I’m the human of a cat named Piccolo, because when he was a kitten, he meowed like a little flute.
I don’t actually know! Her microchip says her name is Shirley, but I tried two phone numbers and a physical address and never got in touch with her previous owner. I had been workshopping names for a while but I figure she prefers that one, so she’s still Shirley.
I found Pliny frozen in my garage at like maybe 2 weeks old. (Door had blown open somehow) Thought he was dead until he moved his eye right as I was tossing him in a trash can. Had to bottle feed him and he was super sick, so I didn’t think he’d make it. Didn’t name him, just called him Tiny. Once he recovered and it was clear that he owned me, I started calling him Pliny because it sounded kind of like Tiny and was a beer that I really enjoyed at the time. He’s still super small 12 years later, so I think he was left behind because he was the runt. Or being frozen stunted his growth.
Taco Bob is named Taco Bob because we were drunk.
Dodo. She makes SO MANY BISCUITS, all the time (hence the ‘Dough’) She’s like a little soldier marching around on my bed.
She will also poop down to get pets and it’s sooo cute:
Rub that belly!
Spanish horror film called “El orfanato” (The Orphanage). The woman spent a lot of time calling for her son, “Simón” so now I do too. My son is a cat though.
I cannot recommend that film enough to anyone who’s a fan of horror movies which are more than just a fun spoop.
Online review for a Yeti dog bowl said “Great bowl! Just don’t get your dog’s name engraved on it because it will outlast them!”
My grandfather said “It already comes with his name engraved on it”
Now my dog is named Yeti
I love his little peets!
She’s a skittish, posh, and skinny as hell greyhound. We live in Seattle. So…Maris.
We have two guinea pigs.
Very often, guinea pigs are named after food. Our two rescues came with food names. However, everything eats guinea pigs and I feel it’s wrong to name them after food. We changed their names.
We named them after two characters from Downton Abbey: Daisy and Rose. Plants are the only living things that fear guinea pigs, so they are nice, powerful names for them.
Daisy in the background, Rose in front.
Our cat Sybil was also named after Downton Abbey! If you’ve ever seen the show Keeping Up Appearances, two of the sisters are named Daisy and Rose as well.
Our kitty shelter named our first of two cats (sadly now passed away) Thomas. So we named our second cat (which the shelter named Vesta which I found weird) to Nikola. They were generally pretty chill towards one another unlike their namesakes.
My partner named our cat Lana because he wanted to be able to scream “LAANAAA!” like Archer
poor cat
She doesn’t mind. She meows in reply or comes running when he does it, and he doesn’t do it very often.
I knew a professor who named his dog “Sweety” just to annoy his wife because he called her that also.
I always choose based on personality, or let them choose for themselves if they’re especially chatty.
Some examples:
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Screech, male cat, got him after weaning and the only things he could vocalise were variations of screeches. So, Screech. Also worked well with the fact that he had a full black coat, so you’d always hear him first.
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Mimi, female cat. Found by one of my former coworkers next to an apartment building stairway, asked her what she’d like to be called. She said: “meeee…” in the cutest, squeakiest way imaginable. I asked and what else. “Meeee…” again, so that was that. She ended up earning it, she was exuberantly inquisitive and playful.
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Maia, female cat. It was the most feminine name to also have a sort of benevolent but tired aristocratic aloofness. She was always bothered by your unrequested presence, always complaining with a bored chain smoker’s croon of “mmmmaaawwwww…” She also obsessively groomed every living thing she had in her proximity, including a chicken (the only one dumb enough to not run away) and a hamster.
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Lord, male dog. He was fucking majestic, looked like a miniature lion with black, white and copper stripes (about as large as a Golden Retriever). And he owned that name, always lording over the place. Ironically, got poisoned by an envious neighbor (I’m serious).
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Ralph, the (happy) exception, male dog. So, this guy, had been my brother since I turned 10. First time I met him, he was slobbering. And he was a German Shepherd / Alsacian mix, these guys don’t usually drool a lot afaik. But my guy was dripping. So, naturally, I wanted to call him Spit. I mean… naturally! Luckily, mum intervened with this one and declared him Ralph, because it was the most friendly German name she could think of at the time. And he wore it well, he was always vivacious, but calculated.
I’m sorry about Lord. That’s terrible.
Thank you! Yeah, it hit us pretty badly… Well, to be fair, every loss wrecked us, because we never treated pets as pets, but as family members, but that was the first death I ever experienced in my life. Taught me a very valuable (although unfortunate) lesson about human beings, too…
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This is an amazing thread to collect answers to people’s security questions, thanks!
I named my gerbil Smith because it’s my mother’s maiden name. Let me introduce you to my rabbit, 329-06-2789. I named him that so I wouldn’t forget my social security number.
Hahaha, I like how you think and I’d like to know more about you. For instance what is your mother’s maiden name?
Aaaaaaand…
Yes we have yet a other dog, the oldest one, 12yo. She come from the shelter her name is Giada (Jade). We never changed it. Funny how that’s also a commonish human name and has been hilarious sometimes in the past in crowded places…
I don’t have a pet name, only an human name…
Our naming convention was comic strip characters, hence Hobbes, Casper, and Quincy.
