How did your dog get their name?

[MaggieDog]

Maggie was Maggie when she was relinquished to the shelter at 9mo. While she was at the shelter, the staff added Mae to her name and because she was a staff favorite we kept the name. I considered changing it to Magpie because she's black and white, but it didn't stick. Her USDAA name is Miss Maggie Mae Take It Away because to the 15yo me it sounded like a good agility dog name.

 

Ziva was Sasha for the 3 months she was at the humane society. She is *not* a Sasha, so when I decided to keep her I knew I needed to find a new one and after having a dog named Maggie - one of the top names for dogs in the US - it needed to be something very unique. I was watching NCIS and heard the name and it stuck - Ziva on NCIS is one of my favorite tv characters and she's smart and kind of odd, just like Z. I did look up the name's meaning and apparently it is Hebrew for bright or brilliant which fits with her USDAA name: Stardog's Can't Take the Sky. The full name is from the Firefly series (guess I'm not the only fan on the board lol) - the theme song is one of my favorites and her name is pulled from that.

 

Stardog is the name I settled on for my "kennel" because all my dogs are stars in their own right.

[bcpon]

Ok....I'll play. Dan is named Dan from the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. George Cloony's hair pomade was Dapper Dan brand. We just finished watching it when we named him.

 

Possum is named Possum because she looked like one when she was born. She remains the Awesome Possum.

 

Kelda's name comes from author Terry Pratchett's books, the discworld series. Crivens!!!

[NorthfieldNick]

Nick came with the name. I don't love it, I don't hate it, and it fits him. My BIL calls him Lick or Licky Boy, because this dog's tongue is constantly moving! He'll lick you to death if you're not careful. I call him Mr Fuzz Butt because he has a serious butt-fro. He's also Little Brown Dog becaue he's smaller than Lu and very, very brown.

 

Lu was Sheba at the shelter- blech! She looked like a Lili when I first saw her, and so it was. My sister took to calling her Lili Lu, it got shortened to just Lu. I started calling her Lu Lu Be, which led to singing "I love LuLu Be, LuLu Be tuna..." (Bumblebee Tuna), so now she's the Tuna Dog

[Tiga's_mom]

Tiga was Simon at the SPCA. We didn't think it suited him and there's a producer in Montreal that's named Tiga and we thought it would be a good dog name. We have since found out that it's french slang that means "little boy". Little is petit and boy is garcon so it's basically a combo of the 2 words. A lot of people call him a girl and think it's a feminine name though.

[Ruger's Dad]

Ruger was named after the finest maker of revolvers in the world. Aferall, he is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a 44 magnum and able to shoot up tall buildings to catch a frisbee in a single bound.

 

Look up in the sky, its a bird, its a plane, no its just my OCD dog trying to catch one of them dang UFOs thats been flying around. He doesn't know when to quit playing frisbee.

[WyoBC]

This is kind of cool. I like hearing about how names came about. Black Jack was named at the shelter. He has always come to that so I kept it. Most of the time I shorten it to Jack. Unless he's in trouble, then I'll use his whole name. Like my parents always did. He does have a nick name though. I'm always calling him Mr. Wiggles Because he bends and twists like no dog I have ever seen before. He'll sit down facing away from you in your lap, lean back on you, twist and put his paws on your shoulder, then lean back even more. I have been told that I am almost to embarrassing in public also.

 

The Tweed song is stuck in my head now too.

 

 

ETA: Spelling errors. It's late and I can't type right

[Bo Peep]

It's kind of funny that the more "manly" names are the one's from the guys. example Ruger. Who am I to talk? I had a dog named Migraine. Seems the women pick the nick names Ms. Daisy Duke, or myself, with Miss Lacey. Everyone thought I named Usher after the rapper. LOL. I'm not into rap music. I'm into "Here, take a seat." This thread is very interesting.

[kelpiegirl]

Lucy- she's a firy red and tan, and I love Lucille Ball's show "I love Lucy" Of course, it is ironic that her breeder's name is Lucy... But, Lucy fits her- to a T- note to self, if dogs live up to their names, don't name them after women who are always getting into trouble....

Another Kelpie of mine is named Nikke- a spin on a Norwegian relative's name (Nikka). I have Tucker, who being a big Boxer boy- fits the name well.

I have Kylie, who's name isn't my favorite, but she is pretty, and it's a "pretty" name.

Ginger the kitty, Leo the Lad the kitty, and Lucy and Ricky the two parakeets.

[Ruger's Dad]

Bo Peep: I thought of naming the next Border, Barrett, after the finest maker of big bore sniper rifles now used by the military. But I love WyoBC's, Black Jack. Not only is he a handsome lad, Wyo: I am talking about the dog, but I love the name. Afterall, Superdogs deserve a he man name, like Ruger, Clint, John Wayne, Rin Tin Tin, Fury, etc. No one would name their Superdog Eugene or Kevin.

