Food.
My dog is called meatball, my cats tofu and sushi.
They come with a name from the shelter and they tell us we’re not allowed to change it (even though they did!) so we always just kept whatever the shelter picked
they tell us we’re not allowed to change it
I’d just smile and nod, and then give my new family member whatever name I wanted later that same day. Shelter tryin’ to tell me I can’t name my own pets?? They can get outta here with that noise…
You can call it a nickname then but they might already know the one they came with.
I usually adopt. Call them by the name they were given (unless it’s really stupid then I’ll try to think of one) wait a few weeks, a nickname usually presents itself aaaaand that’s the new name. They’re not always winners but, when the damn dog only response to “Ass Clown” you’re kinda locked in =\
Typically we name them after characters in media we are into at the time.
We’ve had three pets so far, and they’ve all had real but uncommon human names.
I like this method. Our dogs are Herman and Winston!
We had a cat called Alan. Best damn cat to ever live.
People names are always fun
Dave is a great name for a cat.
My dogs have always had people names. I don’t know why it amuses me so much, but it really does. The downside is that now and then you’ll meet a person with the same name as your dog… 😬
As bat shit crazy as it sounds, I don’t. I let the name “come to me”, or wait for the critter to pick its name.
It isn’t literal woowoo hippy bullshit, but it looks like or when I try to explain it lol.
But it’s a matter of letting the subconscious mind have a chance to percolate with the personality and “nature” of the pet.
But it just kind of pops into my head at some point. Might be the second I meet the animal, might be weeks later. And it never fails me because when I let that happen, the animal immediately recognizes the name as theirs. That’s held true for anything but invertebrates and most fish, even a pissy iguana and an unusually smart oscar.
What sucks is that sometimes the name isn’t very cool lol. For every shaitan and samson, there’s a sugarplum and a cricket.
Media references, a child relative’s babble, names based on their looks, their personality…
- “BBC, lay down !”
- “CNN, sit !”
- “TV5Monde, go fetch !”
I like the babble idea.
Lots of movie and video game references for the ones that don’t have actual names when they come to us.
Translate the name of their species in different languages:
- Machka
- Mao
- Neko
Growing up our male dogs were named after middle linebackers by my grandfather and I - Butkus, LT, Lloyd, Lambert, etc. - as they were Newfies. One of my greatest young successes (in my mind) came when we had a half Newfie, half something else: Polamalu. Wasn’t technically a linebacker, but played like one.
Female dogs were named by my grandmother. it was usually some uncommon human name - Cora, Molly, etc.
Partners family named their first cat Punky cause she had hair like a punk. Then all the subsequent ones have been music genres.
Punky birthed: •Mod •Rock •Hippy •Techno •Jazz …and outlived them all
A stray cat wandered in not long after punky passed and birthed two more so now there is Funk and Soul. I think it’s mean that the ginger is named Soul.
Before we picked up my collie, we ran through a list of names we loved, (black and white collie with freckles on his white stripe on his face, and brown sandy legs) and had a hot list of selects from ‘Patches O Hoolahan’ ‘Stomp’ ‘Gary’ ‘Dusty’ and a bunch of others.
As I picked the little guy up, I said “Hey buddy!”. His names Buddy.
My brother’s Cats name is Uni (Japanese for sea urchin) because shes pointy on the outside and soft in the middle. His other cat is ‘Maki’ because it’s a black Siamese cross with with a white face.
I go with whatever feels right in the moment. My childhood pets were named Tiger and Princess. Right now though I’ve been sitting on a name for a cat for awhile. Just need to find a place that allows pets, then I can have my little Pistachio.
Every time I have adopted pets from the shelter(all of my pets), we just throw out random sounds and syllables until they respond. Basically, they choose their own name.
