# How did you name your pet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301 "2013-11-19T22:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/141 "2013-12-23T20:23:20Z")
It all depends…the only “rule” we have is that cats get “cat names” and dogs get “people names”. \*Sam \*came to us already named. When we got \*Joe \*as a puppy from the shelter \*\*Rhiannon8404 \*\*went in looking for a dog that looked like a “Joe”. \*George \*was named “King” when we picked him out, so we changed that to a more appropriate “royal” name. \*Sonny \*also came to us pre-named. \*Boxer \*was named because he showed up unexpectedly, curled up underneath our Christmans tree, one Boxing Day morning. \*Mog \*was so named because he looked just like the character from the [children’s books](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mog_(Judith_Kerr)). \*Whiskey \*would lick you until your skin was raw; he was “a little liquor (licker)”. \*Smokey \*was named after the color of her fur, and \*Blue \*after his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Arabella\_Flynn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8491ac/32.png) [@Arabella\_Flynn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arabella_Flynn)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/142 "2013-12-23T23:09:10Z")
I keep rats. They’re social critters, so you keep them in sets, and mine therefore tend to have theme names. The first pair we kept communally in a shared apartment. They were named Phoenix and Miles, because we’re complete dorks who play a lot of video games. Miles was amusingly fussy about how his nest box was arranged, and would spend quite a lot of time “redecorating” by bulldozing things around with his tiny rat head. The next batch was a trio, who were named Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, but were usually called ADVENTURE RAT!, Neuroti-rat, and The Corpulent Ratball. They may or may not have known their names, but they all had quite definitely knew their species. We sat down to watch the movie “Ratatouille” once – a film wherein the word ‘rat’ is used about once every forty-five seconds – and they all went berserk whenever they heard it. After I moved, I attempted to get a pair of rats, but ended up with four of them when the rescue league couldn’t place the last two brothers. I asked my exceedingly nerdy flatmate for suggestions, and he promptly started naming off bridge crew from the Enterprise. He never could tell them apart, but I did know which label went to which rat – the name Kirk, for example, was applied to the one I had to keep fishing out of my bra. Bones was the grumpy one. Spock was the giant shy one, and Chekov was a slightly smaller Kirk-lite. I dressed them as the Avengers for a costume party once: [Costume success!](http://ariflynn.blogspot.com/2012/06/costume-success.html) Currently, I have a set of three albino girls. They’ve been named Yuki, Edelweiß, and Bianca, but I’m already calling them Yukki, Eddie, and Binky. They don’t care much; they’re still young enough that they’re just now realizing that when I open their cage it means I’m going to give them something awesome, like attention, or candy wrappers. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/143 "2013-12-23T23:43:50Z")
I like Captain Rat-Merica best, but Iron Rat is fun too. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/144 "2013-12-24T06:56:36Z")
> [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](#): > > Bela, lab mix from a shelter. Based on estimates of her age, she was born around Beltane. > > Tallulah, dlh. She was found as a wee kitteh on the sidewalk across from my old house in Fairburn, Georgia. Named in honor of Tallulah Bankhead. > > Nini, short for Phoenix, dsh. I chose Phoenix as a name because she was a baby stray found with her mama (who got away) in my back shed at the same house where I found Tallulah. For all I know they have the same papa but they look nothing alike. Anywho, where I found her was mere feet away from where I had burried my dear, sweet Peaches. He had been taken down by stray dogs. She was the Phoenix from his ashes. _sniff_ > > Mango - dsh, orange tabby. Obvious reasons, but prophetic as she is a complete fruit loop. > > Willow, dlh. She was named in honor of Pussy willow, a favorite plant of mine as a kid. I don’t recall which species we have along our rivers and streams around here, but I spent many long hours as a girl, walking country roads rubbing pussy willow buds against my lips and thinking of… cute kittehs…yeah…ahem. > > Gypsy, Syrian hamster. When we decided to take her home from Petco, Fleetwood Mac’s Gypsy was playing. > > Brimli, Dwarf hamster. She looks just like Wilford Brimley with her poofy white whiskers. Pics, finally. [Brimli](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3711/11526845544_21a078c166.jpg) [Gypsy](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7396/11526887976_2609e01e29.jpg) [Tallulah](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/11526846664_8116faed29.jpg) [Nini](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3720/11526804205_94a84f63ea.jpg) [Mango](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2849/11526886306_85859ba6f1.jpg) [Willow](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3722/11526846214_f1bdc209a7.jpg) [Bela](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/11526847984_4a7016ce56.jpg) And my partner has nothing interesting to say as to why she chose to name her PomPoo [Emma](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3822/11526803985_25310b7557.jpg), but there she is. ---
**Author:** ![SpinyNorma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@SpinyNorma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpinyNorma)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2013, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/145 "2013-12-24T08:39:50Z")
I got Bubba the Wonder Doof when a kid brought him to my nephews’ school because his mom said there was no way he was staying. Sometimes I think she was a lot smarter than me. They volunteered me to adopt him and, just shy of 14 years later, we’re still together. He was a tiny thing then (Now he’s built like a bus), maybe 4 weeks old. Anyway, I started calling him Bubba just as something to call him while I tried to find his real name. I wanted to name him Dinsdale but it turned out his real name was Bubba. And he _is_ definitely a Bubba in the true redneck sense–he’s not very bright (Frankly, he’s dumb as hair), he’s usually very sweet but he’s also prone to random violence for no real reason. When Bubba was about 6, I got another cat. He came with some generic cat name which I’ve long since forgotten but I knew that wasn’t his name. I named him Boo Radley, mainly because I’ve just always loved that name. It turned out to fit him. He was a very sweet-natured cat, very gentle, and very shy among strangers. About a year or so later, I got an orange tabby kitten who I named Bogey, mainly because the other two had B names and also I just liked the name. I wouldn’t say he’s much like Bogart but the name does seem to fit him and he responded to it. Boo had to be rehomed to a good friend of mine a couple of years ago because Bogey kept fighting with him and poor Boo’s nerves were shot because of it. He’s very happy in his new home but, damn, I miss that cat sometimes. As per the rules, here are pictures. Bubba (This picture makes him look much smaller than he really is):[http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas321.