How did you name your pets?

In My Humble Opinion
41

My parents gave up on ever having a daughter, so they gave the name Lucy to our last dog. (If they’d actually had a daughter, they say they would have named her Louisa and called her Lucy.) My mom almost immediately got pregnant, which gave them a good scare, but that ended up being my youngest brother.

Our current dog was named after a lot of debate, which I wasn’t really a part of. My mom wanted to give her a non-people name. She liked Scout. Nobody else agreed, and they ended up calling her Maggie. I don’t know what the inspiration for that was, but I think some other M names were also in the running and they lead to that.

My little brother names his fish as he pleases. For a while, the names all rhymed, and he really did go from Eddie to Teddy to Freddy in some order. Then he started naming them after musicians. He had a Bob, and probably a Marley even though I asked him not to, and a Derek and a Domino.

42

My dog’s name was the middle name of a child on a rental application I processed. Normal first name, normal last name, kind of oddball middle name.

Clover.

Clover! said I. What a weird name for a kid. (I think it was a girl.) Then it hit me–

What a cute name for a little dog.

So when we got a dog, I called her Clover.

43

After I got her, I called her Cat, because she was a cat. This was an interim name while I thought of a good one. It’s been her interim name for three years.

44

My brother got a tabby kitten with the prominent M marking and I jokingly suggested naming her Mmmm. That’s been her name for about three years now. My brother says it’s really hard to call her, because he can’t hum that loud.

My two cats are from the same litter, and look very much alike except that one’s a brown tabby and one’s a gray tabby. I’ve always liked people names for cats, so I got a baby name book and looked up a name that meant brown and a name that meant gray. Hence, the boys are named Bruno and Lloyd.

It could’ve been worse. I toyed with the idea of naming them Mold and Mildew when I first got them because they were usually found hiding behind the toilet.

45

My family has never been very original in the pet naming department. Growning up we had a cockapoo named Curly, because he had curly fur, and a St. Bernard/Irish wolfhound cross named Shag, because he had look fur.

When I got my first dog of my own, I got a blond cocker just because I’d always wanted a cocker spaniel. I was reading a biography of Lady Jane Grey at the time and named the pup Lady Jane Grey, shortened, unimaginatively, to Lady. Of course, I then spent the rest of her life having exchanges like this: “What’s your dog’s name?” “Lady.” “Ooh! Like ‘Lady and the Tramp’!” " . . . Uh, right. Sure, that’s it."

Lady was a bit timid and very attached to me, I think in part because she was raised an “only pet” by a single girl and didn’t get enough socialization. So when she was 14, I decided to get a puppy because I knew I wouldn’t have Lady for years and years longer, and I didn’t want to raise another “only pet.” So I got a little male cocker puppy and named him Linus. I wanted an “L” name to go with Lady, and Linus just struck me as a good, solid, unpretentious but uncommon name.

I had Linus for two weeks when I lost Lady to a brain tumor. I came home of a Friday to find her having seizures and by Sunday I had to have her put down. It was horrible. So then I had exactly the situation I had been trying to avoid: another single puppy to raise as an “only pet.” Plus, Linus’s situation was not great because I was grieving for Lady and didn’t feel emotionally able to give the little guy the affection he deserved. I explained the situation to my parents and they talked and then called me back to say they would get me a second puppy as a birthday gift, on the condition that I name her Lucy, to go with Linus.

So now I have Linus and Lucy and I get these sort of exchanges: “What are your dogs’ names?” “Linus and Lucy.” “Ooh! From Peanuts!” “. . . Right.” :slight_smile:

46

Stacy’s full name is Anastasia Turtle. I was 12 when she was born. Her middle name is what I called her before I knew her gender, so it became her middle name. The other kittens were Michelle Spots, Jonathon Stripey, Ayla Calico, and Marissa Screamer. Like I said - I was 12.

My husband chose the dog’s name, Maya. He wanted something short and human. Some doggie expert said that dogs respond better to two-syllable names with vowel sounds, so that’s how we chose Maya over something like Fiona (which was my #1 pick).

47

My (former) girlfriend and I adopted a female cat. We were at a music recital and one of the pieces was written by a contemporary composer named Anthony Plog. My girlfriend just liked the name, and this is how we came to have a female cat named Mister Plog.

48

LOVE all the cute pet pics!!!

For my birthday this year I got a new pug puppy!!! It’s the first time I’ve ever had my own pet…and I’m in my 40’s! Actually she is a joint gift for both me and my husband.

