My German Shepard’s name is Khyron. He is named after the evil Zentradi warlord.
I have ex-racing greyhounds, so most of their names come from whatever their official racing name was.
JC’s racing name was JC’s Grey Hawk. We never have found out what the JC stood for exactly. All we know is that they are the initials of the wife of the guy who was his racing owner.
Roman was named because he was a stray who was turned in to a local pound - he was found just roamin’ around. We added a little dignity by changing the spelling, and it seemed to suit him well. I liked his racing name when we found that out - Ragnar, from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged,” but by the time we found out about it, he was already Roman to us.
Rob Roy had been called Bobby by his previous owners due to his racing name of Bad Boy Bobby. We didn’t care for it, so we renamed him - called him Robby for short, which was close enough to his old name to keep him from getting confused.
Idol is named Idol because that was his call name at his racing kennel. Couldn’t think of anything to do with his racing name, All I Can Be (though I guess we could have called him Army, seeing as how it reminds me of their old slogan 
). He’s been called a lot of things since we’ve gotten him - most of them unprintable in this forum 
, but he’s also stunningly beautiful and very endearing at times, so he gets away with more than he should.
Maggie–brought home by one of Dr.J’s roommates, who named her LaMaga. Everyone else in the house called her Maggie. Since she’s black and white and kind of tubby, I affectionately call her Maggie-Moo, Moo-Moo, and Moo-kitty. When she’s in trouble, though, she’s Margaret.
Eponine–showed up as a stray at the vet clinic. She was a skinny little street rat who just wanted someone to love her. It seemed like a good name at the time. We usually call her Eppy, which sometimes leads to people thinking her name is Epinephrine. As wired up as she is sometimes, it wouldn’t really be a bad name for her at that.
Dolly–dumped at my parents’ house. She’s almost a dead ringer of their dog, so Dad took to calling her Dolly (like the sheep). When I took her home with me, we just kept the name.
Before my two cats, my pets were typically named very unimaginitively.
Examples, when I was younger, our family ended up with a Guinea Pig. Originally I had thought of some witty name for the beast, but after a day or so, it was referred to simply as “pig”.
After a while, we somehow ended up with 3 more guinea pigs. They were named “baby pig”, “fat pig”, and “stupid pig” (although the latter could have easily referred to all 4 just as accurately).
We then got a ferret. It was named “ferret”.
But now, I have two cats with “real” names.
Kit - My oldest. When I was pondering adopting a cat, my younger sister (who was about 10 at the time) suggested the name “Kit Kat”. I thought that was a little much, so I shortened it to just “Kit” and it works pretty well.
Zippy - Despite the name, Zippy is about the fattest, laziest, most immobile cat I’ve ever seen. He won’t even jump up to get a pounce treat, you have to put it close enough to him so that he can just sort of halfway roll-over to eat it. But, he didn’t get the name with the expectation that he would become some sort of super-cat. It’s actually a tribute to Dave Barry. His “small emergency backup dog” was named “Zippy”. And so, Zippy being my newest, and youngest cat, I decided that description fit him pretty well (although the “small” is hardly appropriate anymore).
Both of my cats, Hobbes and Patches, were already named by their previous owner, a friend of mine, and I decided to keep the names. Hobbes, who is about 9 years old, was named after the Hobbes in the cartoon strip, though he’s gray with a white belly, bearing little resemblance to a tiger. Patches is about two years old. He’s mostly black with some white patches, hence his name.
A couple years ago I had a cat named Calvin, whose was named this because it complemented the name Hobbes. Unfortunately he had to be put down because of kidney problems.
Presley was a stray, and someone at the shelter named him Percy. hell no I aint gonna have no gay dog livin with me gosh dernit. I need a manly name for me pooch. A name that makes the chicks swoon, but I don’t want to confuse the pooch too much. hmmmmmm. What sounds like Percy?
Brat - my bird (red-fronted kakariki). Already named when I got him. He’d say “You’re being a big brat.”
He died about 2 hours ago. 
Chang Lee: Pug dog, sounded like a good name for a chinese dog.
Jade: Pug bitch, the kids named her. She is my heart dog.
Isa: Chihuahua bitch, picked from a list of Spanish names. She was a rescue/foster and I let Mr. Tupug name her cause he’s the one who fell in love with her.
