Home › Forums › Open Discussion › How did you pick your pet’s name?
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January 9, 2009 at 6:05 am #589394
mellaw6565MemberInteresting link to a survey of the top 10 pet names and top ten oddest names of 1/2 million pets in the US:
http://www.petsugar.com/2673741
What is your pet’s name and how did you pick it?
My current pets are Katherine (dog), Mr. B (dog), Sashi (dog), Gaston (cat) and Max (bird). Only Max is on the top ten list.
Katherine was chosen because her doggie husband’s name was Spencer and I decided that they were lovers like Tracy & Hepburn.
Mr. B was a rescue named Bandit who cringed and hid everytime we used the Bandit name, so we decided that he needed a little respect and shortened it to Mr. B, which he loves.
Sashi is a dog I rescued while living in Korea – I wanted a Korean name for her, but couldn’t find anything that rang a bell until someone asked me how much I paid to get her away from the bad owner – I replied “45,000 won”, which is “Sa-ship-o” in Korean. So I decided to name her that and her nickname is Sashi. Of course the Koreans think it’s hilarious that I named my dog “45”.
Gaston is my partner’s cat that she got while in culinary school. And Max is an adoption from a friend who named him that and I don’t know why.
January 9, 2009 at 6:30 am #654180
SueParticipantI love the unsual names at that link!
My cat (above) is Olias. Jon Anderson, the lead singer of the band Yes (which is my husband and my favorite group) has a very old solo album called Olias of Sunhillow, so that’s where we got the name from. His nicknames, however, are just silly names I come up with for god-knows-what reason. The latest names are Pumpkin Buddy, FuzzyButt, Fluff-for-Brains, Finster Baby and probably half a dozen other names, some of which aren’t suitable for a family audience. :)
January 9, 2009 at 6:42 am #654181
What TheMemberLeroy – A wonderful black cat…whom my mother named after Leroy Browne…Jim Croce song… He passed away after 18yrs of friendship on July 14th, 2003.
January 9, 2009 at 6:46 am #654182
datamuseParticipantGwydion is a trickster figure in Welsh mythology who goes about in disguise and gets up to all kinds of mischief. Think Gandalf with a malicious streak.
My cat never got the word, though. He’s sweet as pie, and afraid of dust.
January 9, 2009 at 6:53 am #654183
squareeyesParticipantBluestein – took one look at him and said “you’re Bluestein”. As for Greenspan, he took a few weeks. I finally settled on Greenspan because of his green eyes, long length (span), and very reserved personality.
My nickname for Bluestein is Bluey and occasionally Insane Clown Kitty. My neighbor calls him Bighead, his spouse calls him Blueballs. My nickname for Greenspan is Spanner and occasionally Circus Cat, my neighbor calls him Smallhead, his spouse calls him Greenbean.
They don’t know what the heck to answer to.
January 9, 2009 at 7:00 am #654184
ejonesMemberour first dog was cassiopeia (cassie) after the constellation my dad noticed driving home with her trying to decide what to name her. now we have georgie, who was named georgia peach and nicknamed georgie by the breeder. when we got her we named her curious georgie.
i got my cat from a friend when we were reading The Lord of the Rings. his name is sam (samwise gamgee) and is as loyal as a cat can be.
January 9, 2009 at 7:00 am #654185
alki_2008ParticipantSplatter (dog) – she was hit by a car.
Abby (cat) – she had an abscess when found in a park. Was either Abby or Wormy (she had ringworm too).
Popeye (cat) – he only had one fully developed eye.
Ewok (cat) – he was born with some facial deformities that made hom look like one, although he looked and breathed better after surgeries.
Tripp (cat) – he was hit by a car (?) and a leg had to be amputated. Tripp was a variation on ‘tripod’.
Before I get attacked for all the bad things that befell these animals…they were injured/sick BEFORE I got them.
