Since we've heard so much about Billie, Maggie, Ashley, Niko, Daisy etc. I was just wondering - how did you come up with your pets' name?

The day we went to look at puppies, we saw the cutest fox terrier. The lady at the kennel took him out of his pen and put him on the floor. He immediately lept into the air on his hind legs and bounced across the floor. I said "Here Tigger *kissy kissy noise*" - thus, he was named, because he loves to bounce!

<img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

We got "Spookie" when she was tiny, long fur going every which way, piercing yellow/green eyes - I thought she was beautiful Tony thought she was "Spookie" looking...could not think of name for second cat who came 5 yrs later - we kept referring to him as the "Baby" "Have you seen the baby?" "Baby" it was ...Original names huh??

We had a budgie named "Baby." We got her as a baby and it just seemed fitting, according to our daughters, who named her.

Before we got Baby, we had another budgie named "KiKi." Many years ago a favorite Aunt had a bird named KiKi. I loved to visit her and play with KiKi. I named our KiKi after her KiKi.

Our daughter named our first cat, Sugar. 2 years later our son named our second cat, what else but Spice.

Hampsters were Ike & Tina Turner because kids saw them in a movie once.

I have a cat named "Gato". Nothing else seemed to stick, so Gato it became. My old cat was named Quinci, not after the TV show but after the city in Illinois where my childhodd cat Bozo was from. Why I named a cat Bozo? Well, I was 4, he was a white cat and I loved to watch Bozo on TV. Four year old logic I guess.

Our newest kittie is Chili. My daughter came up with that after I wouldn't let her name him "Fish".

Her parents gave her that name - I had nothing to do with it :D

Years ago, I was given "Duncan" the dachshund by a friend who was getting a divorce & couldn't keep him. I had always loved him before he came to live with us. Duncan is a good name for him. After being with us for years, his name has evolved into Dunkie "Do-er". So now he's "Do-er" to me. He's a very busy & active hound & is in great shape for 14. (Love this topic, Andrea!)

My wonderful dog is named Jacob. If we had a son that would have been his name but we got a dog, never had a child. Jacob is our precious child!

Nancy

Daisy is named because My special dog that I had for 15 years was named Buddy. My next dog was Rosebud, after Buddy.

Then when we got Daisy, I needed a formal AKC name for her. Her official Kennel name is Mavrik's Daisy Red-Ryder after the Red Ryder BB Gun (Think the movie "A Christmas Story) because it's made to git them Varmits. Cairn Terriers originally had the job of being Ratters and Vermin Chasers aka Varmits. Her breeder called her Peggy Sue, but my cousin, Peggy, would not have liked that I kept that name. I wanted to name her Posy, but Frank did not like that name. I also wanted to keep the flower names.

Gizmo was found on the street, his tag with the wrong phone numbers said he was Gizzmo, we changed the spelling and he's a Lhasa Apso, but Gizmo is very appropriate for his personality.

My cat Titus is actually Titus the 2nd. I had a beautiful long-haired black kitten back in about 1972 that I named after Titus Groan, because I had just read Gormenghast (bonus marks if you're old enough to remember when this was trendy.) That kitty lasted less than a year, poor guy, killed on the road.

So, when I adopted my ginger and white guy, he was about a year old, a rescue. His name was Luxor. Not the right name for him, so I immediately changed it to Titus. Lillian Jackson Braun (the "Cat who..." lady) wrote that pet names can define pet personalities. Titus does in fact frown quite a bit, he's a very serious cat, but more affectionate and definitely more vocal than Titus Groan ever was (a dark, brooding, alienated personality).

Mousie was a stray that adopted us. She wouldn't let us touch her for a month and then one day I found a mouse on the doorstep....her "gift" to me and my name for her :hug:

We always get used dogs, so 3 of our 4 dogs came with names, and that's how Maggie got her name. Her middle name is Mae after the Rod Stewart Song.

Only one dog, our P. Murray, who was with us for 18 years (was 20 when he passed away), had no name. The day we got him, we were watching Johnny Carson and he was discussing a new planet had been found by a Murray somebody and said he thought the planet should be named Murray. So we named the dog, Planet Murray and called him Murray because Planet didn't stick. Silly. Very Silly.

Our dogs are adopted. Luke was named by a foster mother at Jemez Valley Animal Amigos and we thought about changing it, but when I e-mailed a picture of him to a friend, his comment was, that dog is a Luke, don't change it. Casper was named by her former owners - not sure where it came from, but they had a young child so maybe his favorite cartoon was Casper (the friendly ghost). She's shy, but friendly, so maybe that's where it came from? I thought about changing it to Cassie,more feminine, but instead I started calling her Casper Wasper.

