What's in a name?

MidnightMuse · Dec 28, 2006

As writers, we often agonize over finding the perfect name for our MC's, and sometimes even struggle with naming other characters in the stories. And I know as a pet owner, sometimes a name will just come to me, and sometimes I have to get to know the animal for a day or two before I can figure it out.

But often there's a story behind the names we pick, and I was curious to hear some of yours.

For instance: When I was out of college and living in Seattle, working at a veterinary clinic and living with my sister, we decided it was time to get kittens. It was surprisingly hard for me to make that commitment, since I was with animals every day at work, I wondered if I had the devotion and energy it was going to take to have them at home as well. As it happens, there was a movie out with a soundtrack that had lyrics by Bryan Ferry; Is Your Love Strong Enough.

I really loved that song.

So one day, we'd found this kitten in a shop and I picked her for myself, but my sister didn't find one she wanted. There I am, driving this kitten home in a little carrier, and she's crying away, when that tune comes on the radio. Suddenly this kitten is quiet as a church mouse, and she starts to purr.

So I had to name her Legend.

Well a week later, we find the perfect kitten for my sister and take her home. This one had a bobbed tail, only 3 vertebrae long (cutest thing you ever did see). It was clear what her name had to be. A Legend is a traditional tale, and a Fable is a short tale. Or tail, in this case

Which is how she became Fable.

Since we had a theme going, 6 years later their new brother became Muse and their new sister Figment (so thin, wispy, and a real speedy runner, she was a figment of the imagination!)

Now we have Rumor (he likes to talk) and Secret (who likes to talk until he realizes you're listening).

What about you?

alleycat · Dec 28, 2006

I can see I'm going to have to just make something up.

Back later with the very interesting story of how I came with the name Boots for a dog.

Cath · Jan 2, 2007

My first four cats were named after heroes - hence Shakespeare, Dickens, Ernie (Wise - comedian) and Sandy (Denny - singer/songwriter).

The last two we picked up from the cat shelter on New Year's Day 2000, so hubby insisted on calling one Millie (for the millennium, which I still dispute!) and my sense of humor got in the way, so I called the other one Schrodinger.

But now I want a dog - and I'm going to call it Ronnie (Barker - after another comedian).

Guess I should stop torturing them, huh?

oarsman · Jan 2, 2007

I took in a cat that one of my relatives no longer wanted. At first, the cat was scared of me. He got over the fear after a few days, mainly because I forced him to sit in my lap. Eventually, he got to point where he jumped into my lap whenever he had an opportunity. As he got older, I started to believe the cat was glued to my lap. He had a name before I got him, but I called him Velcro because once he got into my lap it was like peeling Velcro to get him off.

Unique · Jan 2, 2007

Sometimes names change. Goldie's name is still Goldie but I call her Ma'am.
Church was always Church; his name was Church when we got him. After Rain was born I started calling him Uncle Church. gee, am I too close to my cats or what?

nah. I like it that way.

MidnightMuse · Jan 2, 2007

Ahh yes, pet-names for the pet's names

For some reason we called Fable "Doobie" and Legend was more often than not "Boo-Bear." (go figure).

Muse was "my MuMu" while Figment got stuck with "Figgie-dee."

Rumor answers mostly to "Goober-buns" "Dipwad" and "Whiner-pants." while Secret comes to "SeeSee".

MMcC · Jan 2, 2007

For my writing, just a side note, I keep a very worn copy of BABY NAMES on my desk, which has names, their origin, and meanings.

For the animals in my life-- part of my spirituality is respecting them as family, not pets. Those that did/do not come with their own names tell me eventually what they want to be called.

The best of these was a ferret, Cosmo, short for The Cosmic Chicken. She slept in a circle, which represented the Cosmic Chicken (a circular argument such as 'which came first, the chicken or the egg?') and it suited her personality completely.

My current animal family includes Zarille (which is an angel of the desert wind), an Abyssinian cat, and a black Pug named Jeeves-- both came with my husband. My familiar is a Pug named Max (http://maxwellthepug.blogspot.com), who came with his name. He indicated that it was MAXWELL, not MAXIMILLION, or MAX... but will allow himself to be called Maxi or Max.

I won't do the horses and other critters we keep in the stable, since they belong to the entire family and many are temporary until somebody can rescue them.

Alex Bravo · Jan 2, 2007

We named my four-year-old son's pet fish, Belly-up, and um, that's what she did. Same with Belly-up the second. After that, I told him to give fish a break. (One day I came home and he was playing with Belly-up on the carpet. I told him she needed to stay in her bowl. The very next day, we had to get Belly-up the second!)

violetmuse · Jan 3, 2007

I picked up a stray kitten a few years back, a yellow tabby that was acting strangely - spinning in circles, scuttling backwards, jumping at things that weren't there. I took him to the vet, thinking he was ill and would have to be put down. He turned out to be perfectly healthy - but he'd been born with a missing or underdeveloped cerebellum, I think they said. Anyhow part of his brain wasn't functioning properly, which left him completely deaf, partially blind, and without a proper sense of balance. The vet said he'd be fine once he got used to his surroundings. He turned out to be a great cat, if a bit odd. I named him Jack because he just looked like a Jack to me.

