Picking out good names for your pets small rant

    • Gold Top Dog

    Picking out good names for your pets small rant

    This is a pet peeve of mine,  I really become annoyed when people deliberately pick out a name for thier dog that seems preordained to cause issues.

    This is supposed to be your companion, you are supposed to look out for them and not make life any tougher than it already may be.  A few years ago I met a couple with a sweet but basically brain dead mastiff pup. They  REGISTERED him as the Kennel name then  NO NO Bad Dog.   Later they bought another and it was The Kennel name then Rut Ro .....   there are lovely dogs out there who's owners seemed driven to give them names like Chaos or Killer, yet they are the first to complain when neighbors do not enjoy the dog as much as the family does.  A friend had a behaviorist tell her the reason their RR was difficult to train was he did not like his name.... it was another Chaos , so they renamed hime Chase and supposedly he mellowed out and life became more complacent for every one.  I co own with good friends who are movie buffs, they wanted to name the dog  Coyote Ugly and call him Odie..... Not happening to a dog that will share my kennel name in respect for their moive theme we went with Nat'l Treasure and called him Zion.  They will try to get him to respond to the puppy name of Odie and I Have made it plain this will be a problem between us.  

    I do not like cutesy names for regal dogs.  If you have a noble dog why would you forever stain him with an idiotic name??   I have been scolded before for mentioning a gorgeous boy who championed easily and went on to stand at stud.... I would never have used him based off of his name! He is lovely , wonderful temperament and the lines actually would have complimented my own but I could not bear having Snookie Wookie Pookums in my pedigree.   I am not crazy about  Ethinic names either, it is difficult enough to have your dog's name read over a mike at the National but it becomes downright painful to have the speaker stumble over  trying to twist his tounge around a Swahili or Massai name. My favorite boy of the moment has a Hawaiian Name , I simply call him Ike..... it is beyond my ability to twist all of the vowels into something that makes sense.  I know there are folks who do not like dogs to have "human" names. 

    I won't call a dog rover, spot or fifi either, fluffy is out and franly if the best I could manage is Lucky then I really did not need a dog.  I like names that have honor and a sense of pride. I know many puppy folk are hell bent to name the dog Leo, Simba or Rhodie.... I will not lamblast them but it does make me feel badly for the pup that  while holding him / her in their lap they were unable to find that name hiding just behind the twinkle in their eyes or the pride of the genetic engineering that produced them. Many of my favorite names have come from pop culture,  a Phenom of a Ridgeback that thrilled me many times in the agility and obedience rings was Rare Earth's Quantum Leap for the Tv show and his call was Beckett.  This was an awesome fellow.  Dogs with a name that projects a level of style Like Kimani's Blue Chip Image , a friend named a half sister to my girls Paris, her registered name is Above the Law....  This is unique enough to be fun and will stick in my mind for a long time.  There are several Fergies and they just roll into a muddle for me.   I realize each of us has a name or type of name that has meaning to us but seems lame or lacking in effort.

    Last note about my little name rant, I hate it when a Kennel uses 20 0f the 28 letters , if your kennel is a very long word you are forcing your owners towards a mediocre registered name.  I kept our kennel name brief but it was as a tribute to our first boy a Ridgeless Ridgeback whom my husband named Bwana, Swahili for Boss and Friend.    The 5 letters are bestowed as a gift to our pups with the freverant prayer they are half the dog that Bwana had been.  I sign my name with his included to always remind myself to never shame him,  the love he had given us was so pure and correct I could never stain it by being snarky and small , or being untrue to the lessons learned from his great heart.

    Anyone else become annoyed by cutesy names , or the poor Pitties named Chomper or Destroyer ?  With names like that how can the public be expected to see them with an open mind? 

    Bonita of Bwana

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

     How about Brownie,Blondie,Patches,Spot,Oreo,etc?

    I mean come on people. Yes your dog is brown but so are a million other dogs. Cant you think of a something better?!!

    I know how you feel Bonita. I have a neighbor down the road that has a brown and white pit bull mix named Brownie. Reason? Because they already had a dog named Patches so since he had brown on him he got named Brownie. They also have a dog named Halloween. You can guess why. And they have a yellow lab named Yeller. Lol. Poor dogs never had a chance.

    Now unfortunatly I have a 3lb Chihuahua named Kujo. I hate it but JJ was the one to name her. Everyone else that would come over never helped out any when we first got her by going along with JJ and calling her Kujo. Her name was supposed to be Sage.

    • Gold Top Dog

     Rascal (registered: "Sir Rapscallion";) and I will back into a corner now... Stick out tongue

    • Gold Top Dog

    Cita

     Rascal (registered: "Sir Rapscallion";) and I will back into a corner now... Stick out tongue

    Yeah, I'm there in the corner with you, with my dog Frosty, my cats Pookie and Muffin, and my former cats named Stinky and Gray...actually Pookie, Stinky and Gray were all nicknames that stuck a little too well. And I always liked the name Oreo for a dog...maybe because I like food names in general.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Traditionally, I don't concern myself with other's choices in dog names.  If the dog's owner is content with the name that they choose, then it's none of my business.

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    I know what you mean, name a dog something that matters! The family we got Sam from was very heavy into church, they named him Samson. I call him Sam. That name ment something to them, and Sam maybe be a very, very common name for a dog, but still, it seems to fit him. Taz was named after my brother, who as a child loved Taz from loonely toons and claimed 'Taz' as his nick-name, plus, Taz fits his personality very well.

