How did you come up with your dogs name???

My girl Sprite was named after watching the movie Fantasia.  The Sprites where the little faries that were painting the forest in spring.  Sprites are known to be a little mischevious and stubborn and that fits her. 
 
Everyone told me that Sprite looked like a little lassie so when I got my next pup I figured that every Lassie needs her Timmy and that is how he got his name.
 
 

I don't have a dog yet, but we name all our animals after characters from novels.  My two cats are Pippin and Perrin (can anyone name the novels?).  We are hoping to adopt a dog soon (application is in just waiting to hear from them), if it is a male we are going to name him Radley (Boo Radley). 

JJ is never called JJ in our home.. he is Jimmy James. His racing name on the race track was Jimmy James Sway and his previous 3 owners kept his name as Jimmy James. He  has a reputation among our local greyhound community because he had a really bad attitude before coming to live with us so we just couldn#%92t change it with his reputation and all.. he is very well known as both “JJ” and “Jimmy James”.   
 
Prudence#%92s name on the race track was Purdy Brown and she had a littermate named Pru Brown.  Prudence#%92s name had been changed by the rescue to “Murphy” (for Murphy Brown) and her previous few owners kept that name. We didn#%92t think it fit her and on our list of all time favorite female names for dogs is the name “Prudence” and we had written possible nicknames as “pru” and”purdy”. Based on her name and her littermates name, we thought it was perfect to name her Prudence. I also felt like it was a tribute to her littermate “Pru Brown” that I do not believe ever made it off the race track to find a forever home after they were done racing her. []

When I hear "Jimmy James" I think of the silly radio station owner from the TV show NewsRadio. []

I think this is a great thread. Great stories!

Thats what I call my best friend Jimmy James.... he is great. I love the Radley name as well... Boo Radley is what I did my research paper on Freshman year in College.... Fantasia LOVE that movie... and desserts!!! LOVE IT they are ALL invited to my house for dinner

When I hear "Jimmy James" I think of the silly radio station owner from the TV show NewsRadio.

I have never seen that but I guess I have to now![]

Thats what I call my best friend Jimmy James....

that is funny.. I have never known anyone else to call someone that but my dh says his dad use to call him "jimmy james" when he was a kid... my dh comes from a LONG line of men named "james"...  I guess we were "meant" to be his owners![]

I named my boxer/rot Dolly... mostly after Dolly P(the country singer) but partly because when I got her she was 4 weeks old a soo tiny and cute... just a doll...
 
I named my chihuahua/min pin Coca because I took her home without asking my mom.... my mom loves coca~cola so I named her that to help woo mom into letting me keep her.... but didnt really have to she was even smaller then Dolly and could fit in one of my hands.....
 
I did get a male chihuahua and named him Pepsi after Coca, but he was REALLY nasty so I had to give him away

If I do rename my dog, her name will be Kenya.  Her current name is Lamb Chop, no idea how they came up with it.  I chose a short list of names and made a poll for my friends.  It was tied between Gracie and Kenya, but everyone decided for Kenya.  My cousin's name is Grace, so it would be a little weird.  I studied development in Tanzania, but that's a little much for a dog name.  I like one or two syllabuls.  Kenya is perfect for her because she's kinda "Serengeti" colored, the shades of brown, black, and tan.  Also, she's really even-keeled, laid back, a little reserved around some people, so the name Kenya just reminds me of being in Africa and being really laid back all the time.

Kee Shu (or Ms. Kee) was likely "Kishu" (as in I wanna kiss-you?? ewwwwwww).  No way could I see my husband yelling THAT one out the door so "Kee" she became and she answers to it fine.
 
Luna was originally "Luna Bella" -- which I think has to rank way up there among the top pretentious, stupid names I've ever heard.  (beautiful moon?  come on -- she's black and tan!).  However .... Luna .. as in Lunatic ... Luney Tunes ... or, as Billy calls her "Lunar Beller" -- yep FITS.  I do call her Belle sometimes, and sometimes Luna B just to be a bit less pretentious.
 
Billy was at the rescue we took him from "Huggins".  HE HATED that name.  (he hated that rescue and was badly, sadly abused while there -- the woman was a foster mother for emotionally handicapped kids and let's just say there was NOT enough supervision there *sigh*).
 
You can't do pet therapy and 'encourage' someone to squeeze the stuffing out of your dog by naming them 'huggins' so we ditched that fast.  We dithered for days and after about the 4th day David found him in the laundry building up on the FIFTH SHELF (about 7 feet off the floor with NO way he could have gotten up there other than purely JUMPING up there. 
 
I'd been toying with LOTR names -- but I'd had a Pippin many years ago, and Merry is just too much perceived as a girl's name.  He did not have a Frodo personality and ... when he proved his little adventurous side "Bilbo" just plain came naturally. 
 
Altho I never refer to him as Bilbo on here, he does certainly answer to it, but Billy the Venturin English cocker spanYELL is just plain ... HIM to a 't'.
 
Where our other English cocker Muffin had been Mr. Serious & Sober-faced ... Billy is most definitely NOT.  Were he a true hobbit he would have thot disappearing in the middle of his eleventy-first birthday in a puff of smoke would have been GREAT fun!!
 
