# Does your pet's pretentious name reflect your income/class? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965 "2011-11-24T12:59:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/41 "2011-11-24T22:14:45Z")
My dog’s name is Hudson. His pedigree name is Iglignaq Pleasant Surprise. I much prefer Hudson. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/42 "2011-11-24T23:27:54Z")
My brother accidentally inherited a pair of rabbits from moron neighbors who just abandoned them on an outdoor hutch when the family moved away. He named them Stew and Hassenpfeffer (sp?) ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/43 "2011-11-25T00:28:04Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > The only one of my pets I named is my little dog Buddy. I don’t even know why I named him that; it just popped into my head within minutes of meeting. It must be the second least pretentious name in the English language next to “Dog”. > > My oldest daughter named the cats Miso and Wonton. I don’t know where she was going with that but they stuck. We had a kitten named Squirrel but she seemed more like a Mouse so we’ve been slowly shifting with Mousie-Squirrel and Squirrely-Mouse. I once had a cat named Jane, after the Lou Reed song. It became clear that she wasn’t sweet at all, and in fact was a deadly ruthless predator living in our house. Her name transitioned to ‘Ming the Merciless’. ---
**Author:** ![coffinjumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@coffinjumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffinjumper)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/44 "2011-11-25T00:30:37Z")
For a while I named all our pets after spices. We eventually ran out of good ones though. Currently I have Kinoko (Japanese for mushroom, which is the shape a marking on his bak is in), Yin (she used to have a brother), Wysteria (yeah, she was the last one we tried to spice name), and Smokey (my nephew named him). The outdoor kitties we feed I have christened Binary, Grayscale, and Sepia. Well if nothing else, it certain confirms my geekiness and nerdom. (Sadly I can’t talk other house members into naming one of the cats Mandelbrot, but I want to.) ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/45 "2011-11-25T01:56:22Z")
My cats’ names are kinda pretentious, I guess. My boy is named Becket after Sir Thomas a Becket (no real reason) and my girl is named Eliana, though she’s only known as Ellie. I chose Eliana because it means “daughter of the sun” - she’s an orange tabby. I looked up “orange cat names” on Google. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/46 "2011-11-25T02:14:58Z")
A propos of nothing, my neighbours have a bulldog with the coolest bulldog name ever: Knuckles ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/47 "2011-11-25T02:39:00Z")
This argument makes no sense. I am a highly overeducated (upper) middle class white male. Where I come from, having heard of Clytemnestra or Candide is not a major intellectual accomplishment. Who would be impressed by such a thing? Having an expensive car or something sends a real, costly signal to other people. You can name your cat anything the hell you want, so it doesn’t really convey much information one way or another. Educated people won’t be particularly impressed, and neither will people who don’t care very much about learning and erudition. I don’t think that educated, upper-class people can actually create intellectual credibility with pet names. If that were the case, everyone would have a pet, and every cat would be named Sobeknofru or the like. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/48 "2011-11-25T03:04:07Z")
Dolly is named for Dolly Parton. I would be considered “above” her demographic. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/49 "2011-11-25T03:25:07Z")
My dachshund/wiener dog is named Nathan, 'cause he’s such a good hotdog! And this was suggested by a fellow Doper! ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/50 "2011-11-25T03:38:48Z")
My best friend and I once plotted to name my first kitty Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (Sidney for short). I had my eye on a Russian Blue kitten I wanted to adopt, but for various reasons I wasn’t able to. The cat I did end up adopting came with a name - Olive, for her eyes. Naming the furry poofball Countess of anything would have been ludicrous, so Olive she stayed. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/51 "2011-11-25T03:40:12Z")
Our cat is Lightning, after the way he would tear around the hose. Growing up we had Herbert and later Tashia, whose kittens we named Honey (for her color) and Calico Runt (usually just Runt) ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/52 "2011-11-25T04:01:24Z")
My current black cat is Fezzik. Past pets were a black cat named Grover (Cleveland), a black/white/grey tabby cat named Ripley and a beautiful purebred Rottweiler named Galadriel…I didn’t name the dog, she used to be my best friends pet. I am definitely lower middle class, at best. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/53 "2011-11-25T06:02:25Z")
Better pretentious pet names than pretentious kid’s names! My family’s upper-middle, our cat is Candy. We got her from our friends the Cotton family… yeah, real creative. The cat doesn’t answer to it anyway, so either she doesn’t give a crap or thinks it’s beneath her. If she could name herself, she would be Her Serene Highness Candice Aurelia Chatney, Ruler of the Sofa, the Clean Laundry, and That Spot Where You’re Sitting, Too. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/54 "2011-11-25T06:21:00Z")
Typhon. He’s named after the evilest of Greek Titans. He was a naughty, wild kitten and my son was really into Greek Mythology at the time, so that’s how he got named. Is it pretentious? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/55 "2011-11-25T06:21:06Z")
I’ve begun naming my cats after places I’ve visited. So my two current cats are Paris and Vienna. At some point I’ll be getting a third cat, and its name will be either Amsterdam or Barcelona. Other names could be Chartres, Salisbury, Bryce, Maui, Giverny, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Avignon, Perpignan, Montpellier, Florence, Martinique and many more. I will never have enough cats to run out of names. I don’t know what this says about me. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/56 "2011-11-25T09:08:42Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I’ve begun naming my cats after places I’ve visited. So my two current cats are Paris and Vienna. At some point I’ll be getting a third cat, and its name will be either Amsterdam or Barcelona. Other names could be Chartres, Salisbury, Bryce, Maui, Giverny, Toulouse, Carcassonne, Avignon, Perpignan, Montpellier, Florence, Martinique and many more. I will never have enough cats to run out of names. Honestly, yeah, I find that a little pretentious. My cats are TJ, Lemmy, Ozzy, and Momo…so if heavy metal singers and made up names are pretentious, I’m guilty, lol. ---
**Author:** ![Art\_Rock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/art_rock/32/525_2.png) [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/57 "2011-11-25T11:40:06Z")
Our cocker spaniel is called [Jazz](http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/sets/72157601346647431/). No pretentiousness intended, just a fun and slightly less usual name. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/58 "2011-11-25T13:26:40Z")
Does the pretentiousness reflect my income/class? I don’t know. How are we defining class? I’m upper-middle, I guess. Our dog’s names are: [Joe](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/rbp2/5bfb122a.jpg), [Finley](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/rbp2/2011-03-04T16-10-16.jpg), and [Mitzi](http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/rbp2/DSCI0053.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/59 "2011-11-25T13:36:33Z")
Dogs - Deefer (D fer dog), Fiona, Royce (I suppose his registered name is a bit pretentious but that was determined by his breeder.) The foster dog is Monster, not named by me. Cats, including some of the outdoor strays that I’ve TNR’d and named: Archie, Gorman, GM (Grey Male), Bob (early kittenhood accident left him with an inch-long stub of a tail) Cheech, Feather, Elsie (Little Cat) Fanta. I picked a hit mother cat and her two kittens up on the side of the freeway once. I named her Freeway and the kittens Onramp and Offramp. Not pretentious at all, I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965/60 "2011-11-25T13:42:58Z")
Dogs are Loki and Freya, so named in direct revolt to my wife’s naming conventions. The cats are Booger, Ralph, and Skunkbutt. Pretentious? Frankly, I don’t give a damn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-your-pets-pretentious-name-reflect-your-income-class/603965.md?page=4)