When I was a little girl (back in the early 60s), my dad got me a Rat Terrier. I named her “Poochie”. I used to dress her up in my dolls’ clothes and walk her in my doll carriage for the whole neighborhood to see. It’s a wonder she didn’t tear my throat out…
I currently have a Border Collie pup. I named her “Britches” because she’s black-and-white (with freckles) and has a perfect pair of, well; britches. When she’s been a bad puppy, I call her “Bree-otches!”
My oldest daughter had a cat named “Butthead” when she was still living at home. You haven’t lived until you see the looks on the neighbor’s faces when you yell out “Butthead! get in here, this instance!” Priceless.
In more detail then so far mentioned. Fritz the Cat was a cartoon by Robert Crumb. Leter animated by Ralph Bashki as an X-rated cartoon. So basically my Dad named his mother’s cat after a porn star. She never knew.
I knew a woman one time who moved to an apartment complex with a substantial population of African-American residents. She had a dog named “Digger.” If any of these people were outside (and far enough away that the “D” couldn’t necessarily be discerned) I thought she (and possibly, I) were gonna get killed whenever she began to call him.
And speaking of cute names that lost their charm, I know of one family of small children whose mother came up with the name of “Bunny Bun Bun” for their new rabbit. They thought it was cute, for a while. And my sister wanted to name her new pup “Precious.” I told her I wasn’t ever gonna call it!
My dad used to name all our barn cats after military contractors. Thus, we had Raytheon (Ray), McDonnell Douglas (Mac), and Grumman, which is actually a rather good name for a cat, despite being a defense contractor. Oddly enough, all these cats had rather prodigious mating records and were the father of many kittens, though Ray’s were all rather stupid-looking and prone to pacifism.
I was a dog groomer 20 years or so ago. We had lots of cocker spaniels among our clientele and at least 7 out of 10 of them were named Brandy. Most of the others were named Buffy. What is up with that? Do cocker owners generally have no imagination or what?
But we had a set of three miniature poodles named Tequela, Kaluha and Mai-tai and another set named Cayenne, Paprika and Saffron. Probably the most unusual name I encountered there was Raisin but my favorite was Tanqueray.
Of course, we had plenty of Sugars, Fluffys and Peppers. No Porkchops though.
A couple of friends of mine once had a dog they called Brigitte. Not so crazy, but it’s whole name was Brigitte Bardog. Not to cast aspersions on the French actress, but this Brigitte was a real bitch.
When I was in school, we got a dog and we couldn’t come up with a name unitll he took some sausages mom had laid on the table. Since they were $4 worth she started calling hin 4 dollars, and it stuck.
She also named a rather unusual looking mut Eli because it means My God.
Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice.
When I was three, I named my dog Booger. Later her puppies were Sky, Grass, Table, Chair, and Weenie (because he was long and round and light brown…).
We gave Weenie to my great-grandma, who tried to change his name to Brownie, without any luck. She was the kind of little old lady who was terribly concerned about “what the neighbors would think,” and the idea of her yelling “Weenie! Here, Weenie!” out the front door still makes me giggle.
In Maryland, we lived down the road from a guy that named his pets the first thing his gaze fell on when he got home with them. Therefore, he had a dog named Lunchbox.
And could everyone one please stop naming their labs Molly? I’m not sure why that’s such an incredibly popular name for labs, but it’s gone from cute straight through trendy to uber-annoying.
A bout ten years ago my parents picked up a cat who began to hang out around the farm. She was on a long list of strays who never got elevated to in-house status or a name but always got food we’d put out. One summer when I was visting with my then girlfriend for a few weeks the cat had dissappeared and we figured had run off in search of a better life.
Then we found her lying in a remote area everyone thought she was dead and we even began digging a grave. There was some argument for a while as to weather or not the cat was alive. I was pretty sure she was dead. I mean she was stuck to the ground as if she had begun to decompose. My girlfriend ended the argument by getting a dish of milk and letting the cat lick milk from her finger. My girlfriend nursed the cat back to health. After the cat had recovered it was elevated to name and occasional house status (she had spent some of her recovery in the house.) She was christened “Dead Kitty”.
We also had a little runt of a cat named Milkweed. Cute little bugger.
My roommates and I used to have a rabbit named Ron Jeremy. One of them at first wanted to simply name him Porn, but we wanted to be more creative. He was fat and hairy - hence, Ron Jeremy.
We ended up giving him away after moving to a smaller apt, to a friend who had a four year old daughter. She renamed him Bunny Bunny
Let’s see…I owned a blue parakeet named “Chrysler” (he could say his own name, as well as curse like a longshoreman), an emperor scorpion named “Soloflex”, and a Scottie named “Webley.”
I once lived next-door to a family with a black cat named Sam. Being the innocent child that I was, I thought her “formal” name was Samantha. Then when I learned that it was Sambo I STILL didn’t get it, 'cause they had a dog named Gumbo, and there were “Sambo’s” restaurants all over the place. One day I learned the story of “Little black Sambo.”
Another neighbor had a black cat that they WOULD HAVE named Blackie, except for the commonality of the name. Poor cat went through life as Darkie.
Archergal: My brother has a mutt, part Australian sheepdog, named Sydney. He thought he was SO clever to come up with the name. Pity it’s a girl dog.
MisterThyristor: I have a Russian Blue named (creatively) “Blue.” I wish I’d thought of “Smurf!” She gets called Bluesky, but I wish I knew how to say “blue” in Russian.
I’ll explain that to you, but only if you can explain why my mother had a chicken named Angelique…
As for Spook, does anyone really think anything bad about that these days? I’m aware that it used to be a slur, but I’ve never in my life heard anyone (not on film) use it. I don’t know if that’s because I’m young or because I’ve lived in the North East my entire life, though. I know I definitely wouldn’t raise an eyebrow over a pet being named that, since I’d think of ghosts and halloween, not racial slurs.
Ok, we’ve had some unusual ones through the years.
As a kid I had:
Halitosis, the dog (she had bad breath) but we just called her leah
King Ragamuffin the 1st, a scraggly ratty gray cat I found, who turned into the laziest fat cat you ever did see… lived to almost 20 years old, he was a good cat, we called him Rags for short.
Boris Bull Baddendog, ok, I was obsessed with Rockey & Bullwinkle and named him after Boris on the cartoon. He’s just called Bo-Bo now.
My brother has a cat named Rivet (he’s gray) and one named Xena Warrior Princess…
DH and I have a Savanna monitor named Guido The Killer Pimp
