it fits him. And I like how the names fit together but aren’t a matched set :-)
    My dog, when I finally get her, will be called Zoomie.

  • crazy weinerdog lady

    I, of course, have dachshunds and being a German breed I thought they should have good German names. Now mind you they aren’t even registered, but Leo’s full name is “Leopold Von Wienerschnitzel”. Fritz is “Fritz Reuben on Rye with Extra Kraut”.
    My ex mother-in-law (aka The Antichrist) had like 3 Shelties all named the same name.
    My friend’s friend had 2 Maine Coon cats named “Woo Pig” and “Sooiee”. We’re in Arkansas and the Razorback hog call is Woo Pig Sooiee :)

  • Momo

    I am a vet tech, and I LOVE this post!
    I can honestly say, if I see one more precious, fluffy, lucky or marley, I am going to lose my mind.
    The few original highlights of my career are:
    Cumquat(a calico dlh)
    Puck and Riot(a pair of ferrets owned by hockey fans)
    Momo(yes, gotta love a puppy named my own nickname)
    and, the winner:
    Visa(a dsh), the story:
    Oddly enough, it’s my new boyfriends cat! He named her when he was in high school, because Visa is EVERYWHERE you want to be. Seriously, if she is not right next to you, she makes sure you can hear her!

  • Liz

    When my little boy cat came to me from being homeless I agonised over what to name him, from something trendy to something clever etc…I’d always wanted to call a cat ‘Dog’ but it just didnt suit him (although he is actually bigger than some dogs). Then he was squeaking at me in the kitchen one day and instantly I knew….Squeaky it was! So my little Squeaky is a 15lb large male tabby….but he talks and talks and he’s such a mama’s boy! Our other (family) cat (lives with my parents) is called Andy, named after Andy Warhol, how he drew those cat pictures?

  • Amanda

    I have two dogs–Dozer and Rogue. I had picked Dozer’s name out before I’d even settled on a breed that I wanted. And it suits him perfectly. He’s a bull terrier (a bulldozer..perfect!) and uses his head to bull doze through everything. Rogue was so hard to name. She was first Maverick because my boyfriend is addicted to Top Gun. One time yelling her name out front and that name was out. It’s such a mouth full when you’re puppy is running away :) After about a dozen other names, Rogue just popped into our heads one day and it is perfect for her. (Even though some people misunderstand and think we named her Road.)

  • Autumnhound

    Most of my corgis have semi-usual names, but then again, I rescued half of them. SO far, I have Brody (yay), Jamie, and Cassidy, then I added Tucker, Leah, and Sweetie. Sweetie is the only one I have to explain away, lol. Her first name was Sarasvati, which is the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts. However, when she was a teeny baby, she got an infection around her umbilical cord site, and it got so bad that she had to have stitches. I ended up carrying her around for days so that I could keep an eye on her, and I would always call her my little sweetie. So, on her papers, it says Sarasvati, but she’ll never learn it. Now she’s my Sweet Bean, Green Bean, Sweet Bean Bun, Sweet, Sweetie Petey, Sweet Bun, ect. XD I love them all to death.

  • Esther

    My pets thus far… Didgeridoo, a white boxer that we shortened to Didge (start saying Didgeridoo then stop that is how you say it) but people often heard Ditch… always fun to have that conversation “What’s his name?” “Didge” “Ditch is a weird name for a dog” “Not Ditch, Didge, D-I-D-G-E, as in Didgeridoo.” “Oh… that is really weird too.” Taz, a chocolate lab, Baron a rottie, Dufus Maximus (yes that is his registered name) but we all call him Max…except my brother who calls him Dufus, and now I have Moose, a rottie.

    For name I don’t like Sweetie, Sugar and Angel please can we stop people from naming their cats things these things , seriously they turn into the most evil cats in existence. Oh and the other name I hte Bella for anything, seriously its not original or clever, stop thinking it is!