# cultural/geographical differences in pet names?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025 "2015-02-18T18:05:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xythenz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a88e57/32.png) [@xythenz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xythenz)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025/1 "2015-02-18T18:05:32Z")

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Silly question but what are some differences in pet names depending on location and language. Ex. if an American pet name (which may or may not be exclusive to the US) is spot, princess, max, etc what would be its equivalent in say an Asian or middle eastern country (with geographically appropriate pets) ?

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025/2 "2015-02-18T19:05:22Z")

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Language, absolutely. It is difficult to imagine most of the world picking for their pet Jaun (lord, gentleman, sir - Basque); Lagun (friend, helper - Basque); Gos (dog - Catalan) or Groc (yellow - Catalan) if those words don’t mean anything for the humans involved.

Linky to a [list of dog names](http://www.todoperro.es/nombres/razas.php) from Spanish-speakers. The list is separated by breed and collated from names provided by site users.

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025/3 "2015-02-19T14:50:18Z")

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I knew two Japanese families that had dogs. One was Charlie (or the Japanese transliteration thereof - something like Choo-a-ee) and another named Brown (not the Japanese word for “brown” - the English word “Brown”).

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cultural-geographical-differences-in-pet-names/713025/4 "2015-02-19T17:26:48Z")

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I once saw a list of names ancient Romans gave their dogs, and most of them, once translated, wouldn’t seem out of place for a modern American dog. IIRC, they included “Hunter”, “Rusty”, “Killer”, and of course the old favorite “Spot”.