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Why you chose that name for your dog?

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factory presets

Mar 3, 2020
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#1
I've enjoyed seeing the pictures in the spoiled dog thread. I also see some interesting names popping up there. Which got me thinking there has to be some good stories behind the nomenclature. I'd like to hear some of them. Maybe others would, as well.

To get the ball rolling, I've got Combo. Which is manageable speak for Comic Book Guy. He is pure pointer of body shape now, if not of genealogy. But when we got him he was such a little fatty. I thought that should be a sign of a go getter who alpha'd his siblings in the quest for food. But it wasn't.

Less prosaically, we have Tinkerbell. My wife asked my granddaughter what we should call the new dog we were getting. Without any pause for thought, she came back with Tinkerbell. I'm not even gonna try to come up with something better than that for a brown dog. As a bonus, Tinkly has the stubborn that Combo failed to bring.

So what is it, tribe? Any good names out there?
 
#2
Loki, the 12 year old boy in the pic to the left was named for his demeanor.
Got him from the Austin Animal Shelter when he was about a year old, he was a stray the dog catcher picked up, I would guess he was abandoned.
At a year old, he was already a very chill dog, we talked about of a lot of different names and at one point my wife or daughter said he's just so Low Key, we need to think of a real mellow sounding name....the other one said "that's it! ..Loki for Low Key".
Now everybody thinks we named him after the Marvel Comic Books movie character got popular.
Loki is the opposite of the Norse God of Mischief, he is so mellow we could have named him Eeyore.
 
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#3
pasja-mladicka-slika-15179843.jpg

I wanted to call him Wolfgang, but my wife said he looks Scottish so we'll call him Hamish.
 
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#4
Devo_kayak_002.jpg I posted this picture in that thread some time ago; but, as I said then, he's not my dog. He's my brother's Border Collie, and his name is Devo. Why? I have no idea... I've never asked, but I think his wife named him. Jerry (my brother) was a field tech for Bell helicopters at the time, and was on an extended overseas deployment when she got the dog. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of any of my dogs. They all seem to have gotten lost somehow...:( Anyway... all the dogs my wife and I ever had, came from Animal Shelters; all but one already had names. We never tried to re-name them; I figured that losing their home; winding up in an animal Gulag; and getting a new home, was enough trauma without trying to answer to a new name, too. None of them had names that really needed changing, anyway. Our Golden Retriever's name was Cody. He was a very pale gold; almost the color of a #1 Idaho baking potato. We wound up calling him "Spud" a lot; to the point that, if he heard "Cody", he knew he was in trouble... Our Doberman's name was "Princess", and... she was. Very large and very red; bossy and full of herself... but a sweet girl. The little Whippet's name was "Sweetpea". Kind of silly, but it suited her perfectly. The only dog we had that didn't have a name, was a Dachshund/Pit Bull mix that someone left tied to the Shelter's front door one night. 55 lbs. of bone and solid muscle, with a set of truly frightening teeth, his only goals in life were; stealing toys from Cody (and he was positively Machiavellian at it, too); to get you to rub his tummy; and to get you to pick him up. Preferably, over your head... With his front feet on one hand, and his rear feet on the other - and his tail wagging like crazy-, he'd stand there, looking all around, for as long as I could hold him up. He was supposed to be my wife's dog, but she couldn't think of a name for him. For reasons that elude me to this day, I said "He looks like... a Skeezix". Which he was perfectly happy to answer to, so... Skeezix it was. I miss them all...:whistle:
 
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#7
Loki only spent three weeks in the shelter before I took him home...and there was no way I was going to call him Timothy.
I took another male brindle Pit in to train and make ready for a good permanent home, and they had named him Cassidy, he became Billy.
A Pit I took in (that became my daughters dog) was from a dog fighting bust/seizure, animal control had named her Mustang Sally and I was not going to call her Sally, so she became Chula.
Boomer was a six month old Pittie I literally scooped up off the street, he was living in a trash pile, don't remember why I called him Boomer.
Duke and Duchess were a Pit couple that I took from a family who left them in their apartment when they moved in with the in-laws. That was already their names.
Sadie was a beautiful grey female Pit I took from a young woman whose parents would not allow the dog in their house, and she could not longer live with her violent boyfriend, so I took her dog who was already Sadie.
I tend to like two syllable names that are easy for the dog to hear clearly, like Neco, Cody, Combo, Devo.
 
#12
I'll play-
I had a yellow lab mix...nobody wanted her so the owner named her "Chico"...not exactly sure why???
I rescued her & merely changed it to Chica. Nickname: Cheek

My now-wife came with 3 doggies-
Elias was from Willem Dafoe's character in Platoon. Nickname: Eli

Casey was rescued from Misunderstood Pitbull Rescue...original name was Cassidy.
Wife always wanted a girl named Casey.
Nickname: Baby Girl

Cody was rescued. Cody was his original name.
Nickname: Code & Coco
 
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#13
58kites said:
I tend to like two syllable names that are easy for the dog to hear clearly, like Neco, Cody, Combo, Devo.
Click to expand...
Firstly, that's a good set of names there. I like to use names that are a bit unusual so doggy can be in the park without thinking everyone is trying to call him. As a side note to that, I see a lot of brown dogs have names like Hitler and Conner McGregor. Which ain't for me. Although I may jokingly refer to them in the third person as Fear and Loathing. Not the book but the dogs of war. Figure that makes me the winner of a game I don't even play. Being a joke and not one doggies understand, it can transfer across the generations. Likewise I can steampunk their names in the 3rd person to go with all the nicknames dogs seem to collect.

100% on 2 syllables, Tinkerbell not withstanding. Short and sharp with some hard plosives can sure cut through the background chatter. Loud, deep and with a growl to it and doggy is already sitting b4 she even realises who's talking.
 
#17
Balog said:
Wait, what?
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Little hyperbole on the macho and so often German names toothy dogs tend to acquire. I can't imagine you've never met a rotty named Rommel or a pitty named Panzer?

Personally I've never met a dog called either of my 2 examples. Don't expect I ever will. But I have met my share of Kaisers and Tysons.
 
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#18
Jeff Scott said:
Well, he was a little :poop:-head....................
Click to expand...
Soz bro, didn't catch your dogs name.

Knew a punk in the 80s called his dog :poop:head. Everyone was like please don't call him that. And sure enough low expectations and odd social responses led to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dog was untrainable. The name lasted less than a month. Old ladies kept involving policemen over his swearing at his dog so he had to change it to Shed. But the damage was done. Last I knew, the dog remained a nervous wreck.
 

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