What's the story behind your dog's name?

Naming our dogs can be pretty fun but stressful. For me, I wouldn't want my dog to have a generic name like Brownie or Whitey or something like that. I guess that's why I come up with pretty weird names for our pets sometimes that make pet groomers or vets ask twice for the spelling. Well, fortunately, I no longer pick very weird names.

Our poodle is named Sid. We gave that name to him because we truly love Sid the Sloth in the ice age movies. Just like the character, our poodle is very energetic even when he was still a puppy. He would chase us around, and jump on the bed when being called.

On the other hand, my brother chose the name Bruce for our Labrador Retriever because he is a big fan of Bruce Wayne/Batman. This year is also Batman's 75th, so to honor him we chose Bruce. He is also a very big and intimidating dog.

What's the story behind your dog's name?

Most of our dogs have had fairly commonplace names, not just Whitey or Brownie, but things like Bruno (Doberman) , Casey (Aussie/Samoyed). My little Chipper was about the size of a chipmunk when he was a tiny puppy, so we named him Chipmunk; which naturally was shortened down to Chipper.
Maybe the most unusually named dog was our little Teacup Pomeranian. She was all white with black on her face, and a little bit of black mixed in her coat here and there. Right from the time that she was a tiny puppy, she carried herself like royalty. We tried out several different names for her, but none of them seemed just right. Then, my husband said we should give her a Biblical name, and call her "The Queen of Sheba" He explained that the actual Queen of Sheba was an Ethiopian, so she would have been very dark-skinned, which went with Sheba's black face, and her long flowing coat was like a queenly ermine robe.
The name suited her perfectly, and from then on the was the Queen. She strutted around the house, and always had to lie on the pillow when she was on the bed, not just the bedspread. A Queen had to lie on a pillow !
She was a wonderful dog, and when we lost her, it was heartbreaking. There will never be another like our little Queen of Sheba.

Well.... once I tell you our dogs name you will totally know the reason behind it !! Our dogs name is Jeter!!! Yes, we picked it because we LOVE the NY Yankees and Derek Jeter is our favorite player.

We live in Florida now but were born and raised in NY so we have been fans for many years. It just seemed like the right thing to do... you know name our dog Jeter! Most people get a kick out of it!

Just seems perfect to us!!

Danyel

My sister and I wanted to name my pug something that would be funny. Our line of thinking was that we wanted to give him a name that was so ridiculous, people would laugh when we introduced him. I remember watching a pop culture program where they mentioned celebrities who named their kids something odd, thus came the name Jermajesty after Jermaine Jackson's son pronounced (JER-MAJESTY). Every time I take him to get groomed or I walk him down the street and someone asks what his name is, people laugh. Mission accomplished.

When we first got our puppy we asked our three children to look up names. This turned into a long list! I narrowed it down choosing the names I preferred. After all, I would be calling her name more often than they would. We decided on Piper. The strange thing is I have people who think I say "Hyper". I don't think anyone would name their dog Hyper.

I have a poodle mix who I found out later is considered a designer dog. a Pom-A-Poo. His mother is the Pom, registered, named Squeeky Toy and his sire is the Poodle called Tater Tot.
Well, I tho't to name my dog with the tee sound to honor his parents and his official name is Tigger Toy.
HOWEVER, Whenever someone would talk to me about him and I said Tigger, They all tho't I said Digger. and Yes, he "digs" on the carpet to nest a place to nap.
So now he's called Digger full time.

I actually had 5 dogs, and 2 already with names (adopted as adults).

The white Aussie you see posted as my avatar is named Sasha. She was my first puppy that I adopted after starting life in my own home. I know there is not really a story, but looking at her reminded me of the wild west. Sasha seemed like an appropriate name for her.

The other female Aussie's were named Emma and Sassy. Even though I had nothing to do with names they were named well for their personalities. Emma was sweet and brave, she had some great motherly instincts toward kids. Sassy, she was sassy. Kinda mean at first, she nipped/bit lot but we fixed it. She definitely liked to make a mess out of things and cause a stir among the dogs.

Buster was the name of our male Blue Heeler. He was a Craigslist adoption. We named him Buster after a week of having him because he was a ladies man pup and loved attention.

Then we had Googles, our female Blue Heeler. We adopted her from a farm at 6 weeks of age (claimed at 3). We named her Googles for the same reason the farmers named her Goggles--she had two small black rings, one around each eye that made her look like a racoon. She was so adorable and shy!

As a kid we only had one dog, most of the time we had cats. But when we named him we all put names in a hat, then which ever one was picked became his name. We ended up naming him Shadow, he was a black dog and he disappeared in the shadows!