Foggy, my 18 year old Russian Blue wannabe, chose his own name. On the way home from the Huntington Beach Humane Society shelter he was in the back seat secure in his "crate". In the front seat we were discussing names. When I commented on how "foggy" it was becomming he let out an ear shattering wail.We looked at each other and said "There we have it!" (I was later to learn this was his normal "tone of voice").

Like Suzie's Mousie, Daphne adopted us. After a few days of feeding her outside of my garage I thought it time she came into the house. I took her to the vet to get checked out. I assumed "it" was a kitten as "it" weighed next to nothing (less than 3 pounds), but "it" turned out to be a 2 year old starving declawed female. While I was sitting in the vet's office I picked up a magazine that featured an article on "Hollywood Pets". Whe I saw the photo of Frasier with the dog "Eddie" her name just popped into my head. She is Daphne after Daphne Moon, Frasier's dad's caregiver.

Our breeder wanted every dog in the litter to have the word "Flash" somewhere in its AKC name. I thought that was especially cool because my parents first and much loved dog a zillion years ago was named Flash.

To complete the full, formal name we came up with Jumpin' Jack Flash cause of my love of rock and roll :cool: (see other thread on our screen names!)and duhhhhhhhhh my husband's name is Jack. Besides, Flashlight seemed kinda dumb :rolleyes:

Bonnie - is Flash the kennel name for your breeders? Daisy's Kennel name is Mavrik. All the show dogs are named for Country Western Songs and their singers. Daisy's mom is called Dolly after a Dolly Parton song. And their Westminster (Award of Merit)winner is Garth - Ch.Mavrik's Thunder Rolls after a Garth Brooks song (and the Sire/Dad to Fred and Pat's dog - now named Katyusha)

Flash is just the name she picked for that particular litter. I think another litter all had cereal names. I definitely prefer Flash to Rice Krispie!

Editing to add.....Andi, I know this is totally off the wall, but I actually REMEMBER Johnny Carson's bit about the planet "Murray". No kidding. I thought it was absolutely hysterical!!!!!!

We were pet-free when a spunky white cockatiel caught my eye (and ran up my arm). There aren't any accurate sex-linked markings on a white cockatiel per the cockatiel literature. I plotted out a gender-neutral name. The breeder was quite sure the bird was female.

Our first attempt, "Candy" elicited a whine from the bird. "Sandy" was it because the bird chirped sweetly. The vet looked very puzzled and asked why we thought this bird was a female. He said "that's one MIGHTY LONG crest feather .. must be a MALE bird!" So .. it goes to show there IS a sex-linked trait :ohmy: , and size DOES matter. ;)

Cheers, Anne

Go way back in time. My wonderful Cocker Spaniel officially was named Jarrod Nicole, but called Nicki. The names were from characters on my favorite show of all times The Big Valley, and the men's names were Jarrod, Nicholas, and Heath. Being a girl dog, Heath was out of the question, Jarrod seemed unknown, and Nicole from Nick (obviously).
My darling kitty cat was a deserted cat from my next door neighbor and I spent 2 years trying to get in his confidence. The only way I could get his attention was to call "Babe" and it stuck.
Lynn

All of our dogs came from "themed" litters. Our first cardigan came from the breeders "Robin Hood" litter-he was the fattest puppy in the bunch, so he became Ch. Camelot's Friar Tuck-call name Tucker. Our second came from a "weather" litter- Ch. Cavall's Winter Storm- call name Frosty. Our saluki came from a "silver" litter-Ch. Jen Araby Silver Sirocco-call name Rocco. Actually, they all think their names are "No no", "what"s in your mouth? and "who wants a cookie?"

Not very imaginative here.

Shadow - because he's black
Ashley - because she's grey ("ash")

The only somewhat interesting name is Ahi. Ahi is a flame-point Himalayan. "ahi" along with being yellowfin tuna is Hawaiian for "flame". Plus, I got a kick out of naming a cat after a tuna.

Masaki

(oops double post)

Our children were 3 and 5 when we went to a farm and selected a female kitten. On the way home I was coming up with many names; traditional girl names and kitty sounding names, and all I heard back was "no". Finally I made up the name Patti-paws and everyone, including my husband, agreed that should be her name.

