Need Help Naming your Pet?
I can remember growing up and having discussions with my parents about getting a pet and most importantly: naming the pet. Growing up, we had dogs that had the names of Peppy, Duchess, King and Shayna.
Last year we had an addition to our family: a 3 and a half pound Yorkshire Terrier. Considering my kids aren’t old enough or creative enough to come up with names, that was left to Tricia and myself. Frankly it was one of the easiest things to do. Since we recently moved to Texas from Massachusetts, our new Yorkie is now named “Boston.”
In the past, Rover, Fluffy and Spot were common names. Today, people are more likely to choose traditional human names for pets or have children who co-opt popular Disney and other storybook characters.
I was reading an article that had information from Veterinary Pet Insurance with the 10 most popular dog and cat names.
Dogs:
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Cats:
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Here is a picture of our 3 and a half pound bundle of joy!
I look forward to hearing the names of your pets and the stories of how you named them. If you have pictures of your pets on the web, feel free to include links to them.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:18 am
Bo came with his name. he is a bassett hound pointer mix and rather bo-legged which is why I think the animal shelter named him Bo. It was fitting so we kept it.
Zoe was named after President Barlett’s daughter on the West Wing. We should have named her “false advertising”. At the time of purchase, her name was Taylor, and the reason we were interested in her is because after having such an easy time with Bo we knew another hound was right for us. There she was, an adorable 8 pound “hound mix”. After a couple of months we realized, there is ZERO hound in this dog. Spaniel and Terrier maybe, hound, absolutely not.
October 30th, 2006 at 10:23 am
As soon as we got married my wife Christine needed to have a dog. She had grown up with dogs her entire life and now wanted her very own. On the flip side, I never had a pet (not a fish, hamster, gerbil, etc.) growing up. We trekked out to God’s country to a golden retriever breeder and found “Briar”. Not 100% sure how my wife came up with the name (I think she heard it from another owner) but the name stuck. With four kids running around and running the house, Briar was the greatest dog you could ask for. She endured hair pulling, tail dragging, head slapping all from the little ones without a sneer, bark or snip. That’s my dog story. Thanks for the forum, Merrill!
October 30th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
We are guilty of naming our pets “human names” why that is, i’m not sure. both our kids were involved in the naming of the pets. Emma, looks just like “toto” from Wizard of Oz, only red. She is a rescue and I believe as of this writing, possibly 14-15 years old. We now call her “deaf, dumb, blind dog”!! Zoey, our golden retriever, looks just like the one in above picture, was originally named Betty. As I mentioned, our kids, who were younger at the time, did the naming. My son would not allow us to have a dog named Betty, so she became Zoey… she is now almost 10.
October 30th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Can’t resist this one!
We have a Newfoundland that came from a kennel in Ohio. We new we needed a special name that captured the distinguished nature of a newfie and indicated that this Ohio native was now at home in Texas. The kennel name is Topshelf and you can imagine most dogs are named after “Adult Beverages”. We decide on: Topshelf’s Whiskey River after the song by Texas Legend Willie Nelson. We just call him Willie
We also have an Australian Shepherd that needed a good western name as he came from the wild west town of Lubbock. He is Rainyday’s In the Wild West after the Bill Cody western show. We call him Cody.
See pictures of the boys at http://www.flickr.com/photos/roncbailey/
November 6th, 2006 at 2:10 am
Hmm.. a nice post indeed as I too was searching names for my other 2 doggies since the eldest of all a golden retriever already had a name “Jack”.Even I came across some popular names of dogs n cats which u all can go through.. the links are:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/petnamespot.html
http://www.gotags.com/petnames.htm
U can even peep into this pet blog!!
all-about-my-pets to know more about pets….
November 10th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
Hi Merrill,
Saw a blurb about your blog in Quirks, and was glad to see your prominent position at MARC, the company I started with in marketing research over 25 years ago. They had a small WATS facility in Rye, NY.
When trying to name our new terrier, we bestowed the honor to my 8 year old son, Nicholas. He gave the name of a neighboring town, Weston, which was fitting, as our pup is a Westhighland Terrier. Names of nearby places, or places you know well and enjoy, can be fun and easy to remember.
It’s been a long time since you smoked me in tennis at your condo in Norwalk, but, I believe I had the upper hand in raquetball. In any event, I wish you well at MARC; the best of luck to you, your family and career in the future!
Regards,
Richard J. Ferrante
Vice President
Teller Tab Services, Norwalk, CT
November 15th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Some dogs simply live up to the name given. We have 2 Weimaraners. We named the male “Mooch” after a relative that never pays for anything, thinking this was a great inside joke. Unfortunately, he grew up to be very tall Weimaraner whose face rests nicely on the kitchen table when he is standing or sitting. For 7 years we have watched as Mooch has stolen countless food items from the table or counter including, but not limited to, a full pound of bacon, many steaks and sandwiches, most of a chicken and (his favorite) several Bloody Mary’s. He also has quite a sweet tooth. Sometimes the names just come back to bite you!
November 15th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I think we give our dog names more thought than most people naming a brand!
