What’s in a name? The defining point of a relationship
By Gina Spadafori
March 31, 2008
I just dig lists.Today USA today expands on the information drawn from the databases of Veterinary Pet Insurance, writing today on the most popular names for dogs:
Girls:
1. Bella
2. Molly
3. Lucy
4. Maggie
5. Daisy
6. Sophie
7. Sadie
8. Chloe
9. Bailey
10. LolaBoys:
1. Max
2. Buddy
3. Rocky
4. Bailey
5. Jake
6. Charlie
7. Jack
8. Toby
9. Cody
10. Buster
And yes, they are all “people names.” Which says about as much as you’d care to know about how our relationship with our pets has changed. As USAT’s Svetlana Shkolnikova writes:
Dogs have long been considered man’s best friend, but for many Americans, they mean even more than that.
“It’s a reflection of the position that pets hold in a household,” says Mary Thurston, an anthropologist in Austin who has studied dog history for more than 25 years. “They are integral members of the family, just like a child.”
Naming dogs in the same fashion as children was common even in ancient Rome, she says. The ancient Egyptians often went so far as to bury their dogs in family plots. Today, dog owners are showing a similar kind of care.
Well, let’s see here: Heather, Drew, Woody, McKenzie and Pip. Only Pip, who came “pre-named” from rescue, doesn’t have a name you can immediately think of a person having. I thought I was being so clever in naming McKenzie (McKenzie is Christie’s mom’s last name, and also her brother’s first.) And then my brother the high school teacher informs me he had FIVE McKenzie/MacKenzie girls in his classes. So much for originality.
Still, I’m glad to see the trends. It’s not to say that a dog named “Spot” isn’t loved or cared for, but it seems more likely one named “Sam” will be. After all, these are people who worry enough about the potential for expensive veterinary care — as opposed to figuring that economic euthanasia will be just fine, it’s “just a dog, after all” — that they bought health insurance for their pets.
Drew came pre-named, too, and that was one of the reasons he is here. A year previously, I had just lost a darling old Sheltie named Andy, who was almost 16 when his heart gave out. Drew (right) had been bred by a friend of mine, and I known him as a puppy. One day she got a call that he had been given up — but not by the family she’d placed him with! (He was traced to her by his microchip.) The well-mannered, easy-going and handsome little guy had in fact bounced through three homes before the age of four, for reasons no one who knows him can fathom. He’s the most well-behaved and effortlessly charming dog I’ve ever had! (And the only one I’m allowed to bring to visit my parents.)
So, I was visiting my friend when she mentioned that she had taken Drew back. (As responsible ethical breeders always do, of course, again giving lie to the forced spay-neuter pitch that there’s no such thing as a reputable breeder, and that all breeders are scum who dump dogs into the shelter system. Wrong, wrong, wrong. A responsible, ethical breeder considers each animal her lifelong responsibility.)
Drew needed a home, a forever home, and he worked it with me like nobody’s business, putting his head on my knee, then his paw, and they sitting in front of me and smiling engagingly. I was 90 percent there when I realized that like “Andy,” “Drew” was a derivative of “Andrew.” Deal-maker! It was meant to be.
The Drewbinator has been with me ever since. So what’s in a name? Sometimes, it’s a forever home. Like the one Andy had. I held him in my hands not two hours after he was born, and held him in my arms as he died. Another of those wonderful animals who never really die, because they live forever in your heart and in your memory.
I love Shelties! And Drew is such a pretty boy!
I’m glad you found each other, and thank goodness for Responsible Breeders!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — March 31, 2008 @ 7:58 am
I’ve had one off the girls and one off the boys names in my home.
Where’s BUFFY, SNOWBALL, and MIDNIGHT? Geez, I must be old, hehehe.
Comment by slt — March 31, 2008 @ 8:01 am
We names our golden littermates Harry and Lucy (named after our late mothers Harriet and Lucille) - and to us this was to honor our moms—-not everyone in the family got it! My father in law said —I hope you never name a dog after me—-and we said in unison—-“don’t worry -no chance of that ever happening”!!
Sadly Harry is in his last days of fighting cancer—he was daignosed at 16 months and was under treatment when both my kitties got “MARF” last year—-but now it’s back and aggressive. Harriet had fought colon cancer when she was 48 and despite 6 months to live, passed at age 85—-we had hope Harry would follow in my mom’s footsteps… but Harry is currently on the t-shirt of 2dogs2000mile walker Luke—he is walking to raise money for WHY cancer is happening so often to our canines—-when he ends his walk in Boston I will be there with Lucy to thank him! There is a link to his website but I don’t know if I can post it here?
Comment by Carol V — March 31, 2008 @ 8:20 am
>Drew is such a pretty boy.
