Recently in names Category

On June 15th, we found a new wonderful dog from the Long Beach shelter, who was a Shiba Inu and German shephard mix.  Sight unseen, our 4 yr old daughter named her "Feather."  I had to warm up to the name at first, but it fits.  

Official name: Feather "Clementine" Velez

Feather - because her tail really does look like a feather...and when it wags, her whole bum moves.

"Clementine" - because she is so sweet.

 

Last week I asked readers if they had any unusual or creative pet names to share. I received this from Joseph. Love the dogs, love the names! 

We lost our dear friend and companion Dim-Sum May 8, 2010, from kidney failure. He was called Dim Sum because my in-laws are Chinese and in Chinese it means a little bit of heart. He was a great little Maltese mix who showed up on my brother in-laws driveway. On May 23rd we rescued the newest member of our pack Wi-Fi, from Perfect Rescue. His older "brother" Fergus was lonely without a friend and we needed to help out a dog who just needed love and a good home. Why the name Wi-Fi? My wife Kathy explains it best.

 

(photo below: Wi-Fi is on the left, Fergus on the right)

 

 

Ok, here is the long and short of the importance of the name:  emotional association  mixed in with the technical stuff-- 
 
1.  Everyone wants Wi-Fi--therefore Wi-Fi the dog is in great demand and he will belong to only us! 
2.  Signs are everywhere--"Free Wi-Fi"--meaning it is a sign to us that we need to free some little doggie from the shelter
3.  Without Wi-Fi , whether on business or vacation or just having to hang out somewhere, one can feel  sad and isolated and disconnected from the world.  Without Dimmy, we have felt the same. So Wi-Fi the dog represents all that is good and uplifting about connecting to the world again. 
4.  The Ying and Yang logo is just another cool association with Chinese philosophy.

Dog Vader. Purr Diem. Chairman Meow. Boo Manchu. Bettie Poops.

I always love creative dog names and hearing from owners why and how they came up with them.

Recently I was sitting next to the owner of a Dachshund in my veterinarian's waiting room. They'd named him Sieben (ZEE-bin), which is "seven" in German.

The breed's origins, of course, are German -- and he was the seventh dog they've had as a family.

I named one of my previous dogs (an Australian shepherd-border collie mix)  "Mercy."

Just weeks before I found her as a stray, I'd heard a talk on the 23rd Psalm given by Scottish theologian Sinclair Ferguson in which he recalled the faithfulness of the sheepdogs guiding and tending the sheep in his homeland.

Picking up on the verse that says "For goodness and mercy shall surely follow me all the days of my life,"  he compared the constant watchfulness of the dogs to how God shepherds his people. He went on to say that if he ever had a couple sheepdogs he'd name them "Goodness" and "Mercy."

Some people like the more comedic touch in naming pets. The folks at VPI Pet Insurance compile the "wackiest" pet names list each year and they recently published their 2010 list (the names in italics at the top of this thread come from that list).

Now it's your turn: Poetic and serious -- or just plain funny -- what are some of the best names you've heard or used  --  and why did you pick them?

You can either leave a comment here or email me (include a photo of your pet if you'd like) at donna.littlejohn@dailybreeze.com

Since I posted earlier today about the 10 wackiest dog and cat names released by the folks at the Veterinary Insurance group, I figured I should follow up with a bit of a warning.

Read any "How to name your dog" book or article, and they'll tell you to pick a name you can -- without embarrassment -- call out loud in a crowd.

This rule was broken by Rollin Keller's Aunt Jean. Rollin is a former pastor of mine who spins family tales on his new blog called Old Guys Rule. I posted an earlier story of his last month about the cat that ate the wedding cake. (He's got several other animal related posts up, as well.)

But when it comes to naming your dog, My Aunt's Dog really is one you should read -- and remember:

My Aunt's Dog

The folks at Veterinary Pet Insurance have sent out their 10 most unusual dog and cat names for the second year. There are also descriptions as to how these names were chosen on the web site. And actually, there are more than 10 -- see more of them on the group's web site as well:  

	Doogie Schnauzer Md		Snag L. Tooth
	Sargent Sausage		Clawed Monet
	I Am Sparticus		Velvet Elvis
	Lunchbox		Eartha Kitty
	Angus Sir Loin		Blue Man Chew
	Bam-Bam Noodle Butt		Catzilla
	Mouse Meat		Thurston Picklesworth III
	Fluffernutter		Yardsale
	Kanye East		Dishwasher
	Inspector Foo Foo		Polly Prissypants

So here it is: The First Family has decided on a Portuguese water dog. Just like Fernando who goes to our dog park. !  Go Fernando!   (He's the one sitting alone in the photo above, my dog Tess is under the bench). Good choice. They seem to be great dogs.

