how and why did you give your dog his/her name?

Our purebred Husky more or less came with her name since she was the little runt of the litter.  We got her full AKC name by mixing both parents names in there in turn came Baby Snowbunny Doo.  My husband later nicknamed her Babydoo
 
Our purebred GSD got her a CKC name as more of an inside joke.  Skylla the man eating she beast.   Sky was our Fourth Female in the house with my Husband being the only male.
 Our other purebred Husky got her name after my husbands and his families first husky. Hence the name Gypsy Midnight.  Midnight belongs to my in laws but since she spends most of her time playing over here with my two girls we more or less claimed her as ours.

Ben got his name because I was either going to name him Benedict or Frederick - I wanted something that sounded a little regal and proud, because he has always had that look in his eye.  I suggested both of them to my future SIL and she chose Benedict because if I shortened it (which I have) she prefers Ben to Fred. LOL.
 
It suits him, though.  He just looks like a Ben.
 
Kate

Our oldest dog (he's a mutt) came from the animal shelter and on the way home my mom asked us what we wanted to name him, and I said "Fuzz" and that's what it's been ever since. The reason I thought of that name was because the night before we had watched the movie "little heroes" and the hero of the story was a dog named Fuzz, and I wanted my dog to become a hero. Fuzz is the the best dog we could have ever asked for, I dont know why God decided to bless us with him but he knew what he was doing when he had us adopt this little black and tan fuzzball ten years ago.

Jackie (GSD, hound, lab mix?)got her name because she looked so much like a "Jake" but she was a girl, so we decided to call her Jackie which was the closest girl name we could think of. I often call her Jake still, although she doesn't look so much like a hound as she used to so it doesn't fit as well as it did when she was young. She's the dog in my avatar.

Lille was named by my SO, as he had her beofre we met. She was born on Valentine's day 1994, during the winter olympics in Lillehammer, so her full name is Lillehammer, but we call her Lille (Lily)

Freddie (cat) was already named by the girls at the barn where I adopted him. He was part of a litter of 3, 2 girls (Queenie and Princess) and 1 boy (Freddie). After adopting him, I kept the name because it fit, but I asked the girls why they named him Freddie as his sisters had such "regal" names. Well, apparently, I did not know Freddie's full name....it is Freddie "Prince" Jr. []

Rocky (cat) He turned up on our doorstep as a tiny kitten, he was grey, so I named him after Rocky the flying squirrel.

Dasher - I wanted to pick a name that suited his personality, he is a bundle of energy and zips around, so Dasher seemed to fit, he has certainly lived up to his name, he dashes about all day long![]

Smidgen - because she was a "Little Bit" but I didn't want that to be her adult name.

Dora - the Explorer.  Out of the whelping box at 2 weeks to start checking things out and never looked back.  Not that original, but it fits a brown eyed, black coated pup.

Figment - because I'm *really* not keeping another dog (wink wink) so that one is just a Figment of DH's imagination.

Malcolm - wanted a strong, masculine Scottish name and it really fit him.  (We have a family tradition of naming all males "human" names, while the girls can go either way).

Pofi was an abandoned puppy - our friend found him dumped in a park by the river at about 5 weeks of age.  He became ours 3 weeks later and when we calculated his approximate birthdate, it appeared he was born aobut thet ime we were embarking on a trip to Italy.  So he needed an Italian name (the cats had either Italian or Italianized names).  DH hit upon the name Pofi - the town both my mother's parents were from.  He says he did it to score big points with the MIL (it worked)!
 
Mia was named Meeka when she came to us from rescue - she needed an Italian name and Mia was a good switch from Meeka.  We called her Mia-Meeka for a week (which sounds like the Italian "mia amica" - my friend) and then just Mia.  It's also for Mia Hamm - US Women's soccer star.

Wow.  I guess I sure didn't put much thought into this, did I? [] I had just lost a dog named Bud and on the way home from the shelter I decided I wanted another name that was short and easy - Max popped into my head, so *Max* it was.  It kind of suits him.

