Gratuitous chicken blogging: Hen-naming time
By Gina Spadafori
August 8, 2008
Tomorrow afternoon I’m picking up three new hens. One will be named Nadine, since regular reader Nadine named my Americuanas (Paloma, Isabella and Viviana), and also because Nadine and her husband, Russell, went to so much work to put on the wonderful reading and book-signing I did at the Del Norte County Library last April.
The other two hens need names. All the other girls have old-fashioned names: Agatha, Beatrice, Charlotte, Hester, Hazel and Harriet. I like the old-fashioned names, and I would love suggestions for more of those. Louise is out, though, because I know my mother wouldn’t appreciate having a chicken named after her. (It should be noted, however, that Christie’s mom Kathleen McKenzie was flattered when I stole her last name for one of my dogs. I think Christie’s brother McKenzie Keith is cool with it, too.)
The three new girls are Cinnamon Queens, picture here.
So … ideas?
Late night news wrap: Two things I’ve been meaning to write about, both handled perfectly by Luisa on her Lassie Get Help blog. First, this incredible story of law enforcement officers forcing their way into a home, shooting the family dogs to death and then handcuffing and interrogating the family next to the bleeding corpses of their pets. Oh. My. God. The police now say it was a mistake. Ya think?
… and then there’s this head-exploding ad from PETA, as if we needed any more proof that the folks in charge there are complete and utter lunatics. Why is anyone still listening to PETA?
Major hat-tip to Luisa on both stories. I hope you don’t get that sheep and goat disease, but if you do, maybe PETA will take out an ad.
Patience, Abigail, Mary, Anne, Dorcas, Jerusha, Margaret, Maude, Matilda, Sarah, Sally.
Do you frequent http://www.backyardchickens.com/?
Comment by Anne T. — August 8, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
Jolene?
I used to have a kitty named Jolene and it was fun to sing to her. She didn’t mind my voice ;)
Comment by straybaby — August 8, 2008 @ 7:19 pm
Dorcas is good - so is Mariah and I have a partiality to Sorcha (Sorsha). I like the Gaelic names :-)
Comment by cheryl — August 8, 2008 @ 7:36 pm
Darcy, Selma, Esme, Clarice?
Comment by JenniferJ — August 8, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
Lavinia, Gertrude, Rebecca?
Comment by CarolPW — August 8, 2008 @ 8:16 pm
Greta
Olivia
Matilda
Penelope (this is a great chicken name!!)
Zelda
Millicent
Dorothy
Maisie
Florence
Henrietta
Winifred
Rosemary
Prudence
Eloise (you could mess with your mom with this one!)
Myrtle
Muriel
Lois
Comment by Sharon H — August 8, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
Gladys?
Comment by rose-aka the Drew fan club — August 8, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
I like Edith (after All In The Family) and Wanda (my maternal grandmother). Here’s a great list of the top 100 girl’s names from the 1920s:
http://www.momswhothink.com/ba.....1920s.html
Comment by Sheila — August 9, 2008 @ 12:42 am
martha
mabel
ruby
grace
Comment by laura — August 9, 2008 @ 2:45 am
I can’t believe you don’t have an Edna. :P
Others that come to mind are Pearl, Joy (my paternal grandma and great grandma ;P), Edith.
We had a therapy-visit lady that my corgi ADORED named Renaulda. :P I’ve always thought that was the funniest name. And my grandmother’s neighbor in her condo building is Geneva.
Comment by Cait — August 9, 2008 @ 6:00 am
The law enforcement story is scary. How do we protect our animals from THE POLICE? It’s that kind of story that really makes me wonder about the basic nature of man…
Comment by mikken — August 9, 2008 @ 7:00 am
My Mom-in-law: Mildred. I won’t tell if you decide to use it. ; )
Comment by slt — August 9, 2008 @ 8:45 am
I think one of them is also going to be Eulalie, as in Eulalie McKecknie Shinn, the mayor’s wife in “The Music Man.”
Nadine, Eulalie and … ?
These are some great old names to choose from!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — August 9, 2008 @ 9:20 am
Josephine or Sophie (Sophia).
