Poll: How do you name your pets?

[boredkid]

How do you go about deciding what to name your pet; be they furry, fluffy, scaly, feathered, hairy, or otherwise?

Do you name them after someone famous, someone fictional, some obscure lore reference, a trait they have, the first thing that comes to mind when you see them?

Spoiler: My pet naming history

Over the years my naming techniques have varied slightly. The first animal I named was at the age of 5, a cat, whom I named Yoda [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda] because when you would pet her her ears would point out to the side. Also had a dog named Puppy (creative, I know - seemed ironic as she neared the age of 20 though...). Then it was a second cat, Playful, who ended up being one of the meanest tomcats on the farm, until Hercules [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules], the Labrador, decided one day that he had had enough and got a hold of him... Then it was a puppy that I named Lucky [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101_Dalmatians:_The_Series] after Lucky from the 101 Dalmatians animated series that was on TV at the time (which ended up being quite the characteristic, I can't count how many times that dog "should have" died...).

At the age of 10 we had a litter of puppies who were all named for various spot configurations they had (Heart, Dot, Double Dot [Double D for short], and Tipsy [white fur on the end of her otherwise brown ears] - however, Dot's name was later changed to Orion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28mythology%29] because he was the best hunter of the group. Most recently it was a puppy we rescued from the local shelter that we named Zannah [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Zannah] Bahamutt [http://www.mariowiki.com/Bahamutt].

Just curious as to how everyone else goes about the naming process with their animals.

 

[SixWingedAsura]

I tend to name mine after Mythological characters, mostly from Celtic Mythos.

 

[Dango]

Well I've only ever had one pet. It was a fish, and its name was Fishy.

 

[The Salty Vulcan]

I named my dog Max. Some names are just suited for pets.

 

[Zeromaxx]

If the pet reacts to the name, that's it's name. As such the only pets I've had were named Dog and Missy (thanks to my mother, the cat seemed to react to that).

 

[Infinatex]

I had a fish called bait. Strangely enough it ate all the others HA!

 

[AceDefective]

My dog has a name Little one but i always end up calling dog or pup-pup

 

[Vault101]

All my fish:

Plato
Diddy (Donkey kong)
Bill tim and greyham (the goodies)
Lynx
ninja (Poor guy had a nervous break down and jumped out of his bowel)
another one that was a replacment for greyham but I can't remember what I called him

The orginal greyham died, ether bill and tim jumped out of the tank, and then the other went mysteriously missing untill I cleaned out a seashell I had in the tank...he had somhow wedged himself in there and died (I assumed he had just jumped out and the dog had eaten him, I wrote a poem about this and won an award for a school competition)

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

Mine are named after Max from the Mad Max movies, and Taki from Soul Calibur.

 

[hurfdurp]

The names come to me in a vision! My bird was nameless for the longest stretch in my pet history and I somehow blurted out 'Birdsworth' one day and it was made official.

 

[Bullfrog1983]

My dog's is named Weezer. He used to wheeze all the time when I had a choke chain collar (he'd always be tugging at the end of the leash) and I liked the band so I just made it Weezer instead of Wheezer.

Most of the others were random except:

Rambo (Cat) - He crawled all the way through my dad's factory until he was found by my father. He was named Rambo because he was a survivor. He was a mean bastard too, always swiping at my ankles when I was walking down the stairs.

 

[Stormz]

Only ever named two animals, both were kinda just generic animal names. I admit to not giving it much thought, but I still like the name Whiskers. So I really don't have any special story to it.

 

[SimuLord]

That rat you see on my shoulder was named Buster. He had two brothers named Jamie and Adam.

Any questions?

 

[MorsePacific]

I have two basic plans of attack when it comes to naming:

1. Electronics are named after characters in mythology (My computer is Fenrir, my iPod is Omoikane, and my flash drive is Hephaetus)

2. Pets are named after philosophers if I get the option of naming them at all.

 

[GrimTuesday]

That rat you see on my shoulder was named Buster. He had two brothers named Jamie and Adam.

Any questions?

Did his brothers use him for very dangerous experiments involving falling from great highths, crashes, of being set on fire?

I've had three animals. Two of which we adopted my dog Newton and my first cat O.Z. both came pre-named. Then we got a little black kitten which we named Spook. I later remembered that spook is a derogatory term for a black person and I felt mildly racist.

 

[SimuLord]

That rat you see on my shoulder was named Buster. He had two brothers named Jamie and Adam.

Any questions?

Did his brothers use him for very dangerous experiments involving falling from great highths, crashes, of being set on fire?

Funny you should ask because Buster was the runt of his litter and his brothers did kinda use him as their butt monkey. That might be why Buster bonded so closely with me. The big ape treated him better than his fellow rats did (and considering how my marriage went, maybe that whole solace in another species thing cut both ways).

 

[crudus]

Dog: Pappy (he was a pappion)
Cat: Simba (he looked like Simba from Lion King)
New Cat: Kali (a D&D character)
Hedgehog: Crudus (A D&D character)
Other Hedgehog: Sonic (I couldn't resist)

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

It depends really - my two current pets were named after physical characteristics (Cleo, her eyes make her look like she's wearing eyeliner and that made my mother think of Cleopatra, hence "Cleo") and a 5th Element reference/terrible terrible pun (Leeloo, because she's the "purrfect cat"). When I was a kid we had a calico cat named Callie, followed by a cat named Erasmus (for the philosopher from the middle ages).

Apparently we're unpredictable and whimsical when it comes to naming our pets.

 

[Agent_Nahmen_Jayden]

I had one cat, being into Hercules at that particular time (I was 3 or 4 I think) I wanted to name the cat Hercules, my parents felt that wasn't a fitting name for a cat so I tried going with Philoctetes, Hercules' grumpy little horned buddy who I found amusing. They felt that it was a bit too long, so I shortened it to Phil.

However, some years later we discovered "Phil" was a girl and thus "Phil: The Trans-gender Tabby" (catchy amirite?) was born. Though we simply still called her Phil.

Oh yes, I suppose OT: From a movie's famous fictional character that I liked.

I probably shouldn't put my life's story into posts of mine, but there you go.

 

[Keepitclean]

1st Dog: Monty, parents chose it.
2nd Dog: Ty, we got him from the RSPCA so he already had a name.
So as you can see I never had a choice but it really doesn't matter.