How did you name your pets?

[BarbaraRose]

This is really interesting!

My cat, Lola, I got from a shelter in California. Her name was LaLa . She got loose and ran away before I even got her home from the shelter. I searched all over for her and was not about to go around calling "Lala, Lala" for fear of getting locked up! So I changed it to Lola. I figured it was close enough sounding to Lala, that she would still recognize it. (I finally got her back 4 months later!)

Chelsea, my ferret, I got from the shelter here in Minneapolis. She came with the name Lucy, which was the name of my very first and favorite ferret.(I figured it was a good omen) Can't have two of those, so I changed it to Chelsea since it sounded similar.

When I was a kid, we got two Siamese kittens for Christmas. We couldn't agree on names so they became "Big Cat" and "Little Cat". After Big Cat (aka Fat Cat) died years later, Little Cat became Old Man Kitty and lived to be 23 years old!

I acquired a cat from a woman I worked with many years ago. She had named the orange persian "Matilda Rose" and called her Matty. When I got her, she was very fearful and I realized she had been abused by this woman. I decided to change her name because she probably associated her name with the abuse. I renamed her Rosie from her middle name. My dad ended up with her and she had a great life with him. She was always timid but very sweet.

I rescued a ferret that was a light brown and cream color so I named him Bailey after my favorite drink!

I adopted a cat once who came with the name Spunky, but he was anything but that when I got him home. He had the sniffles when I got him so I renamed him Snuffy. Once he felt better tho, he was definitely spunky and then some! But Snuffy stuck and I kept it.

[etexlady]

I've had my current dog, a toy poodle, for about two months. I got her at a rescue shelter that specializes in small breeds. Her original owner had terminal cancer and surrendered her to the shelter to find her a new home and requested that her name be changed though I don't know why. Anyway her original name was Winnie and the shelter changed it to Trinnie. I thought about changing the name but decided I liked Trinnie and she seems to like it too. I assume the shelter just changed the name to something similar to her previous name but I like to think that Trinnie is short for Trinity and it's prophetic that Trinnie is my third poodle. My previous dog, a miniature poodle, I got when he was 8 weeks old. I had wanted a female dog and had called the breeder and was told there was a female available. When I went to see them the breeder said the female was sold and all she had left was a male. I had planned to name the female puppy Jasmine. I, of course, fell in love with the little male and on the way home decided I could still use the Jasmine name and shorten it to Jazz. It fit him perfectly as he was a cocky little guy and very Jazzy. I miss him still. Before him my niece rescued (stole) a miniature poodle from her neighbor who was mistreating the dog. My niece already had two dogs and the landlord would not let her have another so I got him. His name was Chewy and it fit him so he remained Chewy until he died at age 16.

[BirdbyBird]

There might be an additional reason my 30 something kids have decided to go childless...at least so far. I have a long history of naming my cats and dogs with people names and have always wondered what names they would come up with if they had to actually name a baby. Occasionally I have gotten a slightly older dog that already knows their name and it doesn't seem fair to change it. For example: CHampion Linea's Blonde over Blue got to keep her call name Blondie (her first mother named her after the rock group!) and Foxfire's Run for the Roses was always Sugar.

Cat names have been: Mary Smith (my room mate from graduate school who lived to be 16. After I got married and had kids she kept waiting for the husband and the kids to leave... , George, William, Theodore, Henry, Eddie and Gus. I have always had at least two cats. I had two cats when I got married and have always said that I had a two cat contract after hearing a coworker tell of re-homing her cats because her new husband didn't like them.

Dogs I have shared my home and heart with.....
Sadie Williams, an almost Golden
Alice ( a Golden),
Taddery's Oh Boy It's Friday/ call name Friday who was a solid black English Cocker ( Duh we were educators.. ),
Sugar mentioned above that we got when she was two,
Kathben's On My Honor/ call name Honor.....after the scout pledge.
Kathben's Authentic Shaker/ call name Arthur ( husband wanted to keep him out of the litter. He was doing a lot of refinishing antique furniture and the name refers to the comments that antiquers always say when trying to sell a piece of furniture that may or may not actually be a piece so "Shaker" furniture,
Kathben's Amazing Grace/ call name Grace,
Kathben's Heart of Linea/ Stuart, because I like the name and he was the smallest puppy in the litter when he was young....Stuart Little....,,
Hannah Lynne / call name Hannah (a Golden that my daughter claimed out from under me when she was a Senior in High school. Finally about 6 years later she bought a house in Charlotte so she could bring her Hannah to NC to live with her. Hanna lived to be 14 years old),
Herschel the GRRAND/ call name Herschel ( The Golden Rescue group GRRAND had named him Herschel and since my daughter kept shooting down all my ideas I kept his original name. I registered Herschel with an ILP number so I could get his obedience and Rally titles.....
Remi the rescue Havenese was named after Remi Ratatouille because he sort of resembled a rat when I first got him but I always knew he had potential After going to the nursing home for a year or so with Herschel, the wife of one of the residents told me that I should know that his name was really " Remington " because of the dignity and poise that he displayed with the residents and he became Remington.
Lineas Dancing the Blues Away/ call name Izzy who is Audrey's mom and now lives in Louisville. The name always makes me think of the Snoopy Dog doing a happy dance....it is hard to stay blue if you are dancing......plus her coloring is called an orange Roan rather than the dominant Blue Roan coloring like Stuarts and Audrey's. And Izzy was short for Isadora Duncan the dancer.
Kathben's Summertime Downonda Farm/ call name Audrey......(Lyn had called her princess when she was still with her litter which wasn't going to make it with me but Audrey after "Princess" Audrey Hepburn worked......).

[Azusateach]

I currently have 2 kitties and 2 dogs. I've had many other kitties in my life, but trying to remember why they got their names is hard work for a Sunday night.

Before the 2 kitties I now have, I had Petey, Cricket, and Rusty. Rusty was a big orange lover, Cricket was his small, dark sister. Petey was a rescue from the school I taught at in So. Central L.A. The 2 that I have now are Smudge, a Siamese mix with a black smudge on his nose (hence, the name), and Belle, a tortoise-shell who's just sweet.

When I moved into my current home with its backyard I got my first dog, a yellow Lab already named Brandy. She was over 3 years old, so I didn't want to change her name. When she died and I got Jed, I wanted a strong male name, but something that was simple. I liked what Jed (short for Jedadiah) meant, so that's him! It fits him well.

And the most recent addition is Tilly, a 9 mo.-old beagle.









She started her life as "Tequila" with her breeder (I was told it was a "hard night" when they named her), so we wanted to stay with something that sounded vaguely similar to her first name. If we were to register her we'd call her Brookfield Forest's Waltzing Matilda -- a combination of both owners' homes. But she'll just be Tilly to us.

As you can see, she and Jed have become best buddies.