How Do You Pick Your Pup´s Name?

As much as I love reading, teaching and advising on Dog training, behavior and nutrition one thing that I have a personal interest in is how people choose their pup´s names.

for instance when I brought my pup she used to bounce like Tigger from Whinnie the Pooh and so the kids decided she should be called Tigger, I wasn´t overly keen on the idea at first, but eventually it gre on me and the name stuck, then to add to the humour my dog walking pal was a fan of Only Fools and Horses and named his alsation Trigger.

You can imagine the looks and the smiles when we were in the fields calling Tigger and Trigger!

What makes you name your dog, and how do you go about finding the name?

I look forward to your responses!

My husband Sid & I love Worlds Strongest Man contest on TV - and the current champ at the time was Mariusz Pudzianowski.

This man is not only amazingly strong and a true champ in every way. But, he is also a really lovely natured guy, very affable and a fab sense of humour. An ambassador in every sense.

We couldn't think of a more apt name for our Rottie boy - he has the same character and has grown into a very handsome, strong lad himself I also think he is a wonderful ambassador for the breed as he has the most fabulous nature.

So that's why we have a very unusually named Rottie!!

Misty is called Misty, because of my 8 year old sisters logic! I couldn't decide what to call her, I quite liked Willow, but know loads of horses called that, so I got on the phone to the sister! She said ' Call her Misty because she is black & white, and if her colours where to run, then she would be grey and misty weather is grey!!'

So Misty she became!!

Sarah xx

Originally it started with our cats names - Halibut and Mullet.

When we got our first rescue dog, we decided to continue with the fish theme, so we named him Kipper (Kip for short).

Then our next rescue, again we continued with the fish theme - Hoki.

When we rescued Stumpy we tried for ages to find a fish name that would suite her, but were flagging. She was very shy and withdrawn when we first got her, but my OH started calling her Stumpy (she has almost no tail). Well, when he started calling her Stumpy, her wee stump was going 10 to the dozen - the first time she'd really been happy, so we felt like she'd chosen her name.

Our last, Tip, came with his name and as it is short and easy (and so like our first dog's Kip), we decided to keep it.

Charlie was named so when I got him, and it suited him, so he kept it.

Bear looks like a Bear, lol.

As a child, Sadie was the name of one of my best friend's pitbull's and she was the best dog I had ever met, calm, loyal, loving and I wanted a dog of my own just like her. I was never allowed a dog when I was little, we got Sadie when I was 14 and of course the breed was banned by then, not that my parents would have ever entertained the idea anyway, but I always remembered Sadie and named our puppy (Lurcher) after her.

Maddy is Maddy because I just thought it was a nice name, I had picked it out before she was even a twinkle in her father's eye!

Dusty is named because I was primarily looking for a wee boy, but fate had it that Dusty was offered to me after someone on the breeder's list dropped out in taking her because they wanted black and tan and she is a dapple. So I had no name for her at all, I had a list of boy's names which I was going to see which suited him when I met him, but of course no girls names. The day before I went to pick her up, my best friend and I were looking online at names and we were calling them out but none seemed to be right, 'til when we came across Dusty it just felt right.

Star is called Star because we got her on New Year's eve, just after xmas so we were still all festive spirited, it was my son's birthday the next day (she wasn't bought as a present it was just co-incidence!) so I let him name her and he chose Star, after the Star of Bethlehem.

In the future I will have a male rottie called Austin and a male Weim called Oakleigh, no reason I just like them and have had them both picked out for a while and think they suit the breeds!

Monty is named after Montgomery Burns from the Simpsons. Reason being is that when before we'd even been to see him we were told by the breeder that he had a bald spot on his head about the size of a 50p piece.

I'd spoken with the breeder a lot, seen photo's and knew when we went to visit there'd have to be something majorly wrong that made us walk away without him. After all he was the last little puppy that no-one seemed to want as he had this bald spot.

Anyway, we spent ages trying to find a name for a British boxer that was different and didn't want the usual Bruno, Tyson etc that seems to go with Boxers. So instead we focussed on his bald spot and tried to think of famous bald people and the first person that came into my head for some reason was Montgomery Burns as so Monty came about.

However he does get called Montegomery when he's been naughty!!

I also find it interested how people come up with their dog's names.

when i got jake i had loads of other names in mind but when i saw him i just thought he looks like a jake lol. so decided on that cause he didnt really suit any of the other names as much. my mum thought he looked like a max but i didnt really like max for him, it had been on the list of possible names though lol. and sam was named by the sspca when we got him lol. thats the only dogs names but i have guineas pigs called cagney and lacey, a rabbit called cassie and i used to have a gerbil called mozart. cassie got her name cause i let my friend name him, no idea why i called the others their names lol, was a slight moment of insanity for mozart lol

lauren

Tassle....not sure where that came from, but it was about 6 months before I decided to even look for a dog that the name came to me.

Gabe...he was that when he came ...

Trip.....was Trixie....err...that certainly wasn;t going to stay!

Jasper....I knew he was going to be a red/white BC so I wanted somthing relating to the colour, and the gem stone 'Jasper' is a red colour and is meant to be a lucky stone.

Siren.....don't know where that came from but again appeared before the dog.

It was so hard naming Mouse. I wanted to call her Juanita (looked up Mexican names & was the only one I could really pronounce!), a bit off the wall but would've suited her. I've always wanted to have a pair of dogs called Griffin & Phoenix but neither suited her. Shroom would have been another because she 'was' a mushroomy colour - seems to have changed now tho
Then it was down to passing the 6yr old daughter test! I had deliberately got mouse while my daughter was away to settle her in. When getting home my daughter hated all the names I chose. So asking my daughter what she wanted to call the dog I was presented with either Emily, Amy or Mouse
Mouse really did suit her so we went with it. Small, quite shy (at times ) and very fast.

We didnt know what sex our first setter would be so he/she would be called Tallis if a dog and Thalice if a bitch - hence we got Thalice.

Once we moved from England to Wales and had Welsh born litters, the puppies we kept had Welsh names so that it wouldnt be too embarrassing calling for them when out walking - hence we now also have Thalice's daughter - Delyth: Delyth's daughter - Rhian: and Rhian's daughter - Blodwen.

Thalice's Mum