Naming a child vs naming a pet?

[MAJOR METAL]

Have any of you found it more difficult to name a pet compared to a human child? I had my oldest boy's name picked out at least 5 years before he arrived. The second time around required a bit more thought but I ultimately winged it and went with my gut.

Metallica & Animal

[Geroi Asfalta]

My dog was named Adam at the shelter, so his name stuck. Rascal got named because he tore everything apart. My cat is named Cat. I think kids that are named child and kid are the people that grow up to have names like buddy and guy.

[AnchorHoy]

Seems to me it would be more difficult to name your kid than a pet

The name you give your kid can have serious repercussions later on in life. It also reflects directly upon you, among both peers and strangers

Animals simply don't care what you name them, since they don't use those names among their own kind anyway. They are no more aware that you have named them "Fido" than you are aware that they have named you "Cheap cologne and burrito farts"

[colcifer]

Originally Posted by Geroi Asfalta

My dog was named Adam at the shelter, so his name stuck. Rascal got named because he tore everything apart. My cat is named Cat. I think kids that are named child and kid are the people that grow up to have names like buddy and guy.

But what would we do without Buddy Guy?

[Unrepresented]

We're a good socialist household. Names are not necessary, and instead we rely on job titles. The current tenants in our apartment (in order from largest to smallest):

Boyfriend
girlfriend
kitty
kitten

All of those have had more proper names but none stick within the confines of the household.

[Chef FourString]

"My name is Sue, how do you do?"

[MJ5150]

I've never had to name a human. I haven't had trouble in the past naming our dogs.

-Mike

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by AnchorHoy

The name you give your kid can have serious repercussions later on in life. It also reflects directly upon you, among both peers and strangers

THIS! My wife is a fan of unusual names (ironic being that hers is Julie - one of the most common in the US). But I had to talk her out of the DUMBEST names you can imagine. The way I did it was to say the name she had picked out loud with "Dr." in front of it. And then I said "Can you imagine our child being introduced as the keynote speaker at a physics conference with that handle?????" It worked brilliantly. Our two girls have slightly less common, beautiful, and NORMAL names.

Dogs are easy. They don't care. Why should you? Draw a word out of a hat. Then come up with a good story for why that word is the name.

[runmikeyrun]

My two cats are Butthead and Turd.

Chickens were Pecker and Mother Clucker.

My daughter's name is Lily

[Bloodhammer]

I strongly believe in naming animals weird stuff, so it's pretty easy for me to name them.

I named a cat Polyethylene-Glycol because I was staring at a shampoo bottle while I was on the toilet and that particular kitten was just outside the bathroom door when I came out. I said to it: "I dub thee Polyehylene-Glycol."

[tplyons]

Of our three dogs, Otis came with that name from the shelter, Mickey was named after my great grandfather, and the current pup Jake was named via voting on Facebook.

[duff beer]

I used to own a dog with no legs...I didn't give it a name because it wouldn't be able to come when I called it.

[MysticMichael]

Hey, if Frank Zappa could have named his son "Dweezil" and his daughter "Moon Unit", then I could certainly name my cats "Edward" and "Elizabeth"...

MM

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by two fingers

My wife is a fan of unusual names (ironic being that hers is Julie - one of the most common in the US). But I had to talk her out of the DUMBEST names you can imagine.

Such as...?

MM

[line6man]

When I took a vacation to visit a relative in July, we ended up renaming her cat "Obese," because the cat was fat.

Furthermore, the last time I owned a cat, I was fond of calling him "brown cat," because that's what he was.

[Atoz]

My cats were easy. I always intended to name whatever pet I acquired "Rover." When I picked up my first cat at the shelter, he had a red rocket thing going, so he naturally ended up as Rover G. Catwood, Esq. The name Baron von Pushface seemed to describe my second cat perfectly, and that took about 5 seconds to come up with.

My human son, well... that took a bit more thought. My suggestion of "Shatner" was shot down right away.

[tastybasslines]

I had a cat named Bob. Simple and easy. Pets with human names seem more like family to me and I treat them that way.

[Ziltoid]

I'm very not picky as far as child's name are concerned, especially girls one. So when time comes, I sure won't be the troubling one, I'll let my girl's hormones act all funny and pick what ever name is fine by me.

[guitar ed]

It took me a couple days to name my cat. He was a boy, and since I did not know what to call him, I started using Junior. And I wanted an indoor only cat, so I would shoo him away from the door, saying "Get back, Jack." So his name became Jack Junior. aka Jack the Cat.

My wife named her cats George and Norma Jean, after Babe Ruth and Marilyn Monroe.

We got our current cats from my step-brother. They were already named Aretha and Isley, after Franklin and the Brothers. But our then 5yo daughter could not pronounce the names, so they became Thea and Izzy. Except that Izzy is a pretty dim, even for a cat, and is sometimes called Zippy the Pinhead.

Our daughter is Josie, after a couple of grandmothers. We were going through names, and the rules for names, when I said Josie. We both stopped, looked at each other, and realized that we were done with that issue. Just, BOOM. Done.

Later,

edg

[Munjibunga]

One time I had a cat named Theotis. When I was a kid, I had a dog who came with the name Frisky. I called him Pigs or Pigsie, because he snorted and grunted like one.

On the other hand, I wanted to name my daughter Pheasant LaWanthwa. I got voted down.