My dogs are named after hockey players: Barahona ( Ralph Barahona) and Blue ( John Blue) course Blue is a dapple, which looks like a blue merle, so that helped as well. I just thought Barahona was such an interesting sounding name! I also had a Yogi named after a hockey player ( Yaroslav Svekovsky nicknamed Yogi) but had to re-home him with a wonderful family when I left my first husband and moved into a city apartment ( Yogi was a husky mix).

My rats are named by myself and my daughter: Patty, Bubbles, Strawberry and Banana( twins), Spot ( had a twin named Stripe we sold), Butterscotch ( color),and Drew after Drew Carey.

I have always heard if you take in a dog and are unsure of its past it may be wise to re-name it so if they used his name harshly in the past it wont have negative associations for him. So when someone surrendered a dachshund to me at the vet I re-named him Jordan, a brand of hot dog.