Our doggies and kitties have always (for the last 32 years) had Russian names because I was a Russian linguist in the Army; and we liked the cute Slavic names. The dogs have had diminutive names (Ilyusha, Pavlik, Sasha, Misha, Natasha), while the cats, being more arrogant, have insisted on proper names (Nicholai, Dimitri, Sergei, Sergei II, Vasilly, Yuri). At this moment, we have the fewest furry kids we've had in 30 years, as we have only two dogs, Misha (miniature poodle) and Katyusha (cairn terrier). For many years, we had four dogs and four cats. Misha's show name was Victoria (what a weird name for a dog, no??); so we renamed her Misha II, after our first miniature poodle. And, of course, our dear little cairn terrier had to be named after her wonderful Auntie Kathy (ChatKat), who found her for us. Thus, we have "Katyusha", a much better name than "Patsy", the breeder's name based on her AKC name of Mavriks Walkin After Midnite, which was some song of Patsy Cline, I guess. God knows, we don't really follow country-western music (it would be against our gay genes, no??!!). Our vets have never been too keen on our Russian names, since some of them are a bit hard to pronounce; but they have worked well for us and for our little four-pawed kids. Cheers, Fred

As a pup, our dog Stew was fat, glossy, and black with just a little bit of a white blaze on his chest. I took one look at him and thought that he would look great in a Stewart plaid collar. The name stuck and he really does carry red very well!

Started with adopting pound kitties - Alice (in Wonderland) and Agatha (Christie) and then new cats started adopting us! Sunshine (boring but a lovely orange tabby) Shy (she grew out of that trait) and Cleo, short for Cleopatra because she thinks she's queen of the world! The last 4 are still with us.

Another great thread!

Kokomo (Maltese/poodle mix), because of that song the Beach Boys sang years ago.

Pepper (mini-dachshund/mini-pinscher mix), because he is spotted - about 5 different colors of brown/red - very unique looking indeed.

Gracie (Italian Greyhound) - because she is very graceful, also is grey in color. Also, my Grandmother's name is Grace :)

Bango (Italian Greyhound) - after the Milwaukee Bucks' mascot, because he looks a lot like him. We actually call him RooRoo more than we call him Bango, because he resembles a kangaroo the way he hops around. Also, when he barks, the sound he makes is "Roo roo!"

Which ties back to Sedona's thread about how you arrived at your screen names - although he hardly ever posts, Greg's screen name here is RooRoo! :)

A co-worker talked me into taking a 3 month old kitten from the litter her cat had. Her children had already given the kittens names. One Saturday, the co-worker brought 2 kittens to my house for me to choose from. The kitten who "bewitched" me was named Samantha and since that day happened to be Halloween, I decided not to change her name.

Fred, I wish I had known about your Russian linguist background when I named my 2 Siberian Huskies. My first was all white, and the shorter name I gave her was Katerina (Katy)...I thought very Russian and very regal....but I had to get fancy and add a descriptive term to the beginning of her name for AKC naming reasons...I was told that "Bielli" meant "white" in Russian. Perhaps you can tell me if I actually named her after a type of Russian caviar or something!! :)

Then, my current furry child, Niko's full name is Nikolai....again Russian, being related to Nicholas, since I got him at Christmas. I would have to look up his desriptive name as I think I got too fancy for my own good. I can't remember what it was, but the web site I found indicated that the name meant beautiful.

My cats, Mema ("Litle girl") in Iranian (post Persian), since they are Ragdolls and part Persian, and Sami, which I believe means King or Prince. Then Pippin after a Hobbit in the Lord of the Rings. Back to my first cat ever...well, I was really fancy and original then!! She was named "Cat"!!! I didn't think my mom would allow me to keep her, and I didn't give her a real name so that I wouldn't get attached....I kept her and the name stuck! :D

Sheri - Yes, "bielli" does mean "white". As for Niko, the usual diminutive for Nicholai is "Kolya" or "Kolyusha". Fortunately, the good thing about nick-names is that they don't have to be the usual diminutives - they don't even have to be real words. I'm sure that beautiful Niko is quite happy with his rather Italian-sounding name. Cheers, Fred

hahahaha...so much for good intentions! I thought "Nikolai" was Russian! I think he IS quite happy with his name though, so that is all that matters. :D

If I ever own anther Siberian, I will definitely consult you first. :)

And all this time I thought Niko was named after a bartender on the Navigator! ;)

Sheri, my dear - You must focus a bit here: "Nikolai" certainly is Russian. "Niko" isn't. That's what I meant. And we do need to hear more about the bartender connection.

hahahaha...ah yes, well.....aren't we getting off on a wee tangent???? :eek: <img border="0" alt="[naughty]" title="" src="graemlins/naughty.gif" /> Was it the chicken or the egg?? Niko wins by a cold, wet nose!! And my dearest Suzette, we will HAVE to do something about that darned precice memory of yours! ;) :D

Fred, pardon moi.... :) I guess if I had slowed down and paid more attention, I would have realized you meant "Niko" and not "Nikolai". Sorry!! Permit me a blonde moment! :rolleyes: