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The names we give our pets

by Writer of Words, etc

Before I launch into another depressing weekend of rain, cold and no sun, let’s do something fun!

Let’s think up pet names. 🙂

🐇🐁🐀🐈🐩🐡🐖🐌🐠🐱🐰🐢🐸🐦🐍

Since we usually adopt pets, they arrive in our home with names already assigned to them. Sometimes the kids change them slightly, but mostly we don’t. Like our first guinea pig; his name was Charles but the kids called him Charlie Chaplin.

The current two piggies are called Nugget (he’s the colour of a chicken nugget) and Oreo (black and white, like the famous American cookie). My daughter approved of their names so they stuck.

Our dog Rusty, adopted from the Toronto Humane Society many moons ago, lived to age 11 before succumbing to a tumor in his front paw when the kids were still toddlers. He was the colour of rust, hence the name. Since he had many psychological and behavioral issues but recognized his name and answered to it, we decided to let him keep Rusty.

And my two cats from my single days? One was a lost kitten I found in the staircase of my building, who kept hiding under my couch and emerged covered in dust. I aptly named him Dusty.

The other cat was a cripple and a vet gave him to me. He was already named Cassidy.

So, I never got to name most of my pets.

Here are some names however I have stashed away in a corner of my brain for future use:

  • Saba, or possibly spelled Sayba (for a dog, likely a female). This name is inspired by a Caribbean island off the coast of St. Martin/St. Maarten which we visited before the kids came.
  • Tuukka (which incidentally is the name of the Boston Bruins goalie, a Finnish guy). I like the name, I love Finland and would love to vacation there, and despite the drama concerning hockey in this town currently (NHL playoffs, don’t ask 😮 ), I like this very talented goalie.
  • Tasha which would suite a female, maybe a shepherd or mutt with that breed in it? I believe there was a character in Star Trek, the Next Generation with that name…and I liked the name and made a mental note at the time.

Tell me, do you have some interesting names for your pets?

TGIF even though we’re launching into yet another wet, cold weekend. Boo.

51 thoughts on “The names we give our pets”

  1. I named my childhood cat Holly because she was a Christmas gift. I named my hamster Hana-bear (Japanese translation for Hana is flower or nose), named my pug Zoë after a pug who was put down at the vet clinic with the same name, and we just got a cat and named him Timon after the Lion King. Alpha was the name we gave our pet beta fish.

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  4. I was single, I got a dog. Being of a mitary persuasion I named my dog, a German Shepherd cross, Monty after the British World War 2 Field Marshall. We were together for 16 years, through a divorce, two long term relationships, two house moves, several cars and an emigration. He finally left me a few years ago and is buried in my front garden under his favourite bush.
    I was bereft for about a year, by this time i was in a relationship with a woman who also had a dog so had become used to having two big dogs around the house.
    A chance conversation with a friend:
    “Grrrrr my brother. He bought a dog when it was a puppy and everyone loved it till it got big and then everyone just ignores it. It spends all day every day alone in the garden, and now he’s talking about getting another puppy. He makes me so cross.”
    Me: I’ll take the older dog. I can’t bear to think of him alone all day.
    Friend: ??? Really?? I’ll ask my brother.

    Brother was happy for said hound to cross the channel. My friend sent me a couple of photos of a rather handsome looking Cocker Spaniel and asked his name.
    “Oh, he’s called Monty.”
    I drove to get him the next day.

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  5. My childhood dog’s name was Bonkers. I was 8, so don’t judge 😉. Currently I have a cat named Mink, short for manx kitten because she was born without a tail. Next I have Pippi, she also was born without a tail- I though Pippi no-tail was cute instead of pippi long stocking, since my cat pippy has red hair. Then there’s Emma, just a name I liked, and Catleggs. I did not name her Catleggs, a friend of mine who is prone to odd pet names did. Kennedy, my boxer mix was named after our favorite baseball pitcher. Shelby, my hound mix- just a cute name. Aggie, or Agetha, a collie mix, was named by my brother from where she came. J.J., my chihuahua, stands for Jack Jr. my son’s name is Jack and it’s his dog. Then there’s Knodel (pronounced Noodle), she’s a dachshund. Knodel is german for noodle.

