Yay! We’re finally getting a dog! Our fence was completed last week, so I took a trip down to our local humane society yesterday. My husband and I are going to go again on Saturday and pick up TWO (!) puppies. There is a brother & sister pair there (besenji mix)that we thought would be happier staying together, and we have enough room, so…
Anyway, we can’t think of any good names. Every name my husband comes up with has something to do with some athlete I’ve never heard of (Igor? I don’t think so). My creative juices just aren’t flowing. Can anybody think of any good ones? Just as a clue, the dogs are black & white, girl & boy. I’m from the U.S., my husband’s from Australia. We’re huge Bruce Springsteen fans, but he already vetoed Bruce & Patty (I don’t think he likes Patty very much). Nothing to cutesy, like Muffin or Mits or something like that.
Any neighbors you don’t like? Name the dogs after them. They (the neighbors) will love hearing you yell at the dogs (Fred, get over here! Ethel, quit eating that garbage!)using their names.
Seriously, pick an unusual human name that somehow fits the dog. My dog is Otis, and friends have Nigel and Chelsea. (and no, Chelsea was not a Clinton reference.)
My husband and I usually go for regular old “people names” with our pets (incidentally, my beloved Molly has just overturned my soda in the living room floor). How 'bout Baxter and Maggie?
“There are more things you don’t know than there are things that I do know. I despair of the imbalance.” – Dr. Morgenes, The Dragonbone Chair
Ok. How about Wendy (from Born to Run) and Terry (from Backstreets) ?
Or Rosalita. Cherry. Bobbie Jean. Eddie. Magic Rat (from Jungleland).
Possibilities are endless with Springsteen.
“I thought: opera, how hard can it be? Songs. Pretty girls dancing. Nice scenery. Lots of people handing over cash. Got to be better than the cut-throat world of yoghurt, I thought.” - Seldom Bucket
I just learned a Farsi word from an Iranian friend, that would make the PERFECT name for a small dog. I don’t know how it’s spelled, but it’s pronounced “shashu”. It means “pisser”. Unfortunatly, it’s considered obscene and might offend Farsi speakers.
Someone mentioned Fred and Ethel. My ex-boyfriend’s cat is Lucy and his dog is Ethel.
Many years ago, some nieghbors/friends had two dogs (both boy dogs) but one dog was Scotch, the other Soda. Soda would work well for either dog gender.
H8 2 W8, you’re Starsky & Hutch suggestion cracked me up. My brother, the true Gen-Xer that he is, named ALL of our animals that we had growing up “Starsky & Hutch”. We had 2 rabbits - Starsky & Hutch; 2 goldfish - Starsky & Hutch; 2 hermit crabs - Starsky & Hutch. You get the idea. I, being the little kid sister, didn’t have much of a say in the naming of the pets, as you can tell. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the show, but if you can name a kind of pet, I had one named Starsky.
You also mentioned NY Petey & Blue (ha ha). I was actually thinking of Blue (short for Blue Crab) & Chessie (short for Chesapeake), since I’m from Maryland (and I’m kind of homesick). What do you think?
I really like Chessie for a puppy name, although I wouldn’t be surprised if someone started using it as a baby name shortly (like all the Madisons, Austins, Dakotas, etc.)
Truth be told, I always think of some redneck’s ‘coon huntin’ dog when I hear the name “Blue” but at least you have a good reason why. For that reason, how about “Ripken” for the male, and he could then go 2,131 straight days without an accident in the house?
Our best friends have a golden retriever named “Cal” after Mr. Ripken. I don’t think she’s broken any records, though. They pulled up all the carpet in the downstairs of their brand new townhouse because the dog was so “messy” (and I think a little chewy, too). It’s not the main floor, so they’ve just given it up to the dog. She’s really cool, though!
This probably won’t seem like much help, but I’ve always gotten my pets and waited for a name to come to me, inspired by behaviour, temperament or some odd physical trait. Then it always “feels” right.
Sometimes this takes a while. I adopted a stray cat a few years ago and a name that fit him just wouldn’t “settle” into my mind. I think I had him two weeks and tried to decide on a few names before I was outside one day NOT thinking about it, he walked over to me and suddenly he became “Thomas”. Really unique, I know. But it absolutely fits. He IS a Thomas.
Congratulations on your new babies and I’m glad they are so lucky as to get you.
Aren’t Basenjis those mostly barkless dogs? They’re cool looking.
But it absolutely fits. He IS a Thomas.