How did you decide on your dog(s) name(s)?

[Lobodeb]

I was just looking at all of the interesting dog names here and I always love to hear stories of how their pets' names come about. For me, personally, naming my pets is very important so I'm sure you can imagine my difficulty choosing a name for my human baby! Luckilly, I still have 6 1/2 months to decide.

Anyway, we named Maggy after a guy who used to play for the White Sox. His name was Magglio (Mags for short). We named her this because at the very young age of 8-9 weeks, she could already fetch and catch the ball! We would throw it straight up and she'd catch it. My hubby used to say that she's a great outfielder like Mags. And there ya go. Maggy it is.

I even made her a little jersey for dog day:

[IRescue452]

My parents picked Pepper because of her coloring and MissPepperC'mere because of Pepper's selective hearing.

I picked Autumn because she was born in autumn, I liked the name to begin with, and because of her orange tones.

I tend to wait until I know the animal good to pick a name and I sometimes just pick a word random from the dictionary. I named my fish Frock and Patron just opening a page and finding the word I liked best.

[finn's mom]

Before I met Finn, I'd wanted to see about getting a Pharoah Hound, and, had liked the name Phinneas for a long time. So, that was in my mind when I met Finn. When I knew he was mine, though, I knew he wasn't a Phinneas. But, I thought of some good, adventurous, all american (even though the breed's not american, they are one of the most popular breeds here), water loving, easy going names. I thought Finn would work, from Huckleberry Finn. I had most recently thought the name was cool for a first name because of the movie Great Expectations. Ethan Hawke's name was Fin. And, then I looked it up in a baby names thing and it said "finn" meant yellow or light haired, so, it fit! I named him within minutes of getting him, even though usually it takes me longer. Now that he's older, the only name that I think would have been close to being as good as Finn...is Train, or Freight, because that's what he is. A darn freight train.

edited: Just looked again in the names things, and, Finn means "fair"....I'm sure it means fair as in "just", but, I thought it was cool....cuz he's fair-haired.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

Bitsy got her name because of her small size. She was so tiny when we got her at 9 weeks old. She used to have to hop through the grass because her legs were too tiny to walk through it.

Charlie came with the name Shorty, which I hated. He was 2 years old, and normally wouldn't have changed his name at that age, but I couldn't bring myself to call him Shorty. We wanted to call him something that had the same flow as Shorty and sounded somewhat similar too. Charlie is what we came up with.

Buster was 6 years old when we got him. I'm not really fond of the name Buster either, but I it does fit him and I wasn't about to change his name at 6 years old. Plus we had a lot of other issues to work on with him, changing his name would have made thing all the more difficult.

Nacey came with her name too. We liked her name right from the start, it's different and it fits her. My friend wanted us to change it to Lacey, but that's a bit too feminine for her being she's a pug.

Nova got her name because we found her on Thanksgiving day, which of corse is in November. Hence her name.

[kittycats_delight]

Well my RB Shadow's full name was Shadow Evening Bear. He was an akita. All his names came from his looks. He has a very dark and bear like face.

Here he is.

[luvofallhorses]

Aw, Michelle he was handsome he reminds me of RobiLee's Katie.

[JenBKR]

Belle - well, actually her name is Jezebelle, but I have been calling her Belle for so long it stuck; when I first got her as a baby she had the sweetest little face, looked so innocent, but she was so bad! Jezebelle seemed to work..

Katie actually came from the shelter with that name. For some reason, it fit. And she actually knew her name, so I hated to change it.

Roscoe also came with that name, and I love it. I've always liked the Dukes of Hazzard. We also call him Sheriff and Bubba - he answers to anything!

[k9krazee]

Wow, I just thought of doing a thread like this the other day!

Shadow was named by my Aunt, her name was based soley on looks.

Micki and Mini, well Micki has two Mickey Mouse heads on his side (I will try to find a good picture) and with Mini being his sister we couldn't name her anything else! We just changed the spellings, I guess trying to be more unique.

Kyra's name was originally Peanut but we just kept calling her Baby. My mom wanted to name her Faith or Hope because we didn't know if she would make it through puppyhood. I suggested Kyra because some sites say it means "sun" and others "Ruler" and I thought it fit her, she was born in the summer and basically ruled my summer vacation because I had to be home constantly to make sure she got fed every two hours.