January 9, 2009 at 7:07 am #654186
HMC RichParticipantMissy (Canine) came with the name from the Tacoma Humane Society. Felines – Harry (short for Harrison Pee Cat). My wife named him. Sally (When Harry met Sally) My wife named her when she got her from the neighbor as a kitten. Aretha (Sally’s mum) who was originally owned by the neighbor then we took her in. She was from a shelter in Mt. Vernon. She is black and very vocal so they named her after Aretha Franklin. I just call her the Harlot. Finally, Brother Tom. The old man. He was my cat named by a 4 year child because he was going to be the child’s brother and because boy cats were called tom cats. A tri-color basset hound, three black cats and a big fat hairy orange cat. Kamsa-hamneeda.
January 9, 2009 at 7:14 am #654187
ejonesMemberjust checked out the link. spatula lmfao! if only i had thought of that… i’d nickname him that, but he has quite a few already. sam-shine, sammy, and my dad calls him sammit, although that one is is normaly preceded by another word…
January 9, 2009 at 7:18 am #654188
guidosmomMemberI love this topic! All of my animals came with their names, except my dog, Guido. I adopted him from a shelter 7 years ago. He was a stray who they had named “Jack”, since he is a Jack Russell Terrier. One of my all time favorite movie’s is the Italian film “Life is Beautiful”. The main character is Guido, and being a Jack Russell “Jack” (now Guido) had plenty of spunk, so I thought it was a perfect name. It still fits him perfectly.
January 9, 2009 at 7:23 am #654189
FullTiltParticipantOur Dog Lula is named so because we were going to get another female dog that was a Catahoula hound. We thought Lula the Catahoula sounded good. In the end we ended up with a different dog from the pound, but just liked the name. The other dog Al, was named ALex from his previous owner. We tend to think that AL and Lula sounds like and old lounge act.
January 9, 2009 at 7:23 am #654190
mellaw6565MemberI’ve had birds before named “Figaro” and “Napoleon” – the latter being a miniature parrot who thought he was much bigger than he was. He couldn’t say Napoleon, so he would run around and say “Happy Nappy, Happy Nappy”.
Currently we call Katharine “Miss Priss” because she’s still the dominatrix among the rest of the animals and thinks she’s all that. We also have a myriad of nicknames for them all depending on the day and activity – most of them are not appropriate for public dissemination:) Our bird Max came with the habit of humping socked feet, so my Canadian friend nicknamed him the “sock **cker”!
January 9, 2009 at 7:30 am #654191
wingmeMemberCat: black shorthair named Janis, after Janis Joplin. She has a throaty husky whiskey-tinged meow, something like this: OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW (baby!!!). My 80-yr-old wise-guy dad calls her Snowball. He named his teeny tiny weenie dog PeeWee, for all the obvious reasons.
January 9, 2009 at 7:38 am #654192
mellaw6565MemberSo far no names on the top ten list – but a few would qualify on the unusual list! Great stories…….
January 9, 2009 at 8:21 am #654193
TrickParticipantJackie O (Jack Russell) Rescued, then gave away.
Janet (cattle dog) rescued, She was plain looking, but had a heart of soul. RIP 1992-2008
January 9, 2009 at 9:27 am #654194
celeste17ParticipantWhen I was little we had a rescue cat named Sarah and Sarah went under the couch one day and came out a Sam. LOL! We didn’t know at the time that we got her that it was a he. So after that all our cats became kitty. Mom figures that since most of they were strays that if we gave them a name they would be even more confused about who they were. So we had old kitty, new kitty, male kitty (he was so dumb he would sit in front of the tv and watch tennis). Then we had little big kitty and big little kitty. This came about because the older cat was smaller then the young cat. Now we have one cat she is a rescue kitty (from friends and family) she was originally named bunny because when she walks she holds out her left paw and kind of hops. She was attached by a dog that bit through the bone but they were able to save the leg. When she runs she runs full out and seems to almost be like a jack rabbit. So anyway the cats are all one form of kitty. I don’t know if I will ever call another cat a name or not. :)
January 9, 2009 at 9:32 am #654195
roundthesoundParticipantI just got a new addition to the house tonight! He’s a 4 month old short-haired tuxedo. His previous owner named him Oslo but mostly called him Cat. I’ve been calling him Ozzy since we got home though. We’ll have to see what sticks. I’m also open to suggestions…
January 9, 2009 at 10:35 am #654196
AnonymousInactiveMy first dog Sam (AKA Sambo, Mr. Sam Sam, and Sambo-rooni-rooni) just seemed like Sam to me. It is still painful to think about him. My method of dealing with that is to force myself to concentrate on the dogs I have right now, since dogs focus on “right now” and they epitomize “life is for the living.”
