# American Indian names for pets **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 23, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164 "2020-06-23T01:10:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/21 "2020-06-25T00:15:56Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > It appears that this thread is more about “Suggest a descriptive name for your pet that MOCKS the way some Native American indigenous people do for their people.” This. Want to do a thread about ‘weird nicknames for pets’? Fine. This one comes off as a thread that says ‘American Indians have weird names, har de har.’ And on top of that the examples given are all derogatory. [ETA: edited to use the same term the OP did.] ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/22 "2020-06-25T03:09:09Z")
Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/23 "2020-06-25T04:02:39Z")
How about " Names… what do they mean in various languages?" Mary and Marie… Jesus. Christ. All have meanings just beyond saying them. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/24 "2020-06-25T19:06:41Z")
This thread is reminding me of the punchline “Why do you ask, …?” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/25 "2020-06-25T22:06:38Z")
Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the joke? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/26 "2020-06-25T23:57:47Z")
The joke varies, but the punchline stays the same. I googled the punchline and have copied one example for your edification. The young Indian boy had spent most of his life in a quandry. He felt different yet he couldn’t figure why he was so depressed. He went to the Chief. He asked the chief how his brother _Red Deer Running_ had gotten his name. The chief answered in his typically poetic way. "When _Red Deer Running_ was born, at the moment of his birth, the first thing his mother saw was a beautiful deer running off into the forest, and so _Red Deer Running_ he was named. It is the custom of our tribe to name the offspring according to the spirits in nature visiting upon the birth. The boy then asked “How did my sister _Thundering Bird_ get her name?” The chief described again, how at the moment of her birth _Thundering Bird’s_ mother had heard a roar of thunder and looking up, saw a bird flying in the sky. The boy asked yet again, how his cousin _White Crouching Bear_ had been given such a name. The chief, looking down once more at the boy, explainined “At the moment of her child’s birth _White Crouching Bear’s_ mother saw a white bear crouched over a stream. But tell me - Why do you ask, _Two Dogs Fucking_?” ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/27 "2020-06-26T01:23:09Z")
I did work on a court case that emanated out of an Indian Reservation in Montana; most of the people involved (including investigating law enforcement) were native Americans, and some had quite memorable names (e.g. the court reporter’s last name was “Not Help Him”). My favorite, though, was an investigator whose last name was “Afraid of Bear”. I figure that there’s some family legacy behind that name, and not necessarily a proud one. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/28 "2020-06-26T03:12:08Z")
It’s better than “Names for pet American Indians”… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/29 "2020-06-26T14:55:52Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > How about changing the question to, “Suggest a descriptive name for your pet, in the way that some Native American indigenous people do for their people.” That will work. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/30 "2020-06-26T15:11:35Z")
"This sounds like “How can we tie “Native American indigenous people” and “stupid pet names” together and get away with it”? The idea itself is wrong no matter how you rephrase it. How about just “stupid pet names”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2020, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/31 "2020-06-26T17:03:45Z")
Since we are just fussing with each other, perhaps we should just lock it. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2020, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-indian-names-for-pets/912164/32 "2020-06-27T14:25:34Z")
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