How'd you name your dog?

[glfprncs]

Our first rescue was called “Louie” at the shelter. When we adopted him, my husband said there was no way we were having a dog named Louie. Alas, 8 years later, he’s still our Louie, our Louie-bear, Gooey-Louie and sometimes, Soppy Poppy because the woman who rescued him when she on vacation 1500 miles from home (and took the time to find a shelter to take him) called him Poppy in the 24 hours she had him.

Dog #2 came with the shelter name of T.C. Well…7 years later, he’s still got the moniker.

Along came #3, yet another shelter dog. He’d been dubbed “James,” and it stuck. He’s often called Jimmy-Jam, the Jama-rama, Jamie-roo, or Jamie.

When they’re bad, we call them by their full names: Louis Thomas, Thomas Christopher, and James Harold. People laugh that all of my dogs have people names.

[cowboymom]

Gypsy the mutt was born in the pound, one of 11 pups from a stray female. The name seemed appropriate and I liked the sound of it.

Carbon the Aussie is black and the carbon copy of her father.

Able the Great Pyrenees-I wanted a strong noble name and when he’s being strong and noble it suits him magnificently. His other name he earned when he wasn’t being strong and noble and it fits him the rest of the time: Galoot or Galootie.

Shoni the Blackmouth Cur was named after a fiesty basketball player from the rez in Oregon, Shoni Schimmel. I watched a documentary on her and started following her career, I liked her scrappy ball playing and devotion to her family and heritage and the sound of her name.

Pocket my chi mix puppy because she’s my pocket pet.

[Mara]

One of my very favorite names belongs to a friend’s Westie. Said Westie is named Shorthouse. There’s a story behind it but I can’t quite remember the details.

[EqTrainer]

[QUOTE=LexInVA;6667008]
I just looked at him and his name floated out of the ether.[/QUOTE]

This. But it didnt float. He stared at me and I heard Baxter! Baxter! My name is Baxter, not Beethoven ( which is what his breeder called him). In a very distinctive voice.

Really, I am not crazy, this was an isolated incident. But he does come to it and always has.

[ManyDogs]

George the Basset’s full name is George Richard Everett Cornett. The name Richard is after my friend’s RIP Basset, King Richard. She named him after her favorite NASCAR driver, Richard Petty. Everett was her father’s name.
King Richard, whom I did not know, was apparently quite the character. When it was bath time, Richard would hide under the bed. However, only the front half of him was hidden. The back half was in full view, of course, so bath time was inevitable. Richard also would be very upset if someone got a present and he didn’t. The family caught on, and Richard would put one enormous basset paw on the present and rip the paper and box to shreds. When Richard was still young, my friend decided to walk him up the street of her neighborhood to show him off. Her dad told her not to do it. About 1/3 of the way up, Richard laid down and refused to move. Brenda had to carry His Highness back home, long ears streaming in the breeze. She learned her lesson.
When it was obvious that Richard was failing (age 12), they took him to the vet where it was determined he needed to be put down. Her dad, a very plain, serious man who was a coal miner all of his life, had three thousand dollars in his pocket. He loved that dog so much he would have paid all of that money, quite a sum to such a man, to save his “Baby”, King Richard. You can now see why I named George after not only my father, but Brenda’s dad. When my Georgie was a puppy, he met Richard’s “dad” for the first time. Georgie gave Brenda’s dad a huge kiss on the chin. Brenda’s dad had cancer and did not live too much longer. I am forever grateful to my Georgie for that kiss. It meant a lot to all of us.

[Bluey]

People were looking at my puppy and asking “what is it?”

So, she was named after the Olympic mascot, also called “what is it”, Izzy.

Because of my thick accent, everyone thinks her name is “Easy”.

[Houndhill]

I knew a Westie by the name of Bibbity Bobbity Boo…

[MsM]

My childhood dog was a family decision for a name. I dont think I had much pull since I was 6, but she was named Cookie because we thought her markings looked like chocolate chips.

