What's in a Name?

All my pets have human names. Conrad, Marlowe, Kay, Rudy. Kay and Rudy came with their names already so clearly I'm not the only one who does it! 

All our dogs have always had "people" names...  DH's dog growing up was Zach, mine was Jessica (my brother and I named her and thought she should have a name that "matched" ours - Jennifer and Jeffrey) and our dog now is named Wesley.  My parents had a friend who had a problem with the fact that our family dog was named the same thing as one of their children - my parents never understood why anyone would view that as insulting?? 

I like human names, we named our beagle Charlie because of the movie "All Dogs Go To Heaven".  Ever since I saw that movie when I was a little girl I just loved that name and knew if I ever had a dog, I would name him Charlie.

All my dogs have human names except Kujo. My husband came up with her name because he got tired of the me naming the dogs human names.

I just like human names over dog names. Well what is a dog name actually? Something along the lines as Rover, Lucky, Lady, etc?

I did have an aussie once I named Splash. I just couldnt think of a good name for her and Splash just stuck.

Now I dont know how I came up with Cheyanne's name. It's just came out of nowhere.
Lillie got her name from a suggestion of a friend. She asked me what I wanted to call her and I said I had no idea. I just knew I wanted Fire on her registration papers and I knew her call name had to be human. So Lillie is now Malcolm's Fire Lillie.
When I got Jayde I knew I wanted something along the lines of a jewel. And I really like Jade and thought it would be a great name and just added a Y.
Ginger also got her name from the help of a friend. It was 2 days before christmas when I got her so we thought Gingersnap would be a good name for her.

That's how my furbabies got their names.
 

I don't mind people names at all.  Only one of my animals has a people-name right now though.

Kenya - German Shepherd, full name is "[long kennel names] Lamb Chop" and was called "Chopper" but people thought she was vicious.  I chose Kenya because I like the sound and she has a very cool, laid-back personality that reminds me of how everyone acted when I was in East Africa. 

Coke - big mutt dog, DH wanted a very short name and we chose Coke because it's kinda goofy like him and he is black/brown like Coca Cola.

Beckham - cat named after David Beckham because he likes to play with kitty soccer balls

Posh - cat named after Victoria Beckham/Posh Spice because we already had Beckham!  She also goes by Pickle because once she had weird green stuff on her face and after closer inspection, it turned out to be pickle juice.

Marijke (mah-rye-keh) - One of my favorite human names (Dutch name, I'm Dutch).  It suits her. 

I've only had one dog in my life that didn't have a "person" name - a little doxie named Pretzel.  It has been years since I've heard anyone call a dog "Spot" or "Fido" - every dog I know has a person name and nobody seems to think it's strange.

Joyce

Well, we had a beagle when I was little called Bartholemew (Bart) and we had a sheperd husky called Bear because when he was a pup he looked like a teddy bear.  Then we had Goliath (my brother chose that name) and it fit, because he was big, then we had Lola, I chose that name.  Now we have Maddie (Madison Sophia) and Zack (whose name was first Spike) lol

My dogs don't have human names (1 of the cats does though, and I have no problem w/ that).  It's just my personal preference.  I like names that are more unique and *most* human (clearly not all, but many) names are more common.  I think many people have a personal philosophy in picking names.  For me, I don't want 2 pets whose name start w/ the same 1st letter, I don't want to use people names, and I like names that are more unique.  On the other hand my DH thinks I'm rediculous and that I think about the name waaaaayy to much.  So in the end, all of our pets are not named to my preference (some were even named before I/we got them), but that's ok.  For reference our pets are: Blaze, Co-Co, Mystic, Pooch, Dusty (dogs) and Sassy, Tato, Kallie (cats).  As you can see, some common names and even a human name.

Blaze - Named by my father for the blaze of white that was on her chest as a puppy

Co-Co - Named by my husband b/c she was brown

Mystic - I wanted a name that was unique and sort of fantasy

Pooch - was a stray that my grandfather "took in" (meaning tied up at his barn so that he couldn't get into the road and get hit) and he would always say things like...."gotta feed the pooch" or " the pooch is laying out in the rain, gotta get her to go in the dog house" and so on....eventually she just learned that as her name and DH and I didn't want to confuse her by giving her a new name....otherwise she'd be Oreo b/c she's black and white and on her back (when her hair is short) there's a swirl where the black is on the outside and the white is 'sandwiched' inside

Dusty - full name "Diamond Dust" because when she was a pup she had a little white diamond on the back of her head (now basically gone) and b/c she was so small she could crawl under things and get the dust bunnies

Sassy - Named by DH's parents when they got her 19 yrs ago

Tato - full name "Potato Bug" full name given by the vet tech that rescued him b/c when he was scared he'd curl up in a ball like those bugs do.  Tato b/c we needed something shorter and I didn't want a 'P' name b/c we already had Pooch

Kallie - b/c she's a calico, spelled w/ a 'K' b/c I didn't want another 'C' name       

The point behind that ramble was that just because I prefer non-people names doesn't mean that they aren't good names for others, it just means that when I'm asked for suggestions I won't be offering human names.

ETA: the reasons for the names. 