You should have seen Andy in his prime. (He’s 14 in that picture.) Oh, I miss that dog! He had brown eyes, but one of them had a stripe of China blue running through it. I used to call it his “mischief stripe,” because Andy was always a bit of a rogue. Drew is not a rogue at all.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 31, 2008 @ 8:32 am
Carol … post it! We aren’t anti-link. We’re just not real keen on people dropping in here once just to pitch their business. That seems rude to us.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 31, 2008 @ 8:33 am
Gina—thanks—having seen so many dogs when Harry was having his treatments (radiation and chemo) in Mass—-I was amazed at the lack of real research in canine and feline cancers. It was another poster at itchmo that had made me aware of him—-she had lost her beloved boy “Arnold” and he is the first name on the t-shirt..(sorry to have gone off topic-)
http://www.2dogs2000miles.org/
Comment by Carol V — March 31, 2008 @ 8:51 am
I’ve got an Eleusis (who goes by Luce, which is almost Lucy but not quite), a Mushroom, and a Harvey. I seem to be rather all over the map when it comes to names.
Comment by katie — March 31, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Luce is actually Eleusis?
Oh, wait till I tell all the poodle people! LOL!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — March 31, 2008 @ 9:48 am
What the list doesn’t take in to account are regional names. Here in Maine, aside from the names on the list I see a just as many if not more of the following:
#1 Fenway for males and females
followed by …
Casco (Casco bay)
Baxter (Baxter State Park) and
Red Sox and Patriots team members.
Most popular being Bruski and Brady, (mostly males but not all!) -followed closely by Manny, Trot, Nixon, and Coco (Crisp)
Comment by nancy freedman-smith — March 31, 2008 @ 11:41 am
Let’s see—I knew I was probably going to get that cute black and tan female Shiba puppy when a name for her popped into my head. “Sukoshi”-“little bit” in Japanese. The earlier name of one of the family’s Siamese cats. (The other was Kim Chin Fu) “Sukoshi” or “Sukosh” was a term my father brought back from his service during the Korean War. (Most military folks of a certain age are familiar with the term.) So I got the small Shiba and “Sukoshi” she was…
Comment by glock — March 31, 2008 @ 11:51 am
Nancy … WE had a cat named Fenway when I was growing up. Why? My dad (a native San Franciscan who went to high school with Christie’s dad, how’s THAT for a small world?) was a minor-leaguer in the Red Sox organization. Yes, we’re Red Sox Nation!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 31, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
I’m a big fan of people names for pets, though I’ve been all over the map, as well. Currents are Miss Harriet Brown (Boxer) and Pandora (almost 22 year old DSH).
Comment by Shelly — March 31, 2008 @ 12:24 pm
That is funny Gina! and closer than 6 degrees of separation.
When I lived in Boston (inner city) I had a lot of training clients named “Felony”, but never a Fenway, it was pre world series win.
When we named our collie Finnegan, I found after that it meant dumb blond.
Gotta be careful what you name your pets after because pets usually do fit their names……
Oops too late for poor sweet Finney….
Comment by nancy freedman-smith — March 31, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
My cat had a name already, Batman, when I adopted him. I kept the name for him.
He suffered this weekend from a viral infection—-three times he was near death, (not drinking or eating),and three times he came back. He has been to the vet, the emergency room, and had acupunture, antibiotics, and a a treatment to relieve his stuck bladder. That is why I think he was originally named Batman because the original Batman in the comic strips survived all sorts of crises.
Gina, when you get your new website started, with information available about animals, I will check out whether some cats have a double or triple amount of nine lives.
Batman, at 15 years old this coming Thursday, has survived through so much travail. Hard to believe that he was so sick this weekend and now this Monday looks at me, saying “I want to go out and mark my territory. I want to drink that good snow water that just fell. I also have to visit the birds and squirrels and check out any new developments in the area (besides relieving my insides into the garden area).
Batman did all that and now he is resting comfortably, after having a dose of antibiotics.
Comment by Colorado Transplant — March 31, 2008 @ 2:14 pm
People are always commenting on my dogs’ names being people names…but it really didn’t occur to me when I named them. Gunner (a bichon) is the cutest, most fearless fluffball I have ever seen. I thought he needed a name that fit his personality more than his looks. And trust me…it fits him well. Chase (also a bichon) is a puppymill rescue. He was terrified of people when I first adopted him. He had a very severe ear infection and needed drops several times a day. Since he wouldn’t come to me, I was constantly chasing him around the house trying to administer the drops. So…Chase seemed like the perfect fit for him.
Comment by Jen — March 31, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
“Only Pip, who came “pre-named” from rescue, doesn’t have a name you can immediately think of a person having.”
Excuse me? The protagonist of Charles’s Dicken’s “Great Expectations” is Pip. Okay, maybe non-English majors don’t think of it immediately, but Dickens fans do.
Yes, my cat is named Dickens, why do you ask?
Comment by Phyllis DeGioia — March 31, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
And I have Holly, Megan, and Mandy. My three girls…uh, kitties I mean.
Comment by Marcy — March 31, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
My cat Nemerah, which is Hebrew for tigress, goes by Nemmie when she is not in trouble. My husband, bless his soul, wanted to name her Tiger because of her coat, but I just couldn’t do that to her, so I embedded the meaning. Tiger in Hebrew is Namer and would be appropriate for a male.
Comment by Cathy Z. — April 1, 2008 @ 7:13 am
Both my dogs came off the streets of Memphis industrial neighborhoods. So we thought that names with a blues flair would be appropriate.
We chose ‘Slim’ and ‘Rufus’.
So far they are immediately recognized by name at the vet and most other places we visit. It helps to be unusual!
Comment by Richard Russell — April 1, 2008 @ 11:46 am