Your Dogs' Names: How Important?

I was just thinking about my dogs and their names. I have seven dogs, and two rescues right now, and I named NONE of them.

My son named Vanilla and Sequoia, which are both cool names, I think.

Lucky, Pepper, Iggy, Gia, Rocky, Crystal and Jewel came to me with those names already. I can't really say I like any of them, except maybe Gia. I never would have picked them. And a couple of them ... Iggy, Rocky, and Pepper ... totally do not fit the dog and are just dumb, IMO.

But, it seems like once I hear a dog's name, like it or not, that is the dog's name and it sticks forever.

I used to AGONIZE over dog names, before I got into rescue, and named my first three dogs. I would look up names in books, write them down, ask for opinions, etc. Then I got hundreds of pre-named rescue dogs over the next decades, and now it doesn't seem to matter at all what they are named.

What about you? Do you agonize? Would you change a dog's name you didn't like? Or does it really not matter? Just curious ... seems kind of wierd to me that I named none of my dogs. LOL

Names are important to me; I do agonize over naming puppies etc. However, if a dog already came with it's name, unless the name was offensive, or was the same name as one of my other dogs, I don't think I could change it. I've never changed a name in any of the older animals we got, except our husky, Cheeko -- his name was Raja, and my mom hated it (it is a female sounding name) and she loved the name Cheeko. I didn't have a say, and I didn't care, I was 10.

I think about names even when I have nothing to name lol..

I agonize... but it's tolerable. :rolleyes:

Some dogs are more sensitive to certain letters of the alphabet.
I've done this with Puppies mostly.

Just run through the Alphabet, saying the letter, and an additional sound the letter is/can be associated with. Like...

A, Am, Ahh, All
B, Bee, Boo, Baa
P, Pee, Paa, Poo
and so on.

Look for a response. Ears perking, cocking it's head, anything which it reacts to. Speak them slowly, repeat them, and see how it reacts.
Give that a try. Then you may have a starting "letter" (s), then you can expand on that start.

Have a good Day ! :)
S.W.

add me to the list.. agonize..

some I come with a name very soon.. some others take weeks, months and even years.. lol

Names are very important to me as well. Unfortunately i gave in and let others pretty much name my dog's and i am not very fond of their names, well not fond of Elvis' name anyway. Tinny came with her name and i just could not decide on a new name for her lol.

I like all 3 cats names, the older girl Yumi and the youngsters Andy and Montana (Montie, Montie Moo, Moo Goo lol).

We named Sassy after a cat in my favorite movie "Homeward Bound". I loved the name from the start because, well let's be honest, a five year old loves everything about a new puppy. But WOW did it fit her and her personality :eek: It was beyond perfect for her. I didn't agonize over that name.

I guess it depends, because before I got Mikey I thought we were getting a puppy so I picked out names I've always wanted. But when we got Mikey, he knew his name. I don't like people names for dogs, and personally I wouldn't have picked it, but I wouldn't change it now.

I never liked the names the shelter has picked out for dogs. Never, and if I ever adopt a dog I will probably change it. I plan on adopting ex-racers when I actually move out, which will hopefully be in another 2 years or so, so I would probably re-name them something or have a nickname. :p

Names aren't as important to me as they used to be. Well, of course I don't want anything vulgar or just downright mindless, but if they came with a name I just learn to like it after a while. I almost tried to change Sala's name, but now I can't think of her as anything other than just that -- "Sala". I also used to be obsessive over naming every animal in the house, but right now I have three hermit crabs and a handful of fish that don't have names. They don't seem to mind.


Then again, these days I don't have to name animals like I used to. The only "kid" we got this year (aside from the hermits) was Adelaide. My mum and her friend kept insisting we name her Jersey... then Holstein. I kinda didn't want my baby to be named after a cow. :p

If they don't have names, how do you call them?

If you want one certain dog to come to you from another room, or from
across the yard?


Some names just seem to fit certain pups. Like my dog Buddy, he was
a "Buddy" right from the start for me.:)

My Smokey was named after a lot of thought, but the name never seemed
to fit quite right with him, still doesn't really, but I don't know why.:confused:

Maggie, (black Lab mix) has always seemed just right. Sweet, smart and
adorable.:)

I guess I've always thought names are important to me.:)

I don't know really. So I guess it's not that important:)

Simba came to us from his mom so naming him wasn't necessary. He was just Simba.

We never really named Huney. Her name just came when I said "come here honey" and she came so the name stuck.

Bon had his name before we even thought about getting him. Mark said we had and Angus, next dog will be named Bon (from AC/DC) and Bon it was.

