How Do You Pick Your Pup´s Name?

Buddy's grandsire was Pistol Pete, a champion hunter...down in these parts.  So, we wanted his name to reflect.  We came up with R&Bs Pistol Packin' Buddy.   

Before I even acquired Heidi, I knew the next dog I would have was a female german shepherd.  So, I started thinking about names beforehand; and came up with Heidi as my favorite.  The breeder preferred we keep his kennel name, so we obliged...so her name is Heidi vom Vinahaus.

And, newbie...GSD rescue...well, I wanted something that reflected Little Brother (Lil' Brudder).  The rescue had named him Bud, which wouldn't work for obvious reasons.  I thought about Brudder, but that was too close to Bud/Buddy as well.  So, I reached out to our iDog members here for suggestions.  And, someone came up with Bruder which is Brother in German.  Perfect!

I do tend to stick with names that are two syllables and have a consonant in the middle.  I've been on the "d" sound for years now.  LOL

 Our first dog came with the name Betty, and we didn't know at the time that you could easily teach a dog a new name. Millie kept her name also because she was old, and we just figured it was easier to keep it since she knew it. Max was the first one whose name we changed. His name at the shelter was Bruno. It wasn't bad at all, because it means brown one, and he was brown. There were two dogs we were thinking about that day. On the way to get Millie to see if she liked them, we decided the smaller guy we would have called Trevor, and Max was going to be Max if we took him. He just struck me as a Max. Georgie was named Rosie at the shelter. My sister picked that name. It's after some actress, but I have no idea who it is. Luke is my first dog with a registered name, which is Sweetdream A New Hope. I was thinking for a bit of a bit of a tribute to BF Skinner, but decided instead that I would go with a Star Wars name. I was limited to an additional 13 characters because of the breeder's kennel name taking up 10. The things I was going back and forth on were A New Hope, with the name Luke, and the other one was JediMindTrick, named Jedi. That would have had to be with no spaces. He struck me as more of a Luke though. He was last to leave home, and he's sort of quiet, but kicks into gear when he needs to, so I feel like it fits him well. I may still use the other name for another dog in the future, possibly one where I can actually use the spaces in between, though I do really like Luke's breeder.

I'm generally not very creative when it comes to names, so when I got Luke from the Humane Society, I ended up keeping the name they came up with.  I tossed around a few other options and go nothing but, "ehhhh" from everyone I talked to -- and he seemed like a Luke, so it stuck.

Kaiser's registered name is Alasco's Kvichak and there isn't any form of that name that rolls off the tongue.  I searched high and low through Alaskan/Eskimo words to try to find something and nothing really stuck out for a boy.  I knew I wanted a "K" name for him, and Kaiser seemed to really fit his puppy picture.  He was very nearly "Kota," but I'm glad I went for Kaiser.  It suits him perfectly.

I've told this story before - but Mr. W. wanted no part of a dog - so to make a long story short, after a long night of me plying him with Jameson's wiskey he finally agreed.  So we now have Jamison - spelled differently but named after Jameson's.

Deb W.

Sadie - she came with that name, we hated it but decided to stick with it because she was already coming and responding to it. Half the time now we call her lazer or lazehound anyway because she is so lazy. hehehe.

Timmy - we hate all of those "tough guy" rottweiler names and we wanted to name him something that wasn't at all scary, so Timmy it was. It sounded cute and friendly so we went with it. Turns out it fit his personality perfectly. 

 Working BC names are traditionally one syllable and usually people names, particularly male names, like Ben, Craig, Bob and Jack, etc. I like to pick ones that fall in those parameters that aren't used as much - so Greg, Doug, Gus, Ted, and now Sam.

I love naming animals. It's a chance to be creative! Having said that, Penny is a pretty common dog name. But I was only 13 at the time and it suited her. She gets Pen-pen and Penelope, but she's a Penny through and through.

Kivi Tarro got his name by being a Finnish dog born in Australia. I had a list of Finnish names I liked, but then I got all moody about it and thought that everyone named their Lapphunds something Finnish and wasn't he an Australian dog and so maybe I should give him an Aboriginal name. So then I created a list of Aboriginal names I liked. In the end, my partner was looking at my lists and in jest suggested that I needed to use one name from one list and one name from the other and call him that. He used Kivi and Tarro as an example because they both mean "stone". I thought it sounded stupid, but it totally grew on me and I liked how it sounded a bit like an anime superhero. So Kivi Tarro he is. OH comes home and says to him "You're such a Tarro." so we tend to use Tarro as a noun and put an adjective in front. Crazy Tarro, sad Tarro, snuggle Tarro... Lot's of fun.

My hare got named Kit because when I rescued him I didn't know if he was a boy or a girl and didn't really expect him to survive either way. I called him Kit, not realising that baby hares are leverets, not kits. 

I got a rabbit and named it Caboodle so I could have Kit n' Caboodle, but she turned out to be the devil incarnate and went to another home (where she is called Fudge due to her colour). I got another rabbit and named her Kat so I had Kit and Kat, but she died of myxo quite young. I abandoned the ill-fated pair namings and my current rabbit is called Bonnie. It's short for Bonita because that's a Spanish name and I was in Mexico when Kat died. My mum named her as she picked her up for me when I was still in America.