Our birthdays are 7 days apart in July. So naturally, we are naming the pup Ruby. Her full name is Princess Ruby Kay because no doubt she will be treated as royalty in our home.

She was only 6 weeks old when we first met her at the breeders, so we don’t have her yet. Alas, since she was a surprise gift I didn’t have my camera. :smack:

49

At first we named our cat Tom, which was kind of lame but no one was being creative.

Luckily, a few months later a strange lady developed a strange obsession with Tom. She would usually stop and talk to him on her way to work. So one day I happened to be with Tom when the lady stopped by and we started to talk. She asked me for his name and then suggested that I add a middle and last name, so that when the cat misbehaved I could address him by his full name. She told me to call him Thomas Jefferson [my last name]. It sounded weird with my last name so I got rid of that.

Now my cat’s name is Thomas Jefferson, Tom for short.

50

Let’s see. I’ll stick with current pets.

Hockey looked like a Japanese Hokkaidoken, which A. shortened to Hokki, which is always spelled Hockey.

Tanker was born last, as the runt of the litter. All of her brothers and sisters were long and sleek as they were born, and she was a little brick of a cat. Her mom’s owners called her Tanker. The name stuck. She is still a brick of a cat.

Jake is named for “The Boy” Jake Chambers in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

Randall is named Randall Flagg because, again, I was reading King’s The Stand when we got him.

No pics online right now, sadly.

51

Our first kitten we named Kitza, which is Ukrainian for kitten.
We had a Rocky later, because his white paws looked like boxing gloves, and the white on his tail reminded us of Sylvester the Cat in the comics. Which tied in nicely to Sylvester Stallone playing Rocky.
We got Pumpkin at the same time, who was obviously named for his orange color. Not very original.

Years later, we adopted a 4-week-old that we literally found in the gutter in a nearby town. He later turned out to be at least part Siamese. He had the aristocratic blue eyes, Siamese markings, but white paws. I named him Oliver Twist in a literary reference.

Currently we have Sara, who just simply looked like Sara. And Skippy, who is peanut-butter colored and was being kept in a Skippy peanut butter carton at the animal rescue booth.

52

A friend of mine was breeding his dog; I had been wanting a dog for a while, was living with my parents (who were kind enough to help), and my friend’s puppies were Goldies - possibly my favorite breed. The dog that convinced me to get a Goldie was named Bailey - after the liquor - as her coloration was similar. So, I was thinking along those lines, when one of my brothers got dad a dog - a black lab. So, we would now have one black dog and one brown dog. Thus, my goldie was named “Bass.”

After that, it was only natural to give her the middle name “Ackwards.” Oh boy does it fit…

53

Our first guinea pig was sort of an impulse purchase; neither of us even liked piggies at the time. But upon seeing that ridiculously cute piggie face in the pet store with her silly curly hair…well, she had to come home. Both the bf and I wanted to give her a really great name, and since that takes a while, had to come up with an interim name. We noticed that, when she walks around, she makes this sound:

pigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpigpig

And so her temporary name became Pig Pig.

Pig Pig was lonely, though, and we had to get her a companion. He, too, needed a temporary name, but since Pig Pig was taken, they became Pig One and Pig Two.

Pig Two finally became Bucky, since he tended to say “buckbuckbuckbuck.” It soon became clear, however, that Bucky was simply too frivolous a name for a boar of his unmatched dignity and bearing, so it was lengthened to Buckington. Even that wasn’t enough, so we granted him a title and he was henceforth known as Lord Buckington.

Lord Buckington is only fair on personal hygiene, though, and so he’s alternately known as Lord Stinkington and Lord Grossbottom. At the vet he goes incognito as Bucky, since I don’t want the vet to think I’m the kind of weirdo who gives her pets names like that.

But Lord Buckington mainly preferred to stay in his pigloo and Pig One was still lonely. So we got another pig, a big fat long-haired orange girl, who was tagged (what else?) Pig Three, until that unfortunate time when she ate something that so violently disagreed with her that she was rechristened Poopsie.

The final lineup:

Pig One
Lord Buckington
Poopsie

54

My cats are littermates. The girl is solid black, long, sleek, and thin, and very regal with a diva attitude. The boy is big and furry, mostly black with some white. After meeting them, I knew the girl was a princess and needed a name fitting for exotic Eastern European royalty. Natasha seemed to suit her. As soon as she became Natasha, I knew her brother was big bad Boris. When I saw them looking out the window and plotting evil again Squirrel, I knew the names were correct. (Normally, I say that they plot evil against Moose and Squirrel, but to be honest, I’ve only tried to show them Moose on Animal Planet and they weren’t really interested). Besides, now I get to be Fearless Leader!

