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!"