Dottie: DLH, has a black “dot” on the back of one hind leg, monster from hell, hates everyone but my daughter
Buddy: Cockatiel who dropped out of the trees onto my head. I am convinced that Buddy was sent by a very special friend’s Saluki bitch who died tragically not long before. The Saluki’s name was Rose hence Rose’s “Bud.”
Tupac and Kurt, the conure and cockatiel, were *supposed to be named Jay and Silent Bob. Tupac refused to answer to Jay. I was listening to “I Get Around” by Tupac Shakur and I saw the conure respond by hopping on his perch. He’ll answer to Tupac, so I settled. The cockatiel likes to sit quietly and is shy, so Kurt after Cobain seemed to fit. Found out Kurt was female later on
One of my best friends came up with Lil Spike Kitty for my then new kitten, which evolved as she grew into Spike. It’s a wrestling reference. (Little Spike Dudley)
When I got my Pit Bull, I had her outside and was watching her try to climb a snow pile. She reminded me of Mick Foley (yes, another wrestler) climbing the steel cage. She became Foley
I managed to get naming duty on all three of my Mom’s rotten little dustmoppy shitzu dogs.
Chin Chin got his name because as a child I misheard the name of that monkey in the “Speed Racer” cartoon, the one that was always stowing away in the trunk of the Mach-5 (it was actually “Chim Chim” BTW).
Gnarley got his name in a obtuse way because Mom was in love with Rock Hudson as a young girl, and defiantly refused to believe he was gay, even though at that time Hudson was dying from AIDS and, as “Entertainment Tonight” put it: “bieng tended to by his ‘long-term male companion’”. Uh-huh. Anyway, Mom wanted to to name the dog “Rock” and Dad adamantly refused to ever be seen walking a fru-fru little dustmoppy dog named “Rock”.
Now, at the time there were these toys called Rock Narlies on the market, and the TV commercial had this cliché heavy metal rock vocal that went “WHOOOoooooooOOO! ROCK Narlieeeees!!” that just cracked me up.
So Mom and Dad were in the middle of the “Rock” name debate, and I, to break the tension, scream “WHOOOoooooooOOO! ROCK Narlieeeees!!”. He was Gnarley ever since.
Shtoopid got his name the obvious way. Dad was sick of Mom bringing home stupid little dustmoppy dogs.
I just love pet names (warning LONG! Ok, so I’ve had a zoo :))…
Echo23TC thank you so much for starting this thread and thank you Everyone for contributing to it.
I’ll list both current and those that have passed on. First let me say that I am one of those that see their pets as their kids since I could never have kids so my kids have real names.
My Dad was very proud of his Irish heritage so he named both of his kids Irish names. I was divorced for 22 years so adopted my Daddy’s tradition.
Current House Cats:
Shae Erin - Pure White DSH (domestic short hair) cat.
Duffy McGuirk - Ocicat and Brown Tabby mix DSH. Rico and I had been married about 2 weeks when we got Duffy. Rico named him. He is proud of his Scottish heritage.
Pearl Ann - DSH Tortoise shell. The house we rent is owned by Rico’s boss and part of the deal with renting here is we’ll feed the stay cats he acumulated over the years. He had named Pearl because she purrrrrs so perhaps the correct spelling of her name would be Purrrrl. Since I didn’t have a middle name the first 44 years of my life and felt totally left out, I’ve given my ‘kids’ a middle name. When Pearl decided to become a housecat after 1 1/2 years of us living here, I asked Rico what name he thought would go with Pearl. He said Ann and it stuck.
Current Outside:
Slinky - Beautiful DSH Sealpoint Siamese with blue eyes. He is one of the most beautiful boys I’ve ever seen. I’ve been trying to talk him into coming in and becoming a house cat. So far he’s curious and very wary.
Shemp - DLH (domestic long hair) black and white female cat.
Moe - DSH black and white male cat.
Larry - DSH black and white male cat. (I think he’s a male. He’s to shy to check it out.)
These three look very much alike and hang out together, especially Shemp and Moe. I think you can guess where we got the names from. At the time, we didn’t know that Shemp was female.
Jack - possum. He comes to eat the cat food we put out. When I looked at him, he just looked like a ** Jack** to me.