Joyce

I didnt name my Malamute. I was told that on the first trip to the vet he and his siblings took that when the doctor picked him up he said "WOW this one's built like a tank." Tank grew into the name because at 130 pounds and 32 inch's at the shoulders he is a "Tank" of a Malamute. He has a sister named Chaos, I'm not sure if that name fits her also, I passed up on bringing both of them home.

I actually wanted to name this dog "Pearl" or "Bridgette," but the family revolted against that.  They looked at her and said she just looks so very Misty.  And, so, that's her, she's Misty.  

My son named our female corgi Darci
I named our male corgi Egan, good welsh name and it suited him.

Cat- Meylia, hubbys friend named her, he thought she looked malaysian.
Cat - Callie, duhhh shes a calico.   LOL

Cat at rainbow bridge Panzer hubby named her, german.
Gsd at the rainbow bridge Strauss, german again hubby named him

"I named our male corgi Egan"
 
I have some friend with a Terv named Egan xD

I'm not sure how I came up with "Roxie".  It just seemed to suit her at the time, so it stuck.

My mom thought it should have been spelled like "Roxy", but I liked the "-ie" more.    

Lunabella came with that awful name -- so we shortened it to Luna (and lunatic DOES often come to mind *grin*).  I still call her a variety of  things (Luna B -- Luna bean -- Looney tunes -- Ms. Tunes - it goes on and on).  The temptation to call her LUNA BELLA when she's naughty is one I have to squelch -- but I do drag it out and singsong it sometimes.  I just can't call a basset beagle mix that is built like a suspension bridge "lunabella" with a straight face.  Luna 'works'.
 
No one knew what Billy's name was -- he was found abandoned at a rest area on I-4 near Orlando.  The folks who fostered him called him "Huggins" -- and frankly that was a HORRIBLE foster situation (he was very abused by a little girl there and is terrified of little girls to this day despite a whole LOT of desensitization to keep it from generalizing to all young blonde women!!).  *HE* hates the name Huggins -- just the look on his face is enough to break your heart.  My husband and I are both very fond of Tolkein and I had a Pip growing up and would have named him Merry but it's too easily confused with a female name.  It was abundantly clear from the first week this dog had an "adventuring spirit".  (We found him one night on TOP of a set of 8 foot shelves in the laundry building -- HOW he got up there is still a myserty!!).  So Bilbo 'fit' but Billy for short just plain FITS him.  He is young at heart despite his rough start and he's confident enough to fnd "fun" in most things.  So Billy the Adventuring English cocker spanYELL is just plain "him". 
 
Kee Shu was probably spelled "Kishu" (she had a brother Mishu -- I want to kiss you and I miss you?? ewwwwwww).  so we just plain dropped the end of it and she's Kee altho she comes easily to Kee Shuuuuuu.  She's essentially a foster (even tho he's clearly abandoned her now) so we didn't feel it right to totally change her name to something new and Kee is short and sweet like she is. 

The shelter people gave Romeo his name, because he is such a lover.  I must say it suits him perfectly, so I did not change it.

We didn't name Millie, she came with her name, and we didn't want to change it on her.
Max was called Bruno by the shelter, which we decided sounded weird with Millie. They're just two total opposites. So, somehow we came up with Max, although i'm not sure.

Other pets names

My first bearded dragon was named Griffin, which is where my screen name comes from. It was going to be Griffin if it was a male, and Chimera if I got a female. Griffin was because I like Griffins (if I can ever find the tattoo I liked again, i'm getting it). Chimera was just the necessary female name.
Dexter came to me named.
Tehko was named by my sister, and it's some variation of a neopet name.
Woodrow Wilson is named after my favorite president. I was once doing a presentation, and I couldn't think of anything to say about Woodrow Wilson, so I said he was really hot.
I had a rankin's dragon named Erik Magnus, as in Magneto from X-men.
I had rats whose names were Outlaw and Trouble. My friend bred them (she was essentially a byb of rats, except she did it in her dorm room) and she had given them long names, kinda like registered names for dogs. I wanted to give them names that went together, and those names came from their long names, which were Indian Outlaw and Double Trouble. Trouble's name fit her quite well. She constantly escaped her cage, and chewed things up in my room.
And the last one I remember, is Captain Jack, the bird I used to have, named for Captain Jack Sparrow.