55

My cat Joey got his name in a weird way. I adopted him as a kitten, but I didn’t have a name picked out and I figured when it was right his name would just come to me. Well, as many people with kittens are probably very aware, they are cute but they want attention and need to be playing all the time. About 3 or 4 days after I took him home he was in the bed with me while I was asleep and he was playfully biting on my face, you know the way kittens do. My response was a groggy “Leave me alone Joey!” followed by a confused pondering of, “Who the hell is Joey?” That pretty much cemented it, but then my current roommate (otherwise known as wnabtokio around here) decided it was the best name because she could then call him Joey Joe Joe Joe Joe Joerson. And that is how my kitty got the name Joey.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pbbth19/detail?.dir=5a86scd&.dnm=f349scd.jpg&.src=ph

56

When I first got my cat, everyone would ask her name. I would reply, “I don’t know. I will probably end up calling her something stupid, like Stacie.” And so I do to this day, some seven years later.

Some years ago I got a tiny plastic “aquarium” that came with four teensy fish, two snails, and a little water plant. It was the summer of 1999, so I named all the fish Jar-Jar, and the snails Watto and Sebulba. The Jar-Jars died within a week, probably of embarassment.

57

First family cat was a grey domestic shorthair named Herbie (he was the cat that came with the house my parents bought, or they bought the cat and got the house). His name was my maternal grandfather’s middle name, Herbert

First family dog was a Heinz dog, named Sam. His name was my paternal grandfather’s middle name, Samuel.

Then we moved house, where Herbie’s successor was Ginger Meggs, a ginger shorthair tabby tom. Ginger Meggs is an Australian comic strip, consequently the cat’s name got shortened to Meggsie.

Next dog was a beagle/terrior cross who we got from the animal shelter. His original name was Rambo, and because that name didn’t suit his personality, my parents renamed him Bix, short for Bix Beiderbecke (Jazz trumpeter). (They’d discovered his music through a british show called The Beiderbecke Affair)

Next (and current) family dog was a female Blue Heeler cattle dog, originally named Daewoo (because that car company had a Blue Heeler as its mascot). We renamed her Jess and it suits more, because she is a bit of a Jessie.

My brother’s cat’s name was originally Nova (another animal shelter pet). It’s a grey domestic short hair. She got renamed Ali (short for Alleycat).

My cat was another adoption from the animal shelter, although she didn’t have a name. I named her Sophie - my naming approach being that if I didn’t like the name enough to use if for my own children, I’d use it for my pets. She also answers to nicknames: Ophie, Soph, O-pee, Widget, Fluff-bum.

58

We didn’t name our dog. The shelter did.

We adopted a little rat/fox terrier mix in December of 1999. The shelter was calling her “Holly,” and since it was almost Christmas time, that seemed like an appropriate name.

59

Jayjay and I have five critters here, four cats and a bunny. I will explain their names in order of adoption.

Pud
is actually Princess Chocolate Pudding. Her name came from myself (chocolate pudding) and from Jayjay (Princess). It was a compromise I tell ya! The others wanted to name her India, but that just did not seem right to me. Oy the commotion here when I told them her name. I had to promise that sis and Jayjay could name the next pets.

Next came Scraps
and Macy, a pair of sisters, adopted from a litter. Jayjay named Scraps after the patchwork Girl of Oz. My sister named Macy after the singer Macy Gray.

We do have an outdoor cat that lives underneath our deck. Tommy Girl was originally called Tommy, because we thought that she was a he. When we discovered that she wasn’t, we simply started calling her Tommy Girl.

We had a similar problem with our bunny Phranc . She was abandoned outside of our house, and when we first took her in, we had no idea what sex she was. Jayjay named her after the character from “Donnie Darko”. We discovered on her first vet visit, that Frank was a she. So she became our favorite lesbian rock performing bunny.

60

We got my dog, Streak, a few years ago, and went through a few days long naming process. When we first bought him, his papers listed him as “Colombus”, but the thought of owning a dog named for an inept butcherer kind of left me cold.

So, we thought to change it to “Henson” to keep the explorer theme, as well as honor an African-American, since our family is black and so is the dog. That didn’t stick for very long.

Finally, we, meaning I, settled on “Streak” for the streaks of white fur he had on his head and chest. That, and the fact that he runs like a streak of lightning. For being a bigger dog, he’s crazy fast when he wants to be.