# Why are so many Border Collies (Sheep Dog) named 'Jess'?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 9, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703 "2004-09-09T00:19:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/21 "2004-09-11T00:11:22Z")

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My daughter likes your dog. She’s corralled you on Dogster.

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**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/22 "2004-09-11T04:52:09Z")

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Thanks for your insight, and to clarify, I didn’t take your first comment as being critical of their looks. I was just saying that whenever we take our boys out, Buckley receives a lot of attention based purely on his appearance and personality.

Do you have a dog on Dogster Sam Stone?

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/23 "2004-09-11T06:53:35Z")

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Yep. I put a link to her Dogster page in my first message - here it is again: [Katie](http://www.dogster.com/pet_page.php?i=1822&j=t&PHPSESSID=bcffe57e8d7157f2dd804171351c42ff).

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**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/24 "2004-09-11T08:15:26Z")

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:wally

Thanks, she is gorgeous.

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**Author:** ![TastesLikeBurning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@TastesLikeBurning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TastesLikeBurning)\
**Post date:** [September 11, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/25 "2004-09-11T08:16:39Z")

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I meant to say…  
:smack:

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**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-so-many-border-collies-sheep-dog-named-jess/263703/26 "2004-09-12T17:52:59Z")

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My ex-husband’s family have had an unbroken succession of Border Collies going back to the forties, and we had one ourselves. Their names were Tip, Shep, Brig, Ben, Patch and (ours) Russ. All were pets, not farm dogs, and none of them were vicious in any way.

There is certainly a tradition in the UK for BCs to have single-syllable names.

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