[notailabigail]

Abby was Shawnie at the shelter and my ex was Sean so that name had to change! I decided to let my family name her since they really didn't want another dog...I liked the name Scout but they came up with Bambi and Abby and I chose the lesser of two evils. I don't like how common her name is though and she really isn't an Abby. Abby seems like a gentle, sweet dog's name. Ha! Oh well, at least I'm not yelling "Bambi!" at the park.

 

Ryan was the name that popped into my head when RDM asked me "what are you going to name your new puppy?". I like that I've never met another dog called Ryan. I usually call him Ry or Ry-Ry though

[border_collie_crazy]

Happy-it was her litter name actually, it seemed to fit so I kept it.

 

Misty-short for "Mistletoe Mischief" because my parents paid for her as my xmas present. before we picked her up I was gonna call her "Mistletoe Christmas" but..umm...we got her in the van and the "christmas" inistintly bacame "Mischief" for obvious reasons lol

 

Electra-not a clue, she came with the name lol

 

Rusty-his colour I assume, I didnt name him. his first owners had apperntly named him "cujo" his 2nd owners didnt like that changed it to "Rusty" were his 3rd owners and he was already 4 years old so we kept it.

 

Ripley- thats ones easy, its because "Ripleys Believe it or not, we got another dog!" lol, we had been watching the show when we were trying to come up with a name for it my dad said the above and its stuck lol

 

Perky-she went through a LOT of names, the first week we had her she was everything from Roxy to Pebbles. Roxy is what we had wound up choosing because A) she is all spckly like little stones and B)my parnets had a friend names Roxy, this friend of theirs was really really short, Perky is a medium sized dog with really little legs!. but we just never managed to look at her at say "Roxy" it just didnt fit, my mom finally named her "Perky" because..well..she really perky lol

[Skittledoo]

Bamm Bamm was already named when I adopted him. He was originally Gideon I believe, but his foster mom that took him in didn't think that name suited him much. She had another dog named Pebbles after Pebbles from the Flinstones. One day she decided to yell Bamm Bamm and Bamm came running to her. Ever since that he was Bamm.

 

When I adopted him I didn't see any reason to change his name. It really suits him and he likes it so why change it?

[orionbc]

It all started with Race's mom Her name is Sprint(her littermaes were all fast names- hustle, hurry, PDQ, sonic, pep) his breeder likes to have theme's for the litter names, his theme was Time. his registered name is Record Time-- RACE. His most common name is BUD, becasue he is just that! my bud! He also is a roo-er. so he became known as the ROO dog, which turned into rudedog.. and somehow wound up as rutabega!

So keeping along the same fast theme... i have Race's sons-- Spit Second, DASH... Never Enuf Time, SPEED, and Fast and Fuious, DRIVE.

the only other of my dogs that i actually named is my little spotted dog! her reg name is Dots Per Inch-- PIXEL. her nick name is pixie -pup, which fite her well since she is tiny! but she is mostly called crazy littel red devil, and a few other choice words

all the others came with their names, and they were all older so why change them!

 

Kelli

[Maja]

Such interesting stories! I named my dog long before I picked her when she wasn't a BC yet but a Bernese Mountain dog Then we decided to get a BC instead, but the name stayed. Her name Kelly is shortened from Kelev, a Hebrew word for 'dog' .

 

Maja

[1sheepdoggal]

Cain 8 yr old GSD- I had an old dobie named Able, so it was almost a given to have a Cain for his brother!

Lexy BC 8 yrs came with her name, and I liked it. Kinda hard to change a 2 yr olds name after that long.

Chris BC 3 yrs. Chris was born on Christmas eve, so we felt compelled to give her a name that had some reference to the holiday. We originally had it Christa Eve, but narrowed it down to Chris.

Roy BC 1 yr. He needed a name as we became increasingly aware that he was staying. We started calling him all different kinds of names for a couple of weeks, Roy Boy just stuck.

Andy Std. Poodle 18 mo.-Andy is apricot, with his big fluffy ears as a pup being very red. He looked like raggedy Andy, so....Cauton, careful when you name a dog after a stuffed character. They tend to develope like thier name sake! Silly grin and no brain!

Stella BC 1 1/2 yrs I just love walking out on the porch calling her. S T E L L AAAAAAAAA! Try it! Its fun! \Kinda takes ya back to the bit in Mrs. Robinson or Rocky......A D RI ANNNNNNN

Bruin Great Pyr 6 mo. He just looked like a big white bear, and looks even more so every day, so I think he was named aptly. He eats like one too! Anything and everything!

 

But my all time fav name I had for a dog was a yellow lab I had for many years. Her name was Jesta. Short for jest a dog. The name came about, because after I got her, it was weeks and I still couldnt settle on a name for her, folk would ask what her name was, and Id joke and say say she's jest a dog. It stuck.

[powerfulgazelle]

Kip was named by the dog warden who picked him up. Good, traditional collie name, so we kept it. Most of our pets have literary names though, so his full name is Rudyard Kipling Dog.