The first dog that I had as an adult I named Muppett - because she was a little ball of fuzz that looked like a muppet. She kinda turned into Miss Piggy!

Next dog came with his registered name and his call name turned out to be part of that. He just never seemed to need a different name.

Current dogs naming was a bit emotional. They were a present to myself after my mom died. So the girl dog was Cecily as a variation of my mom’s name (Cecelia) and her call name turned out to be LeeLee. Boy dogs name was Wizard (mom loved the Wizard of Oz) and his call name is Ozzie.

[hastyreply]

Gus- well I’d choosen another pup from photos but went to Canada to get the pup. When I met them he was the one I always picked up etc. I had another name choosen but he was just a “Gus” and everyone who meets him sees it too. He’s a New Zealand Heading dog.

Scout- he came from same breeder and breeder chose him for me. He flew down all by himself. Since he was going to be Gus’s side kick, and he wasn’t a “Tonto” so,I named him after his horse, Scout.

Dixie- is a miniature black poodle and it just fit her.

[Crackerdog]

[QUOTE=LexInVA;6667008]
I just looked at him and his name floated out of the ether.[/QUOTE]

More or less this for us too.

One dog came with the name Scarlett but we changed it to Polly.
The other dog was named Lulu and we changed it to Maizy.

[Kryswyn]

All mine are JRTs.

Dare is from a song in Godspell, the line goes, “I shall call the pebble Dare and together we’ll about walking. Dare shall be carried and when we are at the end/ I will take from my shoe singing Meet your new road.”

Olive was born with a black dot on her head that looked like a, you guessed it, olive.

Valor’s name just came to me.

Stiletto’s sire’s name was Dagger, though most people think she’s named after the tan stiletto heel print on her head.

O Gauge got his name because my SO loves model trains and I hoped he wouldn’t mind another puppy if he was named after a train.

Puffin was a name I actually suggested to her breeder for a pup she’d purchased. When she decided to name her pup Bentley (so common I nearly plotzed) I took Puffin back to use on my puppy a few months later.

But my best name came totally unexpectedly. I had a pup that for one reason or another hadn’t sold so I was running him on and I just.could.not. find a name that suited him and I must’ve tried 4 or 5 and nothing fit. One day I looked at him and asked: “What are we going to call you? It’s a riddle.” As soon as I said “Riddle” he started wagging his tail and spinning around. I’m not stupid. His name has been Riddle from that moment on and he’s 11 years young now Oh, and about a month or two later he went to live with a lovely woman whose last name is Ruff. So sometimes he’s called Little Riddle Ruff Dog

[EventingMaff]

These are great! I love hearing the different stories. We’ll wait until we actually pick the puppy up (and confirm she’s the one for us!) so once in person who knows – maybe she’ll make her name known to us

In the meantime we’ve been brainstorming. Typically we don’t like human names or anything to cutesie (obviously the nicknames inevitably become cutesie though:))

Some ideas so far have been:

• Tindall (named for the lacrosse field we all played on)
• Paddington (my little sister wanted to call it “Padittle” because as kids we always used to hit each other when a car only had one head light and yell “padittle”…Paddington is a bit nicer name that can have Padittle as a fun nickname when we want to be cute) – I like Paddington but it’s a bit long and I’m not sure I like the short form Paddy for daily use.
• Oakley (bit generic for me)
• Hatley/Hadley (meh)

One sister wants to name it Kubota so my Dad can finally have a Kubota in his life like he’s always wanted :lol:

Can’t say I’m in love with any one of them, but we’ll see what happens once we actually have the puppy! Hopefully we become inspired! We’re all terrible at coming up with names :s

Our last dog we named Ember because she had a silvery-black charcoal look to her. It suited her perfectly personality wise (super mellow but fiesty or loving when she wanted to be!) Hopefully this puppy becomes as aptly named!