First Lady Michelle Obama told People magazine that her family has decided to adopt a Portuguese water dog, pointing to the breed's medium-sized and good-natured reputation. The breed is also hypoallergenic -- a must, given daughter Malia's allergy to dogs.

The first lady said her daughters will have to wait until the end of April to get the dog, since her family is planning on going away for Spring Break.

The only thing left to pick is the name, and Mrs. Obama said she is not a fan of her daughters' choices.

"There are names floating around and they're bad," Mrs. Obama said in the interview. "You listen and you go - like, I think, Frank was one of them. Frank! Moose was another one of them. Moose. I said, well, what if the dog isn't a moose? Moose. I'm like, no, come on, let's work with the names a little bit."

 

You can read more about the breed on the AKC Web site and also here at another dog breed site. And PetPlace also has some good info on the dogs. (Does the White House have a swimming pool?) They're described as friendly and active with webbed feet, making them terrific swimmers.

So now what to name the First Dog?

Some suggestions I kind of like (some are mine, others came from elsewhere) include: Liberty. Patriot. Freedom. Justice. Change. Hope. Bailout.

Or how about DOTUS (a take-off on POTUS, President of the United States)? I kind of like that one, though I'm sorry to say I didn't think of it. (Someone also suggested FIDOTUS, but that might a bit cumbersome to call).

They could also go for a water or fishing name -- or look to Portugal, to reflect the dog's origins. Like Fernando! I love Fernando.

Anyway, we'd really like to hear what you think about a name, so send them in via comments or emails and we'll post them.  

General guidelines say that a dog's name should be easy to pronounce and probably should end in a vowel sound since pets hear those sounds better. Nicknames for dogs usually wind up that way anyhow. (So Patriot might wind up Patty, Justice could end up being Justy, DOTUS would probably morph into Dody or Dodo, etc.) It should be something with no more than 2 syllables, or so the expert namers say.  

They say you should always make sure whatever name you pick is something that won't embarrass you when calling out the dog's name in public, of course.

Oh, the suspense, the pressing issues of our day.

   .

Some names are strictly for humans -- Allan, Steve, Vivian, for instance. Sure, people will give their pets names like that to be funny or ironic, but they're really human names.

Some names are strictly for animals -- Spot, Mittens and Snowflake are examples that come to mind.

And then there are names that work for both. There are countless examples of that, but here is a list of people I work with who fit in that category:

Sandy

Jack

Walter

Chuck

Gazelle

Leo

Sam

Max

You've seen the lists of the most common dog and cat names.

But these lists below are a lot more fun to read. Max, Jake, and Maggie -- move over.

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI)  has compiled the top 10 most unusual dog and cat names based on the more than 465,000 pets the company insures.

Top 10 Unusual Dog Names:                                          

 

Not all Americans have bought into the concept of monosyllabic human names for their pets.

For some, the pet name trend is toward the unusual -- or just plain bizarre. 

... "The dog park would definitely be a more interesting place if you heard people saying, 'Fetch, Rafikikadiki,' or, 'Come here, Meatwad,'" said Curtis Steinhoff, senior director of VPI Corporate communications. "I might be a little hesitant to introduce people to Miss Fuzzbutt or Sir Lix-a-lot, but I can't think of many better conversation starters."

 

Via: Wagreflex

OK, you've just brought your new dog (or cat) home. "Hey, you" won't do for very long, so you begin the search for just the perfect name. I have friends who manage to do this in a snap -- my friend Shirley, for example. "Nash" she announced in all confidence in an e-mail to me, literally moments after she'd brought home a kitten so tiny he still needed to be bottle fed.

Me? Names are a bit more complicated in my universe. I think it's because I'm a writer, but maybe it's just some strange personal quirk of indecisiveness that can paralyze me every so often. I often spend days poring over lists, my own and others' (if you're not aware, there are exhaustive lists of pet names now online). I bounce various possibilities off friends, I try a few out on the dog. I wring my hands, I say to myself, "It's OK, but .... there must be a better name out there, somewhere. And so I stop thinking about it altogether. 

Last weekend, I adopted a new dog, a border collie. She is beautiful and she came with the very appropriate name of "Purdy." That's a fine enough name, except I've discovered that I absolutely cannot say it without using a long, hillbilly twang. "Purrdeee." I am making both of us crazy. 

The right name will come. I'm simply named out. So for now, it's "Hey! You! -- Purrrdeee."