And since he's an English cocker he's most definitely got the big huge fluffy FEETS to be a hobbit!

Bugsy was Boscoe at the shelter but I didn't like that.  DH and I couldn't agree a name and then I had the pup out on our enclosed deck and was trying to get him in.  He started to come to me and then stopped and scratched his behind.  I said, "what, do you have bugs?" He came running towards me so I said let's call him Bugs he responds to that and besides I love Bugs Bunny!
Despite DH not liking it we kept it, it has morphed into Bugsy and it suits him.  He is an excellent bug catcher and eater, he did have bugs (demodect mange), and his personality is very Bugs Bunny like - a wascally wabbit indeed.
Lots of people have commented on what a great & different name it is which is always nice to hear.  We thought of it too late but he could have easily been Kramer from Seinfeld another good match for his demeanor!

Emma was named for over a year, before I got her. Her full name is Emma Nems, and Emma means "all embracing". I never thought she'd grow into her name, but she's really beginning to settle into a sweet, accepting dog. It's wonderful to watch.

Teenie was named in a fit of irritated sarcasm, the day I got her. She weighed over 200% of her target weight, and I was *angry*. A woman had called my job, desperately looking for a place for a Miniature Dachshund to go, TODAY. She wanted the dog safe. The only thing I could see "miniature" about Teenie was her legs. She was HUGE! I was being mean, and I said, "Oh, she's just a teenie weenie dog!" and she came running over, waggling away. It stuck. Teenie Weenie, she is. Sometimes, she's Beanie Weenie, or Teenie Houdini, or Woo (I have no clue, it just happened), but she's a Teenie Weenie dog, now[]

Amy - gotten as a rehome was a take back by her breeder due to abuse - the breeder's teenage daughters named her - why?
 
Scooter - rehome that for most of his first 2 years had no name - they had a skin baby and decided that they must give up this tzu, her sister called him Scooter, it stuck
 
Max - rehome - had listed with a rescue for a dog - was advised it would over a year on the average (we had just lost Lady Wrongway) - next weekend, got a call, a 1st time dog owner had looked at the waiting list from the back up, liked our write up - we got the call - her son had named him - we kept it (& boy has he maxed out his size)
 
Sugar - byb & friend (I begged them not to breed) had a liter of 15, 13 lived - had homes for 10 - that had not realized this 1 was a girl, asked if I would take 1 of the remaining - hubby saw her and said she looked like light brown sugar & he loved her kisses/sugar (southern thing?) so Sugar it is

I have not gotten to name a dog for a while because the last few dogs I have gotten have been adults and were already named. If they had really stupid names I would have changed them but they were ok. My poodle's name was Ty when I got him and I did change it to Tyler. My powderpuff's name was Sarah and I love that so I left it the way it was. I have a list of boy and girl names for my next dogs, and I don't care what they are called when I get them I will re-name them from my list. I love people names for dogs, don't like names like Taffy, Buffy, Cocoa. etc. I like a little thought to go in to the name.

Gypsy- was "Fancy", then her foster family changed it to "Fannie" and both of those names made me gag.  She kind of wandered around before she found a permanent home with me so I thought Gypsy was fitting, I've always liked the name anyway.
 
Emi- was "Sweetie", again I do not like those types of names and I was going through a Japanese phase.  Emi means "blessed with beauty" and I thought it sounded cute.  Although now after learning her personality it should be spelled "Emmy" because she is quite the actress.
 
Eloise-was "Maggie Mae" it was an alright name, better than Fancy and Sweetie, but I wanted something a little more unique so Eloise she became. 

ORIGINAL: JMack

I don't have a dog yet, but we name all our animals after characters from novels.  My two cats are Pippin and Perrin (can anyone name the novels?). 

Gee, couldn't be the Lord of the Rings could it? I'm obsessed with the movies, have all 3 normal plus all 3 extended versions. And I've read, and own, the books.

As far as my dogs names, Dizzy, my Aussie was going to be Pandora if she had been a red tri. Pandora because of Anne Rice's vampire books and Pandora the vampire, so red and vampire go together, I'll do that when I do get a female red tri.

After the breeder switched the sire before breeding and all the puppies were black tri's I had to come up with a different name as in my mind Pandora didn't fit a black dog. I searched my favorite actresses imdb pages, cause I knew I was getting a female, and looked at names from movies they were in. I settled on Dizzy from the movie Starship Troopers. My obedience instructor likes the name, thinks it's fitting because of her breed.

Rio, my German Shepherd mix came from a previous foster puppy we had fostered. I liked the word rio for a name(rio is river in spanish for those that don't know). When we got the foster his name was Brownie, but Brownie didn't suit a German Shepherd mix(yes, that's what he was) and the lady who ran the rescue said we could change his name so I changed it to Rio. After he was adopted I said if I ever got a German Shepherd mix I'd name it Rio. I got my Rio last year at this time, this weekend last year to be precise.

As well, my cat's name came from a movie. Her name is Shazza(pronounced Shaw za). It came from the movie Pitch Black. The actress who played Shazza is named Claudia Black and my cat is black.

Shiva