With Roxey it was a little tougher. We were driving home with her and were pulling names out of the air. Then the song "Roxanne" came on, Mark said why not name her Roxey. It was better than anything we could think of so Roxey it was:)

I LOVE names!! The only animal we currently have that we did not change the name of is Taggart. That is his kennel name and we liked it. Usually the shelter has such odd and dumb names, but I really liked Taggart.
Zoee was Bonnee, Paizly was Priscilla (by Cathy here on PT, but I wanted something with a "z" in it :rolleyes:) and Jax was Derek.
When we choose names I give suggestions and Bruce tests them out on the animal. He likes to say them and give nick names, like Zo or Paiz. It's really kind of funny, because no matter what the pets name is we always have a MILLION nicknames for them. Paizly is called Poop more often than Paizly. This came from calling her Paizly Poo. Taggart is Tagg-Tagg-Tiggity-Tagg. Zoee is Zo doggie dog and Jax is Jaxter Maxter Baxter. I thought nicknames were supposed to be a shorter name. LOL :D

Sometimes the animal names itself. My mom tried to name (or I did) her dog Sprite because she has a dog named Pepsi (by previous owners). But it just didn't stick. So her name is Little Bit (or commonly said Itta Bit). That came from calling her Little S#$t. I refused to let them call her that!!!!:mad:

I never had to name one dog, and that was Anna. She came with the name, and I disliked her name at first, but it grew on me. I realized, well, there's no other name to give her and stuck with "Anna".. and it fit her. She was a great dog.

When we brought Rosie home, we had a hard time coming up with the right name, it was either, Shiloh, Daisy, or Phoebe. Well, Dad was the one to bring up "Rose" then I thought, huh, it fits right, so I suggested "ie" at the end.

Hank came to us as "Buster" and it would've been a good name for him. Suits him right for the things he gets himself into. ;)

I gave a lot of thought to the names of my pets... and still I did not come up with a name that easily comes to mind for Lil Girl. She is officially "Rosie" but it just did not come naturally to me. Because she is little and a girl, I just started calling her LilGirl. It's a bit of mouthful but she knows her name. Only the vet people call her Rosie.

Before LilGirl, I had a rat terrier named Honey. Now that came naturally to me because she was so sweet. I started to name LilGirl the same name of Honey but I didnt think that would be "right".

Annie my big sweet dog just appeared here; guess someone had thrown her away and I thought of a name for her very easily. I thought... poor dog... an orphan... and I thought of Little Orphan Annie. I've never called her anything but Annie.

As for my cat, Luke has beautiful blue eyes & I remembered how blue Paul Newman's eyes were & he played Luke in a movie... so Luke became cat's name.

Kay in NC

If I fostered, then the names wouldn't matter that much because their stay would be temporary, and they would probably get a new name anyway, but for my dogs, it is important....It has to be a name I like, and it has to fit the dog....We knew we wanted to name a boy dog Boomer, and then when Sooner came along...it just went together since we are such OU fans...We changed Cassie's (our RB dalmatian) name several times....it started with Oreo, then Ditto, then we were jokingly thinking of Tammy Faye because Cassie had spots around her eyes like Tammy Faye's mascara...I honestly don't know how we decided on Cassie....Our neighbor kept calling her Cathy...and I just wanted to shake him and ask him who names a dog CATHY! LOL

We also liked the name Molly but we wanted to save that for a daughter's name! LOL I know more dogs named Molly than I do people!

I had a list of names I wanted for future dogs but I haven't used a single one! haha

Shadow came with her name and we kept it. Micki came with his name too because he has a large mickey mouse shaped spot. Mini was Angel, but being Micki's sister my dad insisted she be called Mini. Kyra went through a lot of names when she was a baby, including baby, puppy, little one, etc. We eventually decided on Kyra after searching on the internet. Jack's original name was Biff, but at the time I didn't like it. I wanted to name him Bonzai but my mom was like, why don't you just name him Jack or something? So I did.

I know how you feel. Kirby was already named too an for starters i thought the name was rather stupid an i thought about changing it several times over but didnt know what to change it to so the name stuck,, but after a while the name grew on me.

i also always avoid naming any dogs people names. i cant imagine being a young child an hearing a stranger yell or scream my name as im minding my own business playing in the park or whatever. especially if they sound angry or desperate.

i did name all my other pets though. basted mostly on their coloring.