Bernie was named by my best friend, and her full name (never used) was Bernadette.
Ender had several origins for his name:
1.) My hope that he would help me end my sorrow after Sam died.
2.) His propensity to occasionally spin in circles.
3.) The Orson Scott Card sci-fi novelette “Ender’s Game.” I liked the name.
Since then, all my dogs have kept the name they came with. They have all been rescue dogs.
January 9, 2009 at 10:44 am #654197
AnonymousInactiveOops. I did rename my current best dog Bluto after the Popeye character, since he is a simple brute.
I like two-syllable names for dogs that they can recognize and differentiate.
January 9, 2009 at 3:02 pm #654198
cruiserMemberI once had a dog called “Come here ya mutt”,one day he didn’t:)
January 9, 2009 at 3:13 pm #654199
ErikParticipantHis name was ‘Ozzy’ when we got him from the shelter, probably because of his need to wear black all the time.
The wife always wanted a lab named ‘Larry’, so that’s what stuck.
She also wanted a dog named ‘Bob Barker’, thankfully that never happened.
January 9, 2009 at 3:25 pm #654200
JenVMember7 yo Tabby kitty, rescued from a barn in Eugene, OR. Named her Lola – from the Damn Yankees- because “whatever Lola wants, Lola gets” – currently also answers to Baby, Kittyhead, Kittymau, Wiener and Wienercat.
January 9, 2009 at 4:10 pm #654201
GenHillOneParticipantAll of ours have come with rescue names that we kept. When I was a kid though, we had a dog named Chu (a Chu-ee long before Star Wars) because she was born near Alaska’s Chugach Mountain Range. Should I be disturbed that I know a lot of humans with names on the top 10 dog list? At least I haven’t met any from the oddest list. Maybe I should give Hollywood some time…they might be good for one.
January 9, 2009 at 4:22 pm #654202
SemeleParticipantWell, we have two of the most common covered :) When my husband and I were dating I had a cat and so did he. Mine was named Bea (she was a little ball of tuxedo fluff cat when I got her) and it just seems to fit. His cat was named Alexander Sox but called Alex for short. He was another tuxedo cat but short-haired and with white “socks” on all of his paws.
When we moved away to Chicago my husband brought a new kitten into the fold and we figured we had A and B so might as well stick with the theme, our newest edition, a beautiful chocolate tabby was named Chloe :)
Finally, when we got our dog (picture shown in avatar) at the humane society in Denver they had given her a name of “big belly” which I really disliked. Besides she was still a puppy and likely to grow out of that name. She was renamed Daisy and we think it suits her perfectly. As you can see, she does not have a big belly either :)
January 9, 2009 at 4:48 pm #654203
KatherineLParticipantI started out with a feisty kitten I called Scrapper, for obvious reasons. She got pregnant before I realized she was old enough and I found myself with a litter. The calico was called, unimaginatively, Calico. The little blonde male was Dutchboy. And the runt of the litter was Little Bit. Nineteen years later, when they were all gone, I got two kittens from a neighbor, a marmalade male and little tabby who was the runt. My vet at Lien Animal Clinic already had a OJ (for Orange Juice) as an office cat, so mine became Citrus. The little tabby put her bigger brother firmly into place. Murphy Brown on TV was then a role model for a strong independent woman, so she’s Murphy. The name confuses people. Even though she has a sweet, feminine face, everyone calls her “he.”
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