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.