My mother in laws dogs that we are currently caring for has the names Ehu and Iki. I live in Hawaii, and in Hawaiian Iki means little, Iki is my mother in law's miniature pincher. Why is her pitbull. She got her name because she was found in a town call Waiehu.

Unfortunately, we didn't name our dog. We adopted our dog, Roman, from family friends who adopted him when he was only a puppy. They couldn't care for him anymore because they were moving to another country and didn't have the space for him. When they first adopted him, he had a completely different name; one that they didn't like. So they decided to call him Roman. If I can remember, the reason why they named him Roman is because the father had a fascination with Roman Mythology and thought it would be a great name and the kids enjoyed it. I wish it was a lot better answer than that, but sometimes it's all about passion that names an animal that you're passionate about!

Fun topic! I've had two dogs in my life. The first dog was a shelter dog, his name was Turbo. The staff that worked at the shelter called him that because he was a Jack Russell/Maltese cross and he was SO hyperactive! He could run and run all day long and I honestly don't think he ever seemed tired! We just thought the name was a perfect fit for him, so never ended up changing it. It's funny to me how sometimes the names that shelter staff give the animals there are just spot on in terms of describing the pet! I still miss that dog...

My current dog's name is Banjo. We just chose that name partially because it's cute, and partially because it has Australian origins (we have Australian family members!) There's a very famous Australian poet by the name of Banjo Patterson so that was part of the reasoning too. I think it fits him well, though! It was a bit of a random choice, but it's surprising now that we simply couldn't imagine any other name for him!

My dog's name is Kutchie. She's a mixed terrier. The name was actually my baby talk for my youngest child who I cooed "Kutchie,kutchie" to every time I played with her. All my children's names start with the letter K so when our pet dog was given as a gift, Kutchie came to mind as her name.

It's cute and also begins with the letter K following our "family tradition" for starting the names of our children with K. Kutchie has become as our fifth child,a blessing to our family.

When my kids were growing up, we h ad an enormous black Great Dane, and his name was "Mr. Spock", since he had pointed ears. He was an awesome dog, and he totally guarded the house, and watched over our kids.
Anyone coming in the driveway was met by Spock, who let out a few loud woofs at them. That would usually keep people in the car until one of us went out to welcome them.
Spock was actually a very friendly dog, and he enjoyed visiting and getting petted when we had company; but we never worried about anybody stealing anything when we were gone into town shopping.
We only had a little house, so when Mr.Spock was in the house, he took up a lot of room, but he would usually lay down out of the way. At night, he slept near the door; and he seemed to know that protecting the family was his job.

My current dog is a huge male German Shepherd. He's the terror of the neighborhood! None of them seem to have caught on that he's actually a huge softy. We spent a long time deciding on a name when he was a puppy, and we finally settled on Strider. My dad and I came up with the idea. It's actually a Lord of the Rings reference. The character Aragorn goes by Strider for part of the story. The character is big and brave and kind of rugged, just like our Strider. My mom isn't a big Lord of the Rings fan, but she's really into running and we eventually sold her on the idea by telling her that Strider could be a reference to a running stride haha! Regardless of the story, the name fits my dog perfectly!

One of my dog's names is Luna. She's a black terrier who loves barking at crows, hunting mice and lizards in the garden and any type of competitive play.
I named her after a character from the manga Sailor V. In the more well-known Sailor Moon anime, Luna is the title heroine's cat, however in the Sailor V manga there's a black dog with the same name. I found the name perfect for my then puppy, because it's cute and rolls off the tongue.
I've got another dog - a minpin mix - but he's name is not that interesting. We adopted him off the street and called him the only name that he recognized - Tommy.

Only one of my dog's names has a story behind it. Majority of the dogs I had, have only had random names that my family liked. My German Shepard "Luna" was the exception to the rule.

In high school, my favorite band in the world was "The Smashing Pumpkins." I used to listen to their album "Siamese Dream" on repeat, constantly. Their song "Luna" was my all time favorite song. I fell in love with it because it was a love song, but it wasn't cheesy by any means. My mother has always been a fan of crescent moons, so I thought it would be a nice way to talk her into naming our dog Luna. It worked!

I named my first Chihuahua before I ever saw him. I rescued him from a puppy mill. I found a Craigslist post online about a lady who had a female Chi, who had a litter of four Chihuahuas.

I answered the ad, and she told me there were two dogs left to be adopted. One female and one male. I knew I wanted a male, and told me he was five weeks old. While on the phone with her I knew what I wanted to name him. Chico.

Why did I name him Chico? The first thing that came to my mind was the old television show Chico and the Man. Plus Chihuahua's are a dog that comes from Mexico and I live in the Southwest. The breed is named after the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, where the Chihuahua is thought to have originated from.