[Luseride]

I got my dog the week after my husband had five by-passes. During the ten days we were at the hospital my dog had gotten in the road and killed. My parents were coming here to feed but with no one at home he wandered.

I went to pay a vet bill the day after we got home and said I would be looking for a dog if any came in. I got a “Come rigtht this way.” response. I named him Hartley for our heart problems.

My husbands dog is a bulldog, bassett, something else mix. Her daddy’s name was Bubba, her name is Bubbette.

[Punkie]

My big guy came with his name, but it’s a cute story so I’ll share. He was found chained to a tree in a back yard, no shelter, no fresh water, skinny, and wormy. The woman who runs the rescue I adopted him from had the chutzpah to knock on this man’s door and ask if he’d be willing to surrender the dog. Surprisingly enough, the guy didn’t argue at all except to tell her that he was a “pure bred pit bull and probably pretty nasty…he didn’t know, [his] son tossed it food twice a day and that’s about that.” She told him she’d take her chances and he let her go get the dog.

She took one look at him and starts cracking up. While there is certainly some pit in him, there’s no way on earth that he’s a pure bred! If any of you know pit lines, however, the Colby line is one of the oldest and most famous. So, she decided that if he was in fact a pure bred pit, then he MUST be from the “Colby” line :lol: and hence, the knucklehead’s name is Colby!

Pretty vicious, huh? http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b117/PippaCavalli/fudgecolby.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b117/PippaCavalli/325505_584491287691_8002195_32785825_1498664540_o.jpg

Our best guess is pit/boxer or pit/lab or some combination of the three… http://s18.beta.photobucket.com/user/PippaCavalli/media/261377_573726275861_8002195_32655309_5889580_n.jpg.html?sort=3&o=36

My little guy is another story altogether. I had his first name (Garreth - spelled with the two “R’s” instead of one) picked out when I was looking into purchasing a G-line Rottie to do schutzhund work. But my little fluffer used his brother as a step stool to jump out of his pen and out of everyone in Bill Schaub’s display area at WEF, he came bounding up to me and plunked himself at my feet. And somehow I bought an Augi who, without question, was a “Garreth”!

The name comes from a character in one of my all-time favorite books, “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”. At the time, I was also reading the Aloysius Pendergast series by Preston and Child. Somehow - and I still can’t tell you exactly how - he ended up with Aloysius as a middle name. He’s a small dog with a huge personality, so I did think that a massive and pretentious sounding name would be hilarious! And it totally fits him!

Garreth Aloysius (and Mr. P!): http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b117/PippaCavalli/564862_637995350121_8002195_33074953_33532134_n-1.jpg

[EventingMaff]

Update!

Just got word, the puppy is coming home with us! Turns out we got it’s sibling (pictured in the bottom photo):

http://d1ihe8iurr5ss7.cloudfront.net/animals/fullsize/s403a5149054m14170202.jpg

I’m leaning towards Tindall now as she seems to have a Brindle coat and that rhymes

Can’t wait to go home for the holidays so I can meet the adorable girl!

[Larksmom]

My animals names

I used to be pretty good with the naming of my pets. But lately, I have ben slacking off. My cats, the dowager, now 19, Little Miss Muffett, was to be Nala, after the girl in the Lion King, and her brother was to be Simba. Well, after a few days of settling in, I decided every cat in town was going to be named Simba that year, and personality just screamed MALARKEY! So he became that, and Muff seemed to be a princess, so I ended up with Little Miss Muffett.

The dogs-well, I got Toffee as a companion to my very old dog, and she was named Penelope.:dead: Sorry, that is simply not acceptable for a dog around here. I am another member of the 'I don’t name my pets after people gang". She was sweet, and I came up with Toffee. A year later, when Snick unexpectedly came into our lives, he was already named. I tried for a month to come up with something else, as he is three legged lame, maybe tripod but since the other dog was Toffee, Snickers seemed ok. I didn’t realise it was the commonest name in dogdom. But it seems to work for him.