Mine all seem to have non human names, but not for any particular reason. My dogs are Ripley and Frosty and the new guy is Boomer, my cats are Pookie (though Pookie is a nickname that stuck...her real name is TieDye) and Muffin. My former dog, now with my ex-husband, is Domino, and my childhood cats were Sugar, Spice and Jude. I am saving the name Heidi for if I ever have a female dog in the future, and that's a human name. I keep ending up with males though, and now I am done adding for a while, so who knows if I'll ever use it.

 Misha's original name came from the song "Michelle" by The Beatles, his name was Misha ma Belle, because his father's name was Ringo and his mother's name was Beautiful. But... because Misha is a fairly uncommon name in the States, very few people could figure out that Misha was not, in fact, a girl name. So, when I introduced him to a guy on the streets of Savannah, he unofficially (then officially) renamed him Mister Misha. (Though I am tempted to tell people that his name is Brave, Brave Sir Robin, especially when he's hiding behind me.)

 
Marie's name is actually Marie Roget, from Edgar Allan Poe's story, because her mother was Raven. Her brother's name was Pluto for the story "The Black Cat".

Socks - tuxedo cat my brother named. Her brother was named Sir Robert Scott.

Evil Kitty - tuxedo cat who's evil. (Just look at that nefarious glare in my signature picture.) 

Captain Jaq would be my snake's name... because I wanted to spell "Jack" with a q. He was supposed to have a second name, but nothing seemed to fit - and I was not naming him after Captain Jack Sparrow.

Willie and Tiny Tim are my turtles. Willie came with her name, and Tiny Tim got his name because he was the size of a quarter when we got him.
 

I like all kinds of names!

Pomeranian <3

Also, why did you name your dog the name they have??

Cara and Mia were named before I even got them. I read somewhere that they would be a good name for twin baby girls (CaraMia means My Beloved in Italian) so, when I ended up with my 2 baby girls...  

Jaia and B'asia are just words I made up! LOL I liked the name Maia for a girl, but I knew he was going to be a boy, so I tried different first letters and liked the way Jaia sounded. Then I liked Asia for a girl, but it was kind of common (not really, but I had heard it before) Again, I added letters to the front and we settled on B'asia. The apostrophe is just for effect!   

For Jaia's registered name, I made up RaJaia (he was an R litter) and B'asia's is Velma!  I didn't name her!

 Indy is (rather obviously) after Indiana Jones. (His daddy is named Harrison, and the litter theme was Harrison Ford movies.) He's done his best to live up to the name, too. :P He's a wonderful brat and can be SO infuriatingly stubborn but he's absolutely brilliant when it comes to problemsolving.

 Mal is named after Malcolm Reynolds, from the TV show Firefly, which was a short-lived sci-fi western by Joss Whedon, the guy who created Buffy. Some of the best scifi written in years and the show was one of the best shows, period, of recent years, handicapped by inconsistant scheduling and bizaare expectations on the part of the network.

 After that, I figured that my (at the time future) spitz puppy (which I knew would be female) needed a pretty kick-ass hero girl name to keep up with the boys. I had 5-6 different names for various action hero characters (there's not that many of them, so a good half of those were comic characters). A friend has a dog named Pirate, whose registered name is Selah's Terror of the Seas- which I've always thought was adorable. And Pirates of the Caribbean is a tremendously fun, if pure fluff, movie- so Lizzie is named after Elizabeth Swan. (Who is never called Lizzie in the movie, but Lizzie's just not an Elizabeth, plus that's a real mouthful- and Lizzie *is* a period nickname for Elizabeth :P)

 If Lizzie had been a particolor, I was going to name her Domino (after the X-men character). :P   

 

I think names are very important.  I think, especially with performance dogs, there should be a live-up-to quality.  I also want a name no-one in my circles have, so that means researching well-known basenjis AND well-known (or at least local) agility dogs.  My two dogs with "human" names aren't usually seen as human names.  Mucha (say mooka)  the malinois came with her name and is named after Alphonse Mucha, the painter. 

http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/mucha.htm

And my brindlewonderkid, Digital, who also came with his name, is named after:

http://www.milwaukeewave.com/united/?id=49&nav=roster

Of course no one thinks of Digital as a "human" name and think we named him after something else.  Truely, I wouldn't have come up with that name for a dog, but it's been a great name.  I've never heard of another and, unlike Mucha's name, everyone can pronounce it.  So that's a HUGE score (gooooooooooooooaal?) in my book. 

Tri-ing's name is Jet.  While I have run into another Jet, thankfully it's not too popular.  I can't believe how many people have dogs named Zoe or  Bailey

I did name Zpuppy Zest.  It just sort of came to me and seemed like a good name.  She's zesty, it's short, easy to pronounce and I haven't found another.   (Although a few months ago, I did notice a BC at the agility nationals named Zesty.)  And it also creates some interesting reactions.  Most people say "Oooh, yes, what a good name for a basenji puppy."

Foster dogs I've named:  Grommit (before the movie but after the PBS shorts), Inka (little black b named after an alpaca I knew), Parker (named after a location not person).

Mal is named after Malcolm Reynolds, from the TV show Firefly, which was a short-lived sci-fi western by Joss Whedon, the guy who created Buffy. Some of the best scifi written in years and the show was one of the best shows, period, of recent years, handicapped by inconsistant scheduling and bizaare expectations on the part of the network.

I like how us Firefly fans can work our whining about the injustice and subsequent cancellation in to pretty much any conversation!

 You think you may have won this time FOX, but you can't take the sky from me!