    I get sick of people with Golden's, and Lab's calling them Buddy and Shadow. Spot for a Dalmation, CoCo for a brown dog of any breed, Killer for a Pit, or Chaos, or Havoc....I know 2 Pit's that carry the names of Havoc and Chaos. Blue for black or 'blue' colored dogs. Blackie, for a black dog. Sugar, is also common.

    I could go on, but sometimes a common name just fits the dog(Sam)

     

    Edited : I always wanted a dog named Astro, after the Huston Astro's...I just like sports names....Dodger, Astro, ect.. They're not un-common names....but its not like a I'm wanting to name a St. Bernard 'Beetoven'.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I know a very nice Beagle named "Dammit" who Ch'd and is a good pup from all accounts. LOL. Names are so personal...unless they are mine I don't worry too much. And even that...I hate people names on a dog and I own an Ellie and a Susie for heavenssake! LOL.

    • Gold Top Dog

    There are a lot of names I wouldn't use for my own animals, but I can't fault others for using them. Everyone has different tastes and for me it is less about what the name is or means, but whether it was given with love.  Honestly if a person couldn't see past a name of one of my animals, than I probably wouldn't want them interacting with my animal to begin with.

     

    My mom wanted to name Kirby, Mozart, though she now admits it is a good thing we didn't because it doesn't fit Kirby at all.  She has always been into naming animals after famous people in history like that though.  When I was a little kid there was a precondition when she finally gave in and let me get a cat, that I had to get a male she could name Picasso, which we did.  Lol.  Then there was my collar lizard Leo that she called Long Fellow, and my first mantis Praye, she dubbed Cleopatra, just to give a few other examples.

     

    One name I have always wanted to use, but will never be able to bring myself to is Gizmo for a papillon.  It fits so perfectly, but I can't do it because it is such a common papillon name.  That being said, I have had some rather random names, especially when it comes to my praying matises.  For instance, I named one boy Alien after watching a marthon of all the movies on tv.  Then there was my sweetheart girl named Redrum (bonus points for anyone who knew what her name came from before reading on) who got her name when I was watching the original movie of The Shining on TV.  XD

     

     

    Cita- heh, I always loved the name Rascal but maybe I'm partial since my mom used to have a Quarter Horse called Rascal with a registered name of Tag This Rascal.  Actually, whenever I see you talking about Rascal he reminds me of our Rascal because he had a very similar tempermant to your boy only in horse form. Stick out tongue

     

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    I don't know as I can comment, since I have a dog named Ginger. However,  I adopted her at nearly 11 years of age and didn't feel changing her name to be worth adding another change to her life. (we call her Elf a lot of the time, though)  I try to stick with original names for the pets I name myself though. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    it may seem that "Tootsie" was named after the candy, but my grandma actually had an aunt named Tootsie and I thought it was a neat name for someone.

    • Bronze

    I always wanted to put my greek to use and have a dog named........ready  for this............

     

    Phidiouxe.

    • Gold Top Dog

    I think Kujo for a teeny tiny guy is cute as long as they are loved and well trained, it is when you have a beautiful Pitbull and they give it a red flag all alarms out name for  it like Fang.....   funny is okay with me , I like funny.   But naming a tiny pup DIVA and then going out of your way to make them into  a spoiled nasty one   sigh .....

    Bonita of Bwana

    • Gold Top Dog

    I think naming a pet "Bad Dog" is stupid, but I don't care too much about others.  Everyone has their own taste.  I'd rather see a cutsie name than a totally stupid name or one that will degrade the dog.  Sometimes cutsie names give off a friendly vibe, I'd be more apt to approach and talk to a dog owner who named their dog "Pumpkin" or something cute than one who named their dog something overly serious.

     

    I really didn't care for the name Sophie, talk about common. But, she came with it and she was used to it, so it stayed.   The kids named Cruiser. I don't know if that's "cutsie" or not, but honestly I LOVE it.  I've never met another Cruiser and it just totally fits his personality.

    • Gold Top Dog

    BEVOLASVEGAS

    Traditionally, I don't concern myself with other's choices in dog names.  If the dog's owner is content with the name that they choose, then it's none of my business.

     

     

    I agree.  We did put a lot of thought into Sally's name.  With Jack, he was supposed to be named Cole, but since he ended up being chocolate, we went with Jack because I am big Nightmare Before Christmas fan.

    My friend has an arab gelding.  His registered name is Five Lucky Stars but the breeder called him Five.  The girl that bought (and ended up keeping him at the barn I worked at) called him Lucky.  My friend bought him and started calling him Five again but I had been calling him Lucky for so long that half the time I forget--occasionally my friend slips up and calls him Lucky also.  My husband thinks the name Five is dumb so he always calls him Lucky.  I'm surprised poor Five/Lucky doesn't have an identity crisis by now..... 

    • Gold Top Dog

    sillysally

    With Jack, he was supposed to be named Cole, but since he ended up being chocolate, we went with Jack because I am big Nightmare Before Christmas fan.

    That's funny- our friend has a black lab named Coal (like, black as coal). My parents have a neighbor with a Cairn Terrier named Fido and I have to say I've never personally met another dog named Fido, even though you'd think it was wicked common and annoying name- it's not!

    I don't like the name Callie for a dog anymore. I walk 3 dogs named Callie and my friend with the Pom/Maltese, yah, her dog is named Callie!