Now for the new cat. She is a bit of a hellion. Bold enough to attack the dog, while wearing the cone of shame, fresh from being spayed. So I started with Endora, because she is a witch, Sparkle, she is pretty but no one likes that. I am thinking of Moxie, gleaned from COTH, and Vixen. I also considerd Minx, but I am not sure that would be a good call name. And going against all my own likes, the name Felicity keeps coming up. It is a people name, and it is four syllables. Not good.

[WindyIsles]

Pets?

Most have been named by younger brothers (which is how we got a white dog named Brownie - I wanted to call him Benji because he was a deadringer for Benji).

Max the Spring Spaniel.

Dad’s hunting dogs (English pointers) got named Patches and Chewie.

Current family dog is a Coonhound and we looked at him and he was named Cooper.

My cat is Athena. She’s a dilute tortie so grey (came with the awful name of Mary Jane). Being grey and quite a little hunter + I’m in grad school = Athena.

Bonus: she actually responds to it.

[Megaladon]

Ah, well do you have all day? LOL!

Dogs
Tanner–came named, she is old, was named by Mexicans that worked at a farm. Owned by nobody, but adopted us.
Chuy–cattle/coy dog from TX. Named after Chuy from the Chelsea Lately show, she’s a girl.
Posh–snooty, snobby but elegant and just posh.

Cats
Toddy–named after a Doberman.
Pooky~Pulla–originally called Pooky after Garfield’s teddy bear, but it morphed into Pulla (which happens a lot to my animals:o )
Reggie–from the movie Labyrinth, the little fox creature that rides the sheepdog.
Pearl–Juniper Pearl from the movie “Benny & Joon”.
Ludger–after Ludger Beerbaum
Giorgio–brother to Ludger; went w/ a Euro theme.
Petrie–now morped into Peaches; from the Land Before Time movie
Jewel–a dilute calico.
Bella–after Belo Lugosi.
Ophelia–after Pan’s Labyrinth.
Pantera–a stray, a band we listen too, now morphed into Bobblehead because he has a neuro tremor.
Lucretia–beautiful long-haired cat named after a song about Lucretia.
Mary Jane–sister to Lucretia, but short-haired and black & white, also from a song by the same musician as Lucretia.
Anky & Ulla–sisters from a dropoff at my work (vet clinic).

All of our animals are rescues and very much loved but as you can see, we need to get a little creative when a new one comes a long. Hmm, should I add my chickens to the list? :lol:

[Kryswyn]

@EventingMaff;6668815

Just got word, the puppy is coming home with us! Turns out we got it’s sibling (pictured in the bottom photo):

http://d1ihe8iurr5ss7.cloudfront.net/animals/fullsize/s403a5149054m14170202.jpg

I’m leaning towards Tindall now as she seems to have a Brindle coat and that rhymes

I hadn’t read the whole post I quoted - just jumped right to the pictures and said to myself, the bottom pup looks like a Tindall! Great name. Hits all my criteria (not a people name, not common, sounds good spoken or called loudly, and suggests a variety of ‘pet’ or ‘nick’ names)

[RdEventer]

Thank you for having original and meaningful names for your pets. I work at a veterinary laboratory and see way too many terrible pet names: Nikki Minaj (a Pit Bull), Foxxxy, and too many varieties of Poo and Pee to list. Really, wouldn’t you be embarrassed to hear the tech call “PeePee” to the exam room? Ugh. I’ve also seen names that are uncomfortably similar to racial slurs. How the heck are you going to call your dog to you in public?

If you name your Labrador after your favorite cheap beer, it’s cute if it’s Bud, Miller or Coors. If your dog’s name is “Miller Lite” though, that’s tacky.

My favorite name I’ve seen is Khaleesi (means princess, from Game of Thrones). Good variation on a common name and fun to say.