 

Our 13 yr old who is currently suffering/surviving his first year of Latin in school named Sollers. Sollers means "clever" in Latin. We keep hoping this will come to pass.

 

Bloomberg is named for the large grey tabby tomcat (which he is, all of those things...) from the JD Salinger stories.

 

Orlando was named for the Virginia Woolf novel character of the same name. He walked in front of our car while we were driving home from the movie of the same...the Tilda Swenson one. And, in the dark that night, we could not tell if the wee little guy was a him or a her.

[jrid]

Five's registered name is Take Five, like taking a break. I thought obedience training her was going to be easy since I had already trained one dog all the way through utility. I was wrong. Beaver has his name because he has a significant overbite. A friend gave him his name. My little terrier mix "Shuie" is so named because the first time she took dump at my house it smelled so bad I said Shoowee" what did that man feed you? My first border collie "Bruce" was known as "Bruce the Perfect or Brucie do no wrong"

[Beth G]

My son was three and he named my male BC, Popcorn.

 

And my husband named his female BC, Pepper.

 

Pretty boring...lol.

[airbear]

Bear came with his name. In fact, it is the only thing that his previous owners shared with the SPCA. No age, no breed, just his name. I tried to change it, but he definitely knew his name was Bear, so it stuck. Allegedly, "Bear" is a very popular dog name but I have met only a handful (compared to the scores of Skyes, Maggies, Pipers, Pandas, Codys, etc.).

 

Wick is named for her stump of her tail, which very much resembles a candle wick. As I got to know her, she earned the "ed" on the end of her name! She is known as Wicked in agility, but generally, I call her Wick, or Wickie, or HeyYouStopThat!

 

Lou came with his name too. Apparently, he was so much the biggest pup in his litter, and he had such a huge white head, his breeder called him Beluga, which mercifully was shortened to Lou. I call him Loopy, or LouLou.

[Woodenlion]

Honey came from the humane society already named and it suits her. She is the sweetest girl.

 

Cocoa came from the humane society as Oreo which I could never remember. She was so nervous when I first brought her home I used to sing songs to her. She responded with absolute joy when I sang "Lime in the Coconut". Probably because I am a rotten singer and sassy ass was making fun of me.

 

George came as Bandit. But his first day with me I just kept calling him George. I have no idea why. He took to it immediately. Everyone always thinks I am talking about a person.

 

Toni

[bc4ever]

When we got our BC puppy, all he could do was scoot around on all the hard floors--hence, Scooter! He doesn't scoot any more--he flies!!!! LOL!

[Riley-dog]

I had all these grand names picked out, most of them related to aviation as I was in school for aerospace engineering at the time and flying sailplanes and hang gliders. I really loved the name Baron, though I'd also thought of Piper, Scout, Segel (short for segelflugzeug the German word for sailplane) and Aero. That was until the fluffy little pup came home with his goofy grin, bumbling ways and dying to please attitude. "Baron" was just too regal. I read through lists of dog names and found nothing, then I pulled up a list of classical author's names since my boyfriend at the time had a dog named Dickins and there it was... Riley! It fit perfectly. Just had the ring to it that you feel when a names just fits. He's most often called Roo, Ri, or Riley-roo.

[Criosdaidh]

Achilles: I've always been a fan of warrior names. When I got Achilles (half border collie and half husky) he was very brave. He was around 35 lbs or so, a young small dog and was constantly jumping up into the faces of huge german shepards and the likes at pet smart. He's got alot of ballz to be neutered. So I figured his courage deserved a worthy name.

[fotobridget]

Libby's full name is Liberty Ann ForAll.

She was named Liberty Ann because my boyfriend's dog is Justice ForAll.

 

So now when he yells at the dogs it's "LIBERTY ANN JUSTICE FORALL"

 

Weird, I know...

[RaisingRiver]

I posted already, but have since added a new one.

 

Aero (Air-row) was named Domino at the shelter. Probably for the 2 dots on the back of his head but inversed in color. I don't like 3 syllable names, too long and preferred 2 syllables since all my other dogs are. I wanted nothing that ended in the other dogs endings so that ousted all the duh, er, and el sounds. I searched online since nothing came to me. He was 'puppy' for the first 10 hours. DH wanted to call him Rain which is hilarious since he wouldn't let me call River that. Maybe he was kidding. I found the name Merlin online and that sounded neat. DH didn't like that. But then I saw an agility dog's name was Aero and that had a nice ring to it. DH approved it because there's a motorcycle pipe company named Arrow. I thought Aerodynamic or Aerospace would bring promises of speed.

 

The best part is the 2nd day I was wearing a sweartshirt and holding Aero. My daughter said, "Mom, your sweatshirt has his name on it". I looked down and I what I was wearing had Aeropostale embroidered on it.

 

Somehow I ended up with 2 dogs with clothing company names. Diesel & Aero