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  7. We have two cats — one ginger, one black.

    Our first thought was to call them Ron and Hermione. Then we realised that the black cat was not, as we’d originally been told, female.

    It could have been interesting explaining that Hermione is a boy 😉

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  8. I’ve had so many pets over the years. I once adopted a very young cat who escaped from the box while I was driving it home. She kept popping in and out from under the seat. When I finally got her home, I had to dig around under there. I named her Sherlock for her investigative skills.

    My last two puppies were apparently from the same litter. They were named Happy and Sunshine, and both passed away at age 17. I swore I would never have another dog. It just gets harder and harder to lose pets the older I get. But I did say, after this ad kept running on TV, that if I ever had another dog, it would be a male, and it would be named Mister Barky von Schnauzer, regardless of breed.

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  9. We had three cats when the kids were little – one survives – their names were Tom, George, and Sam. Our goldfish were called Wonderwoman, Voldemort, Batman and Harley Quinn – Batman died a little while ago. We had another goldfish called Kevin – long story. My other half had a cat called Simpson when I met her 🙂

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    1. That reminds me of the 2 gerbils my husband got. He named one Kevin and I named the other Nigel. They froze to death and died sadly because the landlord turned the heat down during the holidays while we went on vacation.

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  11. When I decided I was finally ready for a new dog a year ago, I immediately decided on the name Charlie. No idea why, the name just felt perfect. Then I reread a favorite book from childhood and there was the name Charlie in a secondary character. I’m sure it had been in my subconscious all that time just waiting to come to the surface.
    The name fits him perfectly because it’s such a cheerful name.

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  12. I had a cat named Tasha…she had the deep grey color known as Russian blue so it was really Natasha, but we called her Tasha. Our dog is sally (I don’t remember her shelter name actually) my daughter wanted to name her sally…..our cat is penny after the character on Big Bang theory. Her name prior was rain. Growing up my dog was Mina, and cats at various points have been bootsy, sandy, and tegan.

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  13. Aww. ❤️ This is so sweet, Claudette! I don’t have any pets. I’m a little nervous my daughter (two y/o) would sit on them. But if I had one it would probably be a cat. I’d probably give it a name from the musical Cats because I’m a bit of a theatre nerd, at heart. Actually. I’d probably just call it ‘cat’, now that I think about it. QUITE easy to get your tongue around ‘Cat’. 😂Lol. xx

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  15. Since I’m suddenly into Welcome to Night Vale, OF COURSE I need a dog or cat named Cecil. I would also like a pet named Otto. But whenever I give an animal a nice name such as Kaila (my cat) and Chelsea (my dog) I rarely called them that. LOL

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  16. Let’s see when my hubby and I first got together we had two dogs it’s funny one was name Tasha she was a white fluffy dog it just fit her she had such girly eyes don’t ask lol , our other one a lab we named her Ashley a random name. Then our dog we lost to an illness two tea ago if you have ever looked at my older post he is mentioned a lot as my pups but he came to us with the name Oakland named after the Oakland Raiders his previous owner liked them he also passed at 11 yrs old. And now there’s Miss Abigail my daughters kitty, oh the names we pick .. 🙂

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  18. Fun!
    I do love your stashed for future use names.
    We adopted our current cat who came to us with the name Ramses but my son promptly changed it to Smudge. I believe it is after a cat from the Warriors books series who is also black and white.

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    1. AW ❤ It's a gorgeous name and probably quite suitable for huskies…

      Huskies need a LOT of exercise. I remember some neighbours years ago who refused to run their huskies because they said 'they run away'. They didn't understand that huskies need to run, a lot and fast, and as a result, there was a LOT of howling. Ask me how much sleep we got back then… 😉

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