I've never had an animal which was already named, so I don't know if I would change the name or not, even if I didn't like it. I find that names tend to grow on you, so most likely I'd learn to love any name with time.
My friend's Rottweiler came with the name Sascha and neither of us particularly liked it and my friend did try to change it... but without much success. Sascha was and always will be a Sascha. :D

Taggart's name wasn't planned at all. For a couple of days I had tried calling him Kazuya (because I thought that was an awesome name at the time) but saying it out loud, it sounded too much like Sascha, so it was too impractical. Not to mention he just plain and simply isn't a Kazuya... that's a way too exotic name for a dork like him, lol.
I also called him Billy for a while. And Sofus. But then the TV series Taggart was on TV and I randomly decided to name him that and for some reason that was just spot on :)

I do give serious thought to names for my pets, always have. But . . . I have to meet the pet, see it's personality, and then somehow the name pops into my mind. Some go nameless for 3 or 4 days as I try out one then another.

Of the dogs I have now, Lacey is the only one I named. Many people think it comes from the bichon coat, which is fluffy and can appear 'lacy.' Nope. I knew a Border Collie named Lacey, that dog had the sweetest personality and was so gentle. This girl, when I met her at the shelter, when I brought her home, she was so gentle, so delicate. I've since learned, attending classes with her, trainers call her 'soft,' she is very sensitive emotionally. Light and gentle, like lace.

Sugar's name suits her to a "T" he hee.
And Marlin, while I wouldn't have even thought of it, hard to think of him any other way.

Tasha was named by the rescue, part of the "New Year's Nine" rescued from a puppy mill on Jan 8, 2009. All 9 of those dogs got names beginning with "N" from any one of the Star Trek series. She is Natasha Yar, from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Dogs don't hear soft syllables so it was easy to drop the initial "na -"

I prefer to follow the guidelines for herding dogs: 2 syllable name, ending in an "ee" sound.

Naeli came with her name but I changed it to Naylee because I hate the pronunciation of the former name (pronounced like a whiney "Nelly"). Now I just call her Nay or sometimes Shelly because that was her name for at least 6 years of her life from her owner before the most previous. I hate all of the names mentioned in this paragraph.

I would keep a name an animal came with if it was ok with me, but I can't stand childish names based on adjectives like Smokey or Blackie or Spot.

I like names I know I shouldn't use; like Cecelia. Anything with an S sound is not good for a dog who is expected to know the difference between "sit" "stay" "stand" "shake" "squeaky" "sheep" and all sorts of S commands and words.

I work at a dog grooming salon and I see a LOT of names. Honestly there are several names that I just hate because of how incredibly generic and common they are, and if I got a dog with one of them I would change it pretty much right away. I won't list them because I don't want to offend anyone. I also hate names that just describe how the dog looks, like Blackie or Freckles or Snowball.

I used to have an actual written out list of names and show names that I wanted to use, now it's just more of a mental thing. I like naming animals after characters in books and movies. My fish is named Trapper after the M*A*S*H character and my other fish was named Cameron after the character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

I don't get too many of my own pets to name, but every once and a while I name horses at the barn. In the end it's up to the owner but I like to give suggestions. I named Pippin after the hobbit from Lord of the Rings and I named Secret because she was literally a secret from someone for the first few weeks she lived here. My boss named the new pony Rumor because she liked the name Secret so much and wanted to have something similar.

One of my favourite dogs who comes in is named Brenda, and I just love it! She's a sweet old lab but I just think it's so cute and funny that she's named Brenda. My first reaction was, "Brenda? That sounds like someone's ex-wife!"

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Originally Posted by Varga

Taggart's name wasn't planned at all. For a couple of days I had tried calling him Kazuya (because I thought that was an awesome name at the time) but saying it out loud, it sounded too much like Sascha, so it was too impractical. Not to mention he just plain and simply isn't a Kazuya... that's a way too exotic name for a dork like him, lol.
I also called him Billy for a while. And Sofus. But then the TV series Taggart was on TV and I randomly decided to name him that and for some reason that was just spot on :)

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This TV show is how they named Taggart at the shelter too. Although it is not an American show, obviously whoever named him is not originally from the US. :)

Of the few dogs I HAVE got to name in my life, here's how they got their names:

My first dog as an adult, a cocker spaniel, I named Lacie after Lacey J. Dalton, a country/folk singer who had a song out at the time called "Black Coffee". I loved that song, and it came on the radio when I was bringing the puppy home.

Queenie, my ACD, was easy to name. I thought, "Hmmm, what would an old sheepherder name his old sheepdog? Shep for a boy, and Queenie for a girl." So, Queenie it was. Plus, I like the tie-in to Queensland heeler, their former name.

Keito was named after taquitos from Jack in the Box restaurant. Really. My sister and I were eating there trying to think of a name for him. He was REALLY hard to find a name for that fit. She said, sarcastically, holding up the taquito she was eating, "Oh, just name him him taquito." We looked at each other for a few seconds and both said, "Hey!"