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7](http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas321.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7) Boo, getting a washing from Bubba: [http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas356.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6](http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas356.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6) Bogey, the painfully enthusiastic and cross-eyed: [http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas319.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8](http://s945.photobucket.com/user/SpinyNorma/media/B%20Boys/111810catsandVegas319.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8) ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/146 "2013-12-27T17:27:47Z")
I haven’t had pets since childhood, but 50 years ago, my family got a couple of kittens, brother and sister. As the youngest in the family, I got to name them, and came up with Ozzie and Harriet, in honor of the long-running TV comedy. Ozzie was a cool name, but when he pre-deceased his sister, 14 years later, my parents had a tough time explaining why they had an old cat named Harriet. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/147 "2013-12-27T18:02:37Z")
The first pet I ever named was the poodle we had when I was a child. I was about 8 years old and we had just seen the (syndicated) episode of _I Dream of Jeannie_ with her dog, Djinn-Djinn. Not knowing how that was spelled, I named the poodle Gin-Gin, which actually coordinated well with our already-owned beagle mix, Ginger. I didn’t have another pet until I was an adult and a little black cat adopted us by getting stuck on our roof. Let me preface this by saying that I DID NOT PICK this name, my partner did. He named her Princess Chocolate Pudding (I was holding out for something like “India”), which immediately and forever has been shortened to “Pud” (pronounced pood, not pud). When we adopted the other two cats from my uncle’s cat’s first litter, one was a gray tabby and one was a diluted calico. The tabby was named Macy (for singer Macy _Gray_) and the calico was named Scraps (for the Patchwork Girl of Oz). When my partner found a domestic rabbit in the street one night on the way home from his nightshift job, we didn’t know what gender it was. We had recently seen _Donnie Darko_, so I named the rabbit Frank. When we got it to the vet for a checkup, he sexed it as female, so we changed the name to Phranc, for the androgynous folk singer. When we got the dog (a bearded collie/border collie mix), she was part of a litter that had been surrendered to the Humane League by the owner. The staff had named them all after cartoon characters. The one we picked out was named Daisy (as in Duck) and we kept the name since she’d spent weeks being called that at the shelter. When we brought Daisy in for a vet checkup as part of the adoption agreement, the vet said he’d recently examined a dog that looked almost identical except it was male and we asked what the name had been. “Sylvester”, he said, which led us to believe it was a member of the same litter, as there had been an almost identical mix in the shelter when we first picked out Daisy. ---
**Author:** ![Cold\_Dish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce7236/32.png) [@Cold\_Dish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cold_Dish)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/148 "2013-12-28T01:58:46Z")
Dundee. Australian cattle dog. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/149 "2013-12-29T04:32:53Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Another dog is named Tyson. Not for the chicken though. His owner says when he was a puppy he liked to chew on his littermate’s ears. I have a cat named Evander for being on the wrong end of a nasty ear-chewing. Hoser is simply a hosehead so he essentially named himself. Stretch stretched, a lot. Pipsqueak didn’t meow fully, she squeaked. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/150 "2013-12-29T05:54:19Z")
6 year old Terri-poo we named Opie. In all honesty because my Step-father, who passed away had a really cute Terri-poo named Opie. And he LOOKS like an Opie. Second dog was a little different. He started off as a foster puppy, who we got when he was about four or five weeks old. He was an orphan, and he was bottle fed for a little while. He was also clumsy. He used to stumble over his own feet a lot. This was right around the last summer Olympics (London 2012), and I was watching the Triathlon avidly. I saw the disastrous fall by Canada’s Triathlon “Golden Boy” Simon Whitfield. We named him Simon. A friend of mine is friends with Simon Whitfield’s mom, hopefully he appreciates it, as opposed to being insulted. Our “foster” puppy, who is now a permanent member of our family, is a year and a half and thankfully not as clumsy (neither is Simon Whitfield, thank goodness). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/151 "2013-12-29T08:33:27Z")
My family’s dog was Koko, a fox terrier mix. My family tells me that I named it after the cartoon character Koko the Clown. However, I was so young at the time that I don’t remember naming him. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/152 "2013-12-29T10:24:21Z")
> [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](#): > > [Bela](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7314/11526847984_4a7016ce56.jpg) Sadly we had to put our poor sweet girl down on Friday. We all miss you, Bela boo. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301/153 "2013-12-29T10:54:50Z")
> [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](#): > > Sadly we had to put our poor sweet girl down on Friday. We all miss you, Bela boo. ☹ Oh I am so sorry. I’ve loved all my cats, but when I got a dog things changed, because a dog loves you back and shows it. I’m sure Bela knows you miss her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-you-name-your-pet/674301.md?page=7)