My other Chihuahua is named Coco. I also rescued him, but from a woman who had to move to a shelter, as her house was being foreclosed on. She had four children and the shelter didn't allow dogs. He was already named and the name Coco fit him perfectly, plus he was a year old so, it didn't seem right to change his name.

So I had two Chihuahuas...

Then, I adopted a dog name ChiChi (yes, ChiChi, Chico, and Coco)! He also was a Chihuahua, but I didn't have him for a long time, because he had a bad disposition and decided to take a few bites out of me one night. I couldn't have that, and he couldn't be given to anyone else, so... he was taken to a place where he was put down.

I've always had a dog at home but most of the names were chosen by my folks, the only one I chose myself was "Floquinha", yes, it sound strange but we are Portuguese speakers, and I seriously don't know how I came up with that but, this is kinda like a Portuguese version of ''flakes" but adapted to a female puppy. Just crazy.

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I've always had a dog at home but most of the names were chosen by my folks, the only one I chose myself was "Floquinha", yes, it sound strange but we are Portuguese speakers, and I seriously don't know how I came up with that but, this is kinda like a Portuguese version of ''flakes" but adapted to a female puppy. Just crazy.

When my husband and I were thinking about getting an Alaskan Malamute, we wanted to keep to a name that would belong to a Malamute. We thought of names like Koda, Akira, or Yukon. So I was watching Pocahontas one day and there is a raccoon in the movie named Meeko and I thought would would fit an Alaskan Malamute perfectly. So when we went to pick out our puppy we feel in love with this beautiful rust color female pup. So instead of naming her Meeko, we just added an A and that's how we got Meeka. My German Shepard was named because I was playing a video game called The Sims: Pets when you are allowed to have a dog or cat. My dog was a German Shepard named Hugo. I thought was was really cute. When my husband wanted to get a Shepard, he picked a male pup and we immediately started calling him Hugo. They both are the best dogs I could ever ask for!

Hey guys, first post here. I've read your stories and they're interesting and very creative! I'd like to share mine. We have a Golden Retriever and we found it very difficult to give him a name, because there are just too many we can think of. We wanted to give him a really good name that fits his character, so it took us quite a while. We even actually changed his name a couple of times, and eventually we got a name that we're all satisfied with.

"Rafa"

Since we always bring him with us to the tennis court when we play and he likes staying there as well, we gave him the name "Rafa", derived from one of the greatest tennis player ever, Rafael Nadal. It was fitting not only for his character as he's a dog that never gives up, but also for the place he often goes to! Everybody else in the court liked the name and we all started calling him Rafa.

Before we actually decided to call him Rafa, we're actually choosing between the names "Roger" and "Rafa"! We even asked the regular players at the court which name they like better. The majority liked the name "Rafa" better, but it was a close call. (Now, Novak isn't a good name for a dog eh? )

Our dog was named after a race horse my step-father used to own. It died after a few years of being in the business and it was a tragic moment he couldn't really get over. He loved his horse so much that he wanted to pass the name to our dog, which we all agreed to do even with some step-backs.

I personally like it since "Nelly" is not a name you usually identify for a dog to own nor another animal, but it still suits her after all! We tried to ask my step-dad could we give her a normal puppy name like Snow or Luna but he insisted to give her the name Nelly and we all just had to go for it. Pretty name for a pretty pup!

Our first dog's name was Jedi. She was a puppy given by my sister-in-law. When my husband went to their ancestral home to pick up the puppy, we still have no name because we haven't seen her yet. As my husband started the car, the radio was turned on and the commercial of the Star Wars reprise was on the radio. Right there and then, the mention of Jedi caught my husband's fancy hence he named our puppy Jedi. Everyone is amused to know the story of Jedi who grew up to be a ferocious dog that protected our house for 10 years.

Clio is my first pet that I actually got to keep. I got her when she's only 2 months old and next month she'll be 1 year old. Clio is a unique name where I'm from. The name is present at two different books that I've read before and it just stuck to my head because as short as it is, it also new and a mystery to me. I looked it up and it actually means 'glory' in ancient Greek. Everybody would assume that it's short for Cleopatra and everytime, I'd explain to them the origin of her name.

Our second dog is Epoy, a brown pekingese from a pure breed of dog show champions. It was given to me by a colleague who learned that I loved dogs and that I care very well of Jedi, our first dog. Epoy was 3 months old when we got him. Arriving at home, he immediately showed his problem of difficulty in breathing. I really thought that he would not survive. Fortunately, our housemaid had the mind to place Epoy in front of the electric fan. That did the trick. I said that Epoy might have epilepsy. My husband exclaimed, Epileptic. Yeah, let's name him Epi. But Epi sounds like a girl's name so we enhanced it to Epoy.

Epoy lived to be 8.5 years old.