Except for the occasional rescue dog I slap some name on, that's all I've ever got to name.

I know exactly what you mean, Suki Wingy. I swear, about 75% of dogs I groom or board have the same ten names. No offense intended to anyone who named their dog this, please, but I bet we groom 200 Gizmos.

Since I got all of my dogs as puppies I got to name them. I spent a long time thinking of names, I've had a list of dog names written down. After Nebo (who is named after a mountain in Utah - pronounced "Neebo") I liked the short 4 letter names...so I tried to find one I liked that was short like that too for Keva. I made up Keva and Skya's names, I guess Keva is a real name that is the feminine version of Kevin...though I pronounce it "keeva" so it doesn't sound like Kevin. I didn't know that when I named her that, I just liked it. I thought Keva looked better with Nebo then Kiva with them both having an e. Yes I'm weird and think of those things.

I had a really hard time deciding on a name for Skya, she was nameless for a couple of weeks I think. I almost named her Yuki (means snow) but then I came up with Skya and I thought it fit. I know huskies get named Sky/Skye/Skylar quite a bit because of their "sky blue eyes" but I hadn't seen anyone use Skya before. I'm biased, but I really like all their names :o and they are pretty unique I think. Killer came with the name, Corby got him when he was 2 years old. I think its a funny name, you get a lot of looks from people ha ha. But it fits him in the fact that he is the exact opposite of a "killer" he is a total lover dog. :) If I adopted a dog and I really didn't like the name I'd probably change it, but try to make it something that sounded similar to the old name (unless the dog was a puppy then I don't think it really matters).

When I got RB Lacey, I had always loved that name but didn't think it fit her. I was surprised when her daddy liked the name too and so Lacey it was!

When I got RB Mandy, I wanted to name her Layla, but it didn't seem to fit her at all. Her daddy and I were kicking around some names, mentioned Candy(his sister used to have a dog named Candy)and Mandy popped up! So Mandy it was!

Layla, this was my chance to sneek in that name Layla. ;) It's from the Eric Clapton song.

Jake, well, I always liked that song from the Pirates of the Mississippi, Feed Jake. So Jake is was!

Jakes name at the shelter was Reider, not a keeper. I never knew what Lacey and Mandys names were at the shelter or if they even had one as I didn't go on Petfinder back then. Layla was not from a shelter.

Honestly, names are SO hard for me! I changed Gonzo's name a few times right after getting him. My gut instinct was to name him Gonzo, but other people didn't like it. He was Hank before I adopted him. Then Gonzo. Then Archie/Rocco. Eventually I went back to Gonzo of course. :) Every other Gonzo that I've met has a similar personality... very quirky, active, very aloof until you earn their trust, then they are devoutly loving and loyal.

Fozzie was "Willie Blue Eye" in rescue! I wanted a Fozzie for Gonzo, and I found Fozz, and the name already suited him so perfectly. I know one other Fozzie, my vet's afgan/aussie mix who ALSO has the same odd eyes as Fozzie, and they have identical personalities. Super laid back, cuddly, food obsessed, love to make people laugh and get attention from anyone, very street smart, and trustworthy in any situation.

After working in a pet hotel, I feel that names are deeper than just something to call your dog. I work with 1000s of dogs and notice distinct personalities in the trendy names. Chloes are always sweet. Gingers are always neurotic (then again, that could be a crazy red dog thing?). Roxys are always mischeivious. Buddys are always wild. Diegos are always teddy bears. etc! I swear that your dog's name is an omen of what they will turn out like. I highly discourage naming your dog Chaos, Malarkey, or Frisky!

I'm a name *hore. Lol I want the perfect name for my dogs. I wouldn't say I agonize over it because I start picking long before my puppy comes home. I actually pick my names without meeting them!!! :eek: I know. Lol

Honda came with the name... but I honestly think it fit her amazingly well so I didn't change it. It was unique enough to catch my interest.

However, since I am so picky over names, if I got a rescue with a name I didn't like, I would change it. Lol

Remy was the name I picked out. Zac wanted Bailey but I didn't think that fit her at all. Remy short for Remington of course. But she definitely seems like a Remy to me. That name wasn't too hard to pick out when I was looking for hunting dog names. Lol

Delta became Delta... We wanted an Army name and I thought of Delta the dalmatian from the phonetic alphabet. It wasn't until we brought her home and saw how sneaky and quiet she was that she became Delta Force. Lol

Doc was Doc when we were getting Delta. Lol We said our next dog would be a male named Doc, since my hubs is a army medic. They call him Doc and we loved it for a doggie. So Doc was in the making for a whole year before we got him. Lol