The rescue named Cooper, not the sort of name I usually go for, but it suited him and so it stuck.

Darcey was called Poppy (and Solo before that) but Poppy didn't suit her and she didn't respond to it, it's too girly and sweet,lol. Darcey means dark one in Irish, and she came over from Ireland, so seemed to suit her well.

Harry had no name as he had only come in the day before as a stray, we were due to pick him up on the day one of the Harry Potter films came out and my sister declined meeting him because she wanted to see the HP film, so he was named in HP's honor.

Haha. We always got funny looks whenever people asked why he was called Binky. I actually found it really useful because you could get an idea of what a person read from their reaction

Gelert was named after the legendary hound (obviously). Gracie was called Sheba. Didn't mind the name and would have kept it but she didn't respond to it. Gracie had been on my list of potential names but not hugely high up. When we met her face to face though it immediately struck me that she was a Gracie so that was that

long winded... but..... were are big Crystal Palace fans... couldn't think of anything that would suit a German Wire Haired Pointer to do with the club... so... who brought the Crystal Palace to London for his Queen from Germany, but Prince Albert.... Prince Albert also means something rude! so our 13 month old GWP is named Bert....

I love all of these stories, great thread

That's fantastic!!

We drove back from a snowboarding holiday on the Saturday, decided we wanted a dog, made some calls and went and fell in love with him Monday lunchtime. He was the only pup left and it was 3 days before Christmas so we couldn't leave the little thing I really wanted to call him Murphy. My husband was driving and everytime I said Murphy he'd say Bentley. When we got home we did rock, paper, scissors (that's how we make all of the big decisions in our house ) and my OH won.

We get our German Pinscher pup in a few weeks and he said I could choose the name this time....and in the same sentence he said he really liked the name Nala. I must've gone through every list on the internet but couldn't find a name we both liked as much as that. I was tempted to call her Ibiza as that's where we were when we heard she had been born! I would have loved to have given her a German name but we had an amazing safari holiday last year and being a Disney freak I couldn't resist Nala for our new pup

Flo was once "Florrie" and once Florence. As in nightinggale as her breeder had LOTS of persians. It made sense at the time.
Hunter was due to as a child rough's always reminded me of horses with their elegance and long head, movement, agility etc. So I opted to name after a horse, and my simple rag tag type! Have earmarked "Steed" or "Tweed" for next roughs!

Sweep was named after the character from Sooty (like another member!).
Bryn was a rescue who was originally called Twiglet, not a very distinguished name for a GSD! Apparently he was found wandering the streets in Wales so I renamed him Bryn.
I called my red cattle dog Ruby Tuesday because she's red and I got her on Tuesday!
Fudge my little tan terrier was already called that when I got him (my daughter's ex couldn't keep him).
Maggie is another rescue Staffie cross lab, she was called Kenzo which I didn't think suited her at all, and she answers to Maggie.
Last but not least my blue cattle dog is called Woody, not anything to do with Toy Story but it was a horse I knew a long time ago.

Billy came with his name from his previous family. He responded to it, it suited him and I liked it so I kept it. I tend to call him Bill rather than Billy these days.

Sneaks was originally called Wayne when I adopted him. He responded well to it so, although I was not keen on it, I decided to keep it. It was comical, at least

However, over time nicknames started to creep in thanks to his character; Sneaks was a nickname that stuck due to his sneaky thieving mischievous ways. It suits him down to the ground and without even intending to his name ended up changing. He never gets called Wayne these days and his name is listed as Sneaks at the vets etc.

I was very keen on getting the dog, after years of nagging the ex gave in. The one proviso was that he got to choose the name. I came home after paying the deposit and ex-OH was determined to call him Schumacher. I wasn’t keen so we slept on it. God knows what time in the morning and ex woke me up to tell me the dog was to be called ‘Rufus’, after the chap from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (one of my favourite films!).

Future dogs will be: Bill S Preston Esq and ‘Ted’ Theodore Logan

OH named my 3 border collies, even though I always have a long, carefully thought out list of names!:

Maddie: after Maddison's road where our farm was

KC: the same day we got KC he also got new spotlights for his truck from a company named "KC Hilites". "Casey" is a name I have always liked.

Gael: We spent a 3 day road trip trying to decide what to name the puppy, her Mum was "Cloud" so I was reeling off "weather names" and got to "Gale", he liked this name just with a different spelling.

Scout (the Brittany): OH kindly said I could name his puppy because he had named all mine. I said I would have to think about it because I only had BC names on my ongoing list and my next BC was going to be called Scout non-negotiable. So I said I will think of a few names and get back to you. The next day I said I have some names do you want to hear them. He said "No need, we will call the puppy Scout! It is a cute name and suits a hunting puppy". What? No no no you can't steal my perfect BC name. Oh well, the name got used and it suits her.