Comment by Arlene — August 9, 2008 @ 9:53 am
Suggestions:
Martha
Abigail
Flossie (variation of Florence)
Erna
Hildegard
Comment by glock — August 9, 2008 @ 10:00 am
I just tried to think of the great busybodies. (Still looking at coop designs.) Eulalie will be one. Gladys, for Gladys Kravitz from “Bewitched.” I like Moneypenny. For old names, you just can’t beat Opal, Pearl and Ruby. They could get a bridge club going.
Comment by C.L.H — August 9, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
Pearl?
…after Pearl Lanser who is a retired school teacher who is over 100 years old. She told me long ago when at the end of the last day before summer vacation the teachers would go to the basement of their tiny country school and drink all the wine they had vined there during the year.
At over 100 years old, she has more pep and vitality than anyone I know of any age… always moving and socilizing and keeping up with things, maybe a trait chickens have?
Comment by rose-aka the Drew fan club — August 9, 2008 @ 5:28 pm
I like Flora.
Comment by Marcy — August 9, 2008 @ 9:05 pm
Grinning ear to ear here! Thanks! Wow! I’m truly so honored!
Russ’ mentor and friend for over 40 years, Francelia Goddard, an accomplished former children’s librarian, just celebrated her 101st birthday. She’s still sharp as a tack and an awesome woman. “Francelia” would be a most unusual name for a chicken … and the person Francelia would be delighted!
Russell just quipped that we could give her a paper certificate: The Spadafori Award for Chicken-ness.” It would positively make her day!
Or, since Nadine is a French name, how about all French names this time? I’ll have more name suggestions for you in the morning …
:)
Comment by Nadine L. — August 10, 2008 @ 12:12 am
Aline, Agnes, Amelie, Alexandrie, Antoinette, Bernadette, Blanche, Celine, Chantal, Claudine, Colette, Emmanuelle, Fabienne, Francoise, Frederique, Gabrielle, Genevieve, Geraldine, Gigi, Helene (pron. hel-en’), Iliane, Jacqueline, Josette, Juliette, Josephine, Lucie, Madeleine, Marguerite, Margaux, Martine, Nanette, Nicolette, Odette, Odile, Penelope, Simone, Suzette, Sylvie, Veronique, Yvette.
Comment by Nadine L. — August 10, 2008 @ 12:59 am
I like Flossie, Florence, and Francelia. :P (I do believe I may steal those, though, as soon as I figure what I’m ordering. I know mine will be really late summer chicks, but if I get them in early September, they’ll be grown before it gets TOO cold and I have NO place to put them till I get moved. :P)
Comment by Cait — August 10, 2008 @ 6:51 am
There was one of these dog shootings when officers went to the wrong address in my area a number of years ago. They had the wrong address - went into the front yard and the family dog came running around to see what was going on whereupon they shot him several times. The father - who had been in the midst of loading the kids into the car for an outing - came around when he heard the noise and almost got shot himself.
I attended public hearings about this which were set up in an effort to make the case that there are other things a police officer can do besides pulling out their gun when a dog was encountered. The police officials were - shall I say - less than receptive to the idea. They defended the idea that their officers had the right to respond with “appropriate force” when they felt threatened by an approaching dog. When offered training on dog body language so that they’d be less likely to overreact to normal dog behavior, their response was essentially that they had more important things to spend their time and resources on.
What I was most struck by was a sort of undercurrent of annoyance - that the police basically hated the idea that they EVER had to deal with the “inconvenience” of dogs while they were “trying to do their job”, and that the most expedient course of action was just to shoot the (insert expletive here) dog to get it out of the way so that they could get on with what they were doing.
I also sensed a lot of fear, which the police defended by citing the number of times they are threatened by dogs while doing their jobs - dogs that are often trained to behave this way by lawbreaking citizens. As is often the case, fear leads to anger, and so I also sensed anger - not only at the dogs that these non-dog-savvy police officers encountered - but anger at the idea that they had to justify their fear-based reaction of pulling out a gun to shoot the dog dead.
It’s a really unsettling psychological dynamic for a dog lover to be faced with.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — August 10, 2008 @ 6:56 am
Do you guys remember Miss Prissy from Looney Tunes? Always chasing Foghorn Leghorn. Reading Gina’s chicken posts makes me want some chickens of my own. If I ever do, definitely going to have a Miss Prissy.
http://www.petcaretips.net/miss-prissy.html
Comment by Shannon Watts — August 10, 2008 @ 1:31 pm