What's in a Name?

Personally I love unique names. Lets see, the two dogs in my life I got to name: Zelgadis, and Chopsi. I'd say those are unique enough. :P

 My family always looks at me strange when I first come up with the name too, but I don't care, they grow used to them soon enough.

Human names can be fine - they just have to fit. My step-father named his dog Roscoe, it fits the dog like a glove. I couldn't imagined that dog being called anything else... well, 'cute' works fairly well for that one too I guess. :P 

I can't stand the way my brothers name things. Out Black Lab mix being named Shadow is fairly bad, but the fact that we have a bunny named 'Fluffy' took the cake for being unoriginal, I ignore that name.

Though having a unique name isn't always a good thing. My brother named one of our cats 'Claudia'... and while it is a human name, it definitely doesn't fit the cat. We are so accustom to calling that cat 'Gray Kitty' now that the brother who named it forgets its real name sometimes.
 

I am so NOT creative when I named my dogs. I have chose human names but when I do, I have tried to pick names NOT common. I had a dog named Kayla (after Kayla Brady on the soap opera) then all of the sudden it became a popular child's name. Currently I have Maxine (after the Hallmark character), Belle, and Teddi. I named Teddi because all Golden Retriever pups look like little teddy bears. I used the "i" to give it a feminine twist. Now we have a person boarding at the barn where I keep my horse, a young lady named Tedi! I have not run into a Maxine...yet.

I named Belle kind of after a friends dog. I had a friend with a BEAUTIFUL black Lab (male) named Beauregard's Bon Mon (sp?) She called him Beau. Her intention was to show and breed him, I wanted one of his pups. I said if I get one I will name it Belle, if you have a southern name like Beauregard, you have to have a Belle. He did show for a while and did very well. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. Such a loss.

One of my horse's is named Pete! But I didn't technically name him. The boy I bought him from was named Pete. When Pete got his horse he never named him so his name became "Pete's Horse". When buy a horse it is supposedly "bad luck" if you change their name. So I just "adjusted" his name. After all he wasn't Pete's horse anymore he was mine. So his show name became "TheHorseFormerlyKnownAsPetesHorse". The show secretaries hated me.

 

We have mostly people names here.

 Right now we have:

  Nikki: I thought she looked like a Nikki and it just stuck.

 Trey: Came with his name.  If I could have named him, he'd be called Buddy.  He looks like a Buddy.

Beauregard Junior (Beau):  Wanted a cute little french name, and Beau fit well.  His sire is also named Beau so he's Beauregard the second.

 Rose: Came with her name, plus she looks like a Rose.

 Scout (Chinchilla): Named after the lead character in To Kill A Mocking Bird.  Plus it's a cute name

 Past pets were: Shack, Pete, Rosie, and Harry- dogs, Smokie (Chinchilla), rodents- Jewel, Juniper, Jasmine (male LOL), Jellybean, Jake, and James

 So yes, mostly human names

Mickey got his name because it just popped into my head when I brought him home.    He doesn't care, he's a snake.  

Dakota was a name I always liked.  So Kota was Dakota at first, but I shortened it.  People always think Coda though and those that are not around him much but knew him when I first got him, still call him Dakota when they do see him.  lol

Niko was a kitty I rescued off the streets that died of FeLv about a year later.  I just liked the name and spelling.  Again, no one could spell it.

Tasha, well that just popped into my head when I brought her home after adopting her.  Yinny just didn't fit.  bleh....

Pepper.  She got her name because her muzzle had white hairs on it in with her black, so my thought was salt and pepper.  BF didn't like it but never came up with anything better.  Better than Floe that the shelter gave her.  Talk about a bad name.  yick.

Woodsey was our childhood cat.  He lived outside and liked to roam the woods.    I was pre-teen for cryin' out loud!

Snickers got her name because when we brought her over at 5 weeks of age to convince my dad to let us keep her and keep her INDOORS, she snickered at me.  She died in 2005 at the age of 14 after battling kidney failure for 7 years.  Man, my mom and dad loved that cat.  She even came to Indiana a few times to visit.  Loved traveling in the car.  :)  We used to take her with us everywhere we could. 

Patches was a guinea pig we got from a friend that no longer wanted him.  He had splotches of color all over him.

Harley Had his name when I adopted him and it fit so it stayed.

My boyfriend collects glass liquor bottles and we recently moved so they were in a box in the garage. The new puppy ran into the box and broke a bottle of  Jagermeister and therefore has his name. Jager..

The turtles name is Cleatus. It was supposed to be a joke and just stuck.

The hamster is named C&C for cookies and creme because she is black and white.

I just name my dogs whatever fits..i dont care if its a person name or not.  When i got Kodi, i wanted to name her Anastasia, and call her "Anya" but my two sisters were really young then, and somhow i mentioned the name "Kodi" and it stuck..my mom was like "they cant say Anastasia..lets just call her Kodi"..haha.  and i still get "HER name is KODI?"

For Diesel..I had his name picked out before i got him.  I was really looking to get a bull terrier puppy..but when i went with Akita, the name fit as well.  I wanted it because I liked the show name "Fire Hazard"..and thought i was clever for fitting them together!

For Tessa..I wanted to name her Third Times a Charm du Chateau Rocher, and call her "Trinity" sence she will be my 3rd dog to take in the show ring..but my breeder said her registered name had to start with a "C"..so i tried to think of something to relate to a call name i liked so it stuck "Contessa du Chateau Rocher"

I have always picked human names. Don't know why, it just never occurred to me to pick anything else. When I was very little (like 4 or 5) I got to pick the name of the first dog my Mom & Dad got. She was A Dobe and I named her Leesha because I thought it was pretty.  (Actually, I liked the name of an older girl in the neighborhood, her name was really Alicia, but I had no idea.) 

As an adult both my dogs have had human names and middle names to boot! I pick names I like.

My Basset Hound was Frances Abigail.

My APBT is Veronica Lynn (I have since found out that that is also the name of a porn star. I am quite sure I thought of the name first!

I usually don't like "people" names for animals. I prefer cute ones like dessert names, drink names, etc.

My dogs have always had human names and in most cases many have been older type human names. I do not know why this is, only that these names are more appealing to me than other names.

Gunnar is a skandinavian variant of Gunther and means batteler or warrior. My oldest son chose it when we brought Gunnar home.

Hektor means "steadfast or holdfast" and it was given to him because he is bred to hold the pig fast until the hunter arrives to dispatch it.