Jill - possum. One night we heard a terrible noise at the front window. Neither Rico nor I had any clue what in the world the noise could be. We ran in to find out what it was and found Jack between the window pane and the bars on the windowsill being attacked by a smaller possum. He just sat there and took her abuse. The ultimate in spouse abuse. Jill
Those that have passed on:
Rico’s:
Candy - White cockapoo dog. Nicknamed Babalu by Rico’s little sister. She was named Candy because Rico had a crush on a girl in his 1st grade class named Candy…gotta love the mind of a 6 year old :). We have no idea how her nickname came to be.
Shawnee aka Weenie Dog - Male Dachshund. The smartest dog in the world. Rico could be talking to a friend, not even looking at the dog, and in the middle of a sentence insert the words 'Weenie Dog". Shawnee would start to howl, thereby proving he did not like to be insulted.
Arrogant - beautiful Australian Shepard male dog. Arrogant was Rico’s ex’s ex’s dog and he went to Alaska to work on the pipeline for 6 months and asked them to take care of Arrogant. When they got Arrogant he was a matted mess. Rico had a friend who owned a dog grooming shop so off he went. Arrogant was really hating life. He cowered and was just not a happy camper while they washed him and combed him out. While they were blowing him dry, Arrogant took a look at himself in the window and all of a sudden he sat up straight, and became extremely cooperative. He was sooooo pretty and he knew it! LOL He lived up to his name.
Joey Boy - Parakeet. He was a green standard who flew into the window when Rico was 3 years old. Poor Joey Boy.
Mine:
Kali Shannon - DLH Calico.
Shelby Lynne - DLH Siamese. (Yes, I know it’s not Irish, but I loved the name and it seemed to fit her).
Megan Colleen - DLH Copper colored. I don’t know what breed and I don’t know for sure she’s passed on. It’s possible she’s still alive but when I moved about 4 years ago, she had been the neighborhood cat and preferred to stay instead of moving with Kali, Shelby, Shae and me.
Butterball - DLH Orange Tabby. He was very large. A roommate named him and I was young and stupid enough not to know better.
Cheekie - DLH Tabby. My ex named her.
Sir Markus deAllen aka Markie - DLH. I have no idea what breed. I had a terrible crush on Mark Lindsey at the time I got him. My mother said he needed a ‘regal name’ instead of Mark which I wanted to name him. The workings of a young teen mind. 
Patches - Cockapoo. She was a cute black and white dog who was always smiling. She came to us with the name. She looked much more like a cocker then a poodle.
Shoosh - Cockapoo puppy. My cousin’s dog had puppies and she gave me one. She had named her because of her white ‘shoes’ on a black puppy. Poor little Shoosh got distemper a few days after her shots and had to be put to sleep
Lickapoo - black and white rat. Descriptive of his 2 favorite activities…licking and pooping.
Priscilla - yellow parakeet. No clue how she got her name.
Perry - Green parakeet. I got the two parakeets from my aunt and uncle who raised them. My uncle’s name was Perry.
Silver Lady - black and white rabbit. She was mostly black with white tips on her fur that gave her a silver look.
Thumper - Giant Flemish white rabbit. I was 4 or 5 when I got him. My mom named him.
Pretzel - Male cat. I have no idea what breed he was. My mother named him because of his unusual markings.
Numerous other rabbits - I don’t remember their names.
Two japanese quail, I can’t think of their names.
I’m experiencing a bit of feeling like my biological clock is ticking. I want to hear the pitter patter of tiny paws again. I’m so hungry for a puppy. It’s been soooooooo long since I’ve had a dog and I really want one. We have a name picked out. It’ll be MacKintosh or MacKensie. Either way it’ll be nicknamed Mac. And we want either a Golden Lab or Akita (mix is ok). We’re currently searching the shelters. If anyone in the area knows of one that is either young or young enough to be renamed, let us know
We saw a lab dachsund mix last night and it was the funniest looking dog we’ve every seen. Picture a lab head on a dachsund body.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaaa
Both our cats are named from characters out of Buffy
Kendra because we felt stupid calling out Buffy, Willow or Xander.
Dawn because she was found abandonded early one morning and it really suits her as she’s a whiny little thing.
Say, Cadolphin reminds me of something. Whatever happened to that poster Crazy Cat Lady?