Jumping Jack Splash - the rescue named him Biff and that didn't fit at all. My mom kept suggesting the name Jack and I didn't like it at all. I thought it sounded really stupid especially because we have 3 Jack Russells. I talked to one of my Aunt's about it and she suggested Jumpin' Jack Splash, its the name of an old song I guess I liked it a little better than plain Jack but still wasn't sure...Well when he finally came home I threw a bunch of names at him and the only one he responded to was Jack, go figure. I actually really like his name now and it really fits, the Jumpin' part because we will be doing agility later on and the Splash because he absolutely loves the water!

[crsvstang]

Reggie- got her name after a cartoon Kaitlynn use to watch called Rocket Power.

Tori- got her name because well I've always liked the name Tori.

Jaxon- just got his name to day. I thought it was different and it seems to fit him pretty good. We will be calling him "Jax" for short.

[dukedogsmom]

Duke's isn't unusual but at the time I got him, I was married. My ex had a female German Shepherd named Duchess so I thought I would just add more royalty to the house.

[luvofallhorses]

Jenny- We named her after my grandmoter, Geneva and my parents used to spell it Genny like (Gen-ny) and I thought it was an awkward spelling, so I spell it Jenny.

Ginger- She was my grandmother's dog but when my grandmother passed away in 2003 my mom inherited her and I believe she named her Ginger because of her color or the spice. Who knows

Rocky- We got him in a town named Rocker.

Buster- We were going to name him Bullwinkle since we had a Rocky, but my parents thought it would be too hard to remember. So, we called him Buster Brown

[elizabethann]

Fenway was Fenway when I adopted him. His brothers were named Dodger, Ranger and the dreaded....Yankee.

[lv4dogs]

I went out looking for a dog that not only suited my lifestyle but fit the name Nanook. I had the name picked out way before I had the dog picked out. Nanook means polar bear in Inuit. So there he was, the perfect dog in the shelter, a whiteish husky mix that was perfect & he loved the name too!

Raustyk on the other hand was difficult to name. I had my eye on her for a couple months & had no clue what I would ever name her. So I adopted her & had her for almost 2 weeks before she had a name. My ex was working at an apartment complex named Rustic village. He came home one day & suggested Rustic for a name. At first I thought it was too boyish. But it grew on me. Seeing as she is more short & stout like the original rotts & has a rusty coloring and she actually listened to that name I thought it suited her well. Of course I wouldn't have it spelled the boring way. lol

Tateum (most likely the name of my future Aussie) I picked before the dog (obviously as I don't have the dog yet lol). I was getting together a list of names for my pup & thought of Tate. I looked it up & found that it can be spelled 4 ways, all meaning about the same, friendly, cheerful, he who brings happiness. But a couple weeks later I thought of adding onto it, making it Tatum with the meaning of Tate as thats what he'd be called most of the time. Again I couldn't keep the spelling the original way so it became Tateum. Of course he's only getting this name if he listens to it.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

Originally posted by k9krazee
Jumping Jack Splash - the rescue named him Biff and that didn't fit at all. My mom kept suggesting the name Jack and I didn't like it at all. I thought it sounded really stupid especially because we have 3 Jack Russells. I talked to one of my Aunt's about it and she suggested Jumpin' Jack Splash, its the name of an old song I guess I liked it a little better than plain Jack but still wasn't sure...Well when he finally came home I threw a bunch of names at him and the only one he responded to was Jack, go figure. I actually really like his name now and it really fits, the Jumpin' part because we will be doing agility later on and the Splash because he absolutely loves the water!

There was an old movie with Whoopi Goldberg called "Jumpin' Jack Flash". It was a song too.

[Kfamr]

Well - my 3 are named after "The Lion King". When I was younger and the movie first came out, I watched it over and over. I lost count of how many times i've seen it. I've always love the movie and the movies that followed it.

Simba was my first dog and I named him after my favorite charactor in the movie.

Nala coming second, I thought it'd be cute to have a Simba and Nala.

And Kiara coming in third - in the movie Kiara is Simba & Nala's baby. So I thought since Kiara is the youngest, the name fit.

My next dog with be Mufasa (male) or Sarabi (female)