Naming Dogs and Cats, Starring Harriet!

 

Sometimes a name seems to be a perfect fit for a dog. Once you know the lovely pup above, you can’t imagine any name for her but Harriet. She was named for a place not a person.

How did you decide on a name for your dog or cat? Did you have the name before the animal? Did you keep the name the rescue already had? Or, did you wait to see how the critter inspired a name?

Fortunately, dogs never tease one another about their respective names and seldom create cruel nicknames for their acquaintances. That leaves bestowers of names open to monikers that might embarrass a human.

One of our Maggie's best friends belonged to an architect, known for his habit of collecting beautiful objects, who named his lovely female Scottie, Knick Knack. Her pals never teased her about her name.

  

Here's our Poppy with Skye Westie as a pup, and a photo of the cutie-pie Sky friend.

People and Names

Would you be insulted is someone named their dog after you? Penny is always happy to meet a dog who shares her name and loves it. We’ve yet to meet a dog named Ed, so we await his reaction to that happening.

We were not so sure about Penny’s Aunt Margaret when we named our second dog, Maggie, after her. To be safe, we lengthened it to Maggie Mae so we could use the popular song as our story, if needed.

We’ve heard of family feuds that arose from the use of a name that someone felt was their exclusive property. That doesn’t seem to happen with dogs. No one cares if there are three dogs named Max in the neighborhood. Folks just add the breed when talking about them. Among our friends, we have a Westie Skye and a Malti-Poo (part Maltese, part Poodle) we refer to as little Sky the cutie-pie.

 

Mr Swiffer, we were so fortunate to know him. 

Names Have Tales

If you ask people how they came to name their dog or cat, you may be entertained by an interesting tale that might just tell you something about that person. This can be a very good conversation starter.

We knew a dog name Kepler. He was named for the German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer Johannes Kepler. That's a very Bostonian approach to naming a dog.

One of the rescued Westies we placed in a local home came with the name Rad. His new family (we soon learned they were truly fun and funny people) renamed him Swiffer. Why not? His sometimes long and shaggy coat did a great job of dusting their hardwood floors.

A friend's Ragdoll cat was called Max, but his full name was Maximilien De Whisker, a take on Maximilien de Winter, hero of Daphne du Maurier’s book "Rebecca." 

Our own Poppy has a full name of Duchess Poppy Whitehead. The “Duchess Poppy” comes from a character in an E.F. Benson book. (It also refers to our love of sparkling wine and corks that pop!) When we introduced her to one friend, she admitted she planned to name her next dog Poppy. We told her our Poppy would be honored to have a dog of hers share the name.

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2008-2017 Penny & Ed Cherubino 

(Adapted for BostonZest from one of our City Paws newspaper columns.)