The cats I am privileged to serve are Tobermory and The Road Warrior Tobermory is named for the well known story by H.H. Munro(Saki), the cat with the ultimate in attitudes. The Road Warrior got his name because as a kitten he clung to the undersides of a car, all the way into town during a storm. We already had a cat in the family named Max, and one named Lucky so those were out. He was still so young(about seven weeks) that I wasn’t sure if it was a boy or girl, So I decided on Road Warrior if it was a boy and Tina(for Tina Turner) if it was a girl.
I wasn’t going to say anything, but then I was, and then I wasn’t, but now I have to ask…You have a pet chimpanzee?
BTW, my old roommate and I had a very large (20 lbs.) cat simply called The Beast. We were surprised as any one day when we saw him climb up the side of our building to our second story balcony.
winken the wonderful… she had an eye infection as a kitten. it looked like she was winking at us.
nod the naughty… when mum found nod, she was about 10 days old. she had been bitten by another cat and had an infection at the punture site. off she went to the vet. when asked for a name i went with nod because blinken was too close to winken, they might get confused. she is very naughty, and harasses winken terribly.
malenka the miraculous. she was found under the deck in the back yard. my neighbour had caught her mom and taken her to a shelter, not realizing she had a kitten. malenka was about 3 days old. the late night folks at the sdmb kept us company that first night until i could get her to the vet in the morning. duck duck goose gave me many web sites on kitten care that were a god send in the weeks following. it is a miracule that i found her that night. she is black and white, it was very dark in the yard, and i couldn’t see her at all under the deck. i just “happened” on her when i reached down.
she has had tons of heath problems in her first year and to this day at a year and a half old, has to take medication daily. once again she is sweetly sleeping next to me as i check out what is going on at the sdmb.
Precious the pitbull/lab puppy is golden in color and is our precious, gollum, gollum, we wants her! We loves her!
Currently have 4 dogs:
#1 dog is a purebred Australian Shepherd called Sasha, registered name being Flame’s Sasha My Love. aka Doodle, Doodle Dog or Crazy Bitch.
We were looking through a book of dog names and wanted something kinda different. We thought about names like Misha or Dakota, but settled on Sasha. The rest of her registered name is just cuz she’s our first dog together and we dote on her terribly.
#2 Dog is an Australian Shepherd mix named Ivan. He came to us named Jackumbo, of all things, but we kept the Russian theme and called him Ivan. Nicknames: Uncle Ivan, Uncle, or Mr. Boo, Boo-boo, or Booberry.
#3 Dog is a purebred Australian Shepherd we got from Aussie Rescue, originally named something like Kamchetka. She came to us with the call name Cammie, which quickly morphed into Cambot and then to Baby Bop.
#4 Dog is a rescue Aussie mix named Bouncer. That was what they called him at the shelter, and it fit him so well (happy enthusiastic dog that will bounce around and play with you) that we had to keep it. His main nickname (acquired after a bout of intestinal problems) is Tooterpoot.
The best name I think I ever gave to an animal was to my all-time favorite cat, a jellicle cat named Michaelmouse. I got him as a kitlet, and I was snuggling with him one day when I thought "You look like a little monkey. But I can’t call you a monkey, so I’ll call you mouse. Hmm, what goes good with mouse…Michaelmouse! A wonderful and astonishing animal.
I had a polydactly cat named Jenny GreyFeathers (short name JennyGrey) once, but that sounds a bit twee to me these days.
Named my dog after a Far Side cartoon, in which a traveling salesman is visiting a farmer. The salesman is reaching down to pat the farmer’s dog, who is fast asleep–with one paw resting on a giant chainsaw.
Farmer: “I wouldn’t do that, mister. Old Zeke’s liable to fire that sucker up.”
I had a friend who had two cats named Pabst and Olajuwon. You can probably guess his interests.
Greetings, everyone.
My cats:
Noodle, named so because the hubby called him a noodlehead.
Calista, We got her around the time “Ally McBeal” first aired and I was crazy about that show.
Baby Girl(orBG), What can I say? Too lazy to name her.
My dogs:
Matilda(Mattie), I just like the name. And I am old enough to remember the Harry Belafonte song.
Clancy, named after a friend’s19 year old border collie who died.
Jamie(No, my name isn’t really Consuela).