My first dog was Spike (RIP)… while he was a white, fluffy Maltese, he would put big dogs in their place, and had the attitude of Spike, the tough dog in Sylvester & Tweety cartoons.
My first rescue mutt is named Tahoe, selected from the pound after returning from vacation at Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. (Liked Yosemite sites better, but didn’t sound like a good name and didn’t want to go with Yosemite Sam.)
The second rescue pup is an odd mix. I was trying to come up with a cartoon name (Flintstones), but also wanted to capture her unique blue merle coloring of an Australian Shepherd with smaller features of a Beagle… thus Pebbles.
November 15th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Oh, now this is just pure fun! I have named a few pets in my lifetime, even for other family members. But my favorites are “Ernie” and “Bunny”. “Ernie” was a black-and-white male cat that my grandmother gave me for my 4th birthday, and he received the very high honor of being named after my favorite character on Sesame Street. He was about as round and rotund as his namesake, too. “Bunny” is the white female cat I had to put down this past summer. She was named when my husband (then boyfriend) surprised me with a cat for Easter. Yes, we knew that teaching animal names to our daughter might be challenging when we had to explain that “Bunny” is a “Cat” and rabbits are called “Bunnies”… but it all worked out fine and she was a very special member of the family for nearly 15 years. Thanks for bringing me such nice thoughts this afternoon!
November 15th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Hi Merrill - The blog works - I just talked with one of your guys about partnering with us on a possible project. And this article about the pets struck a chord.
The cats were named Rascal and Ghandi. Rascal because he was mischievous, and Ghandi because he was calm and took care of Rascal when he was a sickly. It took us a while to name Ghandi; my husband thought the cat was awkward rather than calm and generous, so his pick for a name was Gerald Ford. Fortunately, I prevailed. Our dog is Tucker - the name he came with at 8 weeks from the breeder. This, after looking up some 400 names on the internet! Tucker is a Springer Spaniel who has also been nicknamed “hyperdog” by friends.
Best regards,
Lynn
November 15th, 2006 at 6:39 pm
When my sisters and I were growing up we had a huge cat named Muhammad Ali. Mozy for short. Turned out to be a good fighter. Go figure.
Today I have a cat named Huckleberry. My husband and I named her after a quote by Val Kilmer playing Doc Holiday in Tombstone…”I’m your Huckleberry.” We think it’s pretty funny.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Stetson and Reba, our two chocolate labs, were named while my husband and I were going through our country dancing phase about 13 years ago. They have been a great addition to our family, and they are still doing very well for their somewhat advanced age. It must be the names.
November 16th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
yes our kids named our terrier spot for a big spot on its side. our lab is sally.
at one point we had 5 dogs- buster (lab mix), amber (lab), elvis (lab),cassie (wiemer), and pepper (toy poodle). pepper ruled the bunch. all living on our house’s small lot in university park. the back yard was a mess, but they all were fun.
November 17th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I picked out my Sheltie from a breeder who had 2 litters to choose from. I chose the smallest one hiding over in a corner shivering, while the other pups were up, running a round, and causing mayhem. I thought, here’s a nice calm dog, who needs something to help him build up some courage to keep up with the pack, so I named him Samson. Little dog - big name! Well, I guess it worked because during the seven years he has been with me, he has proudly grown in to the King and Ruler of our household! He keeps us in line.
November 17th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
I LOVE this topic! Mostly, because I love dogs (those of you who know me, know my dogs are truly my babies and are consequently, terribly spoiled) and I’m jealous Merrill got a new Yorkie! I love Yorkies!
I have 2 dogs: Murray and Kirby. Murray is a peekapoo (22 lbs) and Kirby is a poodle (9 lbs). Murray got his name from a story my mother told me about a man (Murray) and his family she met at a resort in Mexico. Long story, but hilarious! It cracked me up so much that I told her when I got a dog of my own, I was going to name him Murray and I did. The name “Murray” definitely fits his personality, too, so I lucked out on that one!
Kirby was an avid eater when he was a pup, so we named him Kirby after the vacuum cleaner, as he seemed to “suck” down his food. This name really didn’t prove out to be so good for him, as he’s really not so interested in food. His AKC name is actually Coconino (because he’s white) Kirby Roy-L (his blood line). I should have named him Napoleon, since he’s French, small, and likes to rule the roost, but we often don’t know our animals’ (or children’s) personalities when we name them, now do we?
I don’t know anyone who has an animal and doesn’t have a million and a half “pet” names for him. Murray and Kirb get called a multitude of names, mostly derivatives of their “given” names, but it doesn’t seem to phase them. . .they still come when called- or at least, when they feel like it!
February 7th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Names are so important, aren’t they? When we got my son a puppy - many moons ago - both his sisters tried to influence his naming her, but he didn’t let them make the decision. HE chose her name… and he named her Carmel, because she was brown. A year later, when I adopted a kitty, I let the girls choose a name and they decided on Pandora, because she was always getting in to something. But, I call her Wabby Wibby (that’s baby talk for “baby kitty”…)
I’m adding this to the mix a bit late… but, I just had to chime in. Thanks for sharing!