I'm a bit of a bird nerd and secretly want to name a dog Tyto or Aquila. I'm harbouring secret desires for a Basenji named Bane, or an Akita named Kiba, but we'll see what happens.  

I always go with food names and usually by color. So for example my liver and white Shih Tzu is named Gingerbread. Peanut has his name because of his size.

 WOW, what a response, and some fascinating, and interesting reading - Thanks so much to everyone that has taken the time to share some great stories and info with e, I am overwhelmed by the response on here and I can[t wait to interact with you all and chat some more.

Thank you So Much,

MartyH

For Misty, we couldn't think of anything...or shall I say AGREE.  My husband was at Home Depot the second morning we had her, so he grabbed a bunch of white paint color samples.  I leafed through them, and the very last one we got to was called "morning mist".  All at the same time, we went "MISTY!".  When we had our dog named Bella, she was a great pyrenees mix and she was beautiful, so since Bella means beautiful in french, and the pyrenean mountains are partly in France, we went with that.  Kira....she's part husky and that was on the list of Alaskan names, and we all liked it.  We also had a blonde golden retriever whose name was Sunny (original, huh?) and I've had two schnauzers named Gretel and Schultz.  I also had a Lhasa Apso as a girl and her name was Tasha.  No idea where that came from.

I just make a list and keep running them through my head until one sticks.  Nikon kind of went with Kenya b/c they have the "n" and "k" sounds in reverse.  The breeder liked it too (we both photograph with Nikon equipment).  It fits in with the other German shepherd names at shows.  In fact, there were about 20 dogs in Nikon's class at the Seiger Show and two dogs ahead of him was an Ikon.  The other name I really liked for him was Zidane but I couldn't decide how to pronounce it, whether I should just say it zih-dane or zsee-dahn (the first part said like Zsa Zsa Gabor).  I didn't want something quite as common (among GSDs) as Sergeant/Sarge, Jaeger, Max...  My sister insisted (and still insists) I name him Kimbo Slice after some cage fighter and call him Kimbo for short, which I didn't mind all that much.

I don't have a set formula for naming, it depends on the dog and the situation (like if there is a litter theme or if I have a name I just HAVE to us).

  Whimsy is from a W litter and goes with her W registered name (Whimsical). I like the word Whimsical/Whimsy and thought it would be a cute and different name. I called all the puppies in Cherry's litter fruit names and when she stayed, so did her name. She is registered as Cherry Garcia. Jagger's registered name is Its Only Rock N Roll and he is from an I littler. Jora I picked off of the alfabette zoope site for a couple reasons. I wanted something unique - Jora is going on 12 and I have yet to meet another dog with the same name. It means autumn rain and she was born on a rainy late fall night. And I really like the way it sounds. Zette I was yet again looking for a unique name witha sound I liked. I was looking up Belgian names/info and found Zette is a character in popular book series there. Turns out she also has a foriegn dog way far back in her pedigree named Zette. I suspect it is a more common name in Belgium but I've not met or heard of another Zette here.

Caleb is named after my husband's 4th great grandfather, Caleb Washburn.  He's the first dog we've since we've been married that hasn't had a beer name. When we first got married, we had a Sibe/GSD mix, Heineken, then, 10 years later (he was 17 when he died), our dear old Lab/English Setter mix, Michelob (Mick). 

iluvjamison

I've told this story before - but Mr. W. wanted no part of a dog - so to make a long story short, after a long night of me plying him with Jameson's wiskey he finally agreed.  So we now have Jamison - spelled differently but named after Jameson's.

Deb W.

Deb, that's classic!!!

Our guys have names that "fit" them.

• Chyna was named before she came to me.  My older brother named her after a female wrestler.   She already knew her name, & she was only supposed to be with me "temporarily" so I didn't change it.
• Bevo's registered name has "Las Vegas" in it.  He was supposed to be "Vegas" but I kept singing "Viva Las Vegas" every time I tried to call him.  Bevo is the name of my alma mater's mascot, & I liked the way BevoLasVegas sounded.  (Now, I call him Bev or Buttah.)
• Brinxx was a rescue who was a crazy barker when she first came home.  If something moved, she would bark to alert me.  My BF at the time claimed that she was just as good as any Brinxx home security system.
• Shooter was a rescue.  I was working at a vet clinic when he was brought in & diagnosed with parvo.  His "breeder" elected to euthanize him because she wasn't going to make money off of him.  I convinced her to sign him over to me.  After recovering from parvo, my boss picked "puppy" up & was promptly peed on.  My boss said "Crap!  He's a shooter."  He's been "Shooter" since that day.  He's never peed on anyone else.
• Schatzi was already named when she came to me.  Honestly, Schatzi is as sweet as the come, but she's as dumb as a box of rocks, so I was afraid that she might never learn a new name.
• Brutus, came to us weighing only 59 pounds.  (He's up to 74 now, & he's still got another 10-12 pounds to gain.)  We wanted him to have a name that he could grow into.  He's definitely growing into Brutus. 

 Ya know.. I always wondering how Bevo got his name cuz it's so unique.