Once Jack got used to his environment, he crept out of his hiding place and began to swagger about the house with an unbalanced gait. His eyes couldn't quite focus, so if he saw something he didn't recognize he'd stop and stare, his head bobbing as he tried to figure out what it was.

Six months after I brought Jack home, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean and realized that my cat Jack bore a startling resemblance, in his behavior, to one Captain Jack Sparrow.

I wish I could say I'd named him that on purpose.

Fern · Jan 3, 2007

We're really original around my house with pet names. The goat is "Goatie"; the beagle is "Puppy" and we used to have a poodle named "Poochie". The black mouth cur has a regular name but is called "Yellow Dog" more often than not and we also have a yellow cat who is often called "Big Yellow". You see the trend here. I'm guessing we wouldn't win any originality contests.

TheIT · Jan 3, 2007

I was about six when my family acquired our first cat, a little black kitten. My parents asked me what we should name her, and I immediately said, "Midnight." My brother's first comment was "I knew she would say that!" I mean, what other name would a six year old girl choose for an all black kitten?

So when we acquired our second cat, my parents asked my brother for a name. He suggested Fido, Rover, Butch, or Rex, and I chose Rex as being the least doglike. The name fit. He truly was a king among cats.

The first cats I owned on my own were a little more difficult to name. Tangle's name came from the twist in her tail. The tip curled into a very tight loop, so she was my kitty with a tangled tail. With her long black fur it looked like she had a short plume for a tail. Her "sister's" name, Snowfire, came from a variety of rose. Snowfire was a lynx point Siamese. As a kitten her body was almost white but her legs, tail, and face were striped brown, so she looked like singed snow.

AnnieColleen · Jan 3, 2007

My sister's the doggy person in our family, but both of her dogs have come pre-named from the shelter.

The first was a little fuzz-ball psycho (some kind of) terrier they called Billy Idol for a little puff of hair on top of his head -- Mom vetoed that, so he was just Billy or Billy-dog.

The current dog is an American Eskimo, big white fuzz-ball, named Patrick because he was brought in on St. Patrick's Day. The funny thing is we have a brother Patrick too, and they took to each other right away. The dog goes by Patrick-dog, Paddy, Paddy-whack, Fuzzy-bum, etc. (And he does tricks to the 'knick-knack paddy-whack rhyme.) The brother goes by Brother Patrick whenever there's a question of which one is meant.

CATastrophe · Jan 5, 2007

I love these stories! Names are so individual and personal. It's interesting to hear how the critters get named.

oarsman said:
...I called him Velcro because once he got into my lap it was like peeling Velcro to get him off.

That's how my Elmer got his name. He is all white and sticks to me like glue. His pound name was Snowy.

Lousy unimaginative name for a BOY. He loves his Elmer name and comes when I call him. It fits him perfectly.

violetmuse, that was a good story about Jack. He sounds precious! Elmer is a bit of a clutz and the dr. thought it was neurological or he'd been dropped on his head or some such.

Cerise is a fancy name for red. She's a ruddy Abby. The name fits her pretty good. She's as snooty as her name. :tongue

Aja is just a tubby tabby named for a Steely Dan song. I had originally wanted a Singapura and was going to name her Aja, but I decided I should give a pound kitty a home instead. So she got the name and oddly enough, it fits her, too.

Molly McMuffin came with her name although I tend to call her Molly-Lolly.

Frankie got his because he has pretty blue eyes - Frank Sinatra. Frankie Blue Eyes is his full name.

Cally is a calico. Easy!

endless · Jan 5, 2007

Our cats are Stanley and Freda. Why? Who knows. They seem to like those names and answer to them, so I can only guess that I got them right.

Seamus is our Irish wolfhound and we rescued him. We didn't name him -- his original owners did and we kept it because he knows it and it suits him.

Our Afghan hounds all have either Arabic, Hindu or Farsi names that are either proper names or descriptive ones. Except for Izzie, Jack and Nico. We didn't name Jack and Nico; they already knew these names when they arrived. Izzie's original name as Kissy and everyone hated it, including Izzie. When we got her, at six years of age, she happily answered to 'Izzie,' so Izzie she became.

We have Churra, whose name means 'herdsman' in Farsi, and Tashi, short for Atashi which means fire in Farsi. She's a red brindle. Then there is Durang, translated from Farsi to be 'two colors' because she's black and tan. Nilah is a grey blue and her name means 'blue' in Farsi.

MidnightMuse · Jan 7, 2007

Aww, I love all these name stories

I'm a sucker.

BlueBadger · Jan 17, 2007

My old German shepherd is named Rush. I don't know how many of you play video games, but there is a series called Mega Man, which is about a robot boy with a robot dog ... named Rush. Strangely, my mother chose the name, but it's a pretty awesome one.

When I moved out of the house, Rush got lonely (he was my dog) so my parents got another dog named "Bandit." Not very original, but my dad did the naming that time.

He's usually better at naming, though. When I was little, we had two cats named "Boz" and "Meg." Put together, those two words mean something very bad in Hungarian (which is my father's nationality).

As for the pets belonging to my husband and I, most of our names have double meanings. Our big black cat is "Dante," after Dante Hicks from Clerks as well as Dante the half-demon from Devil May Cry (and of course, the Dante's Inferno thing that ties into it).

We recently got a tiny tortoise-shell cat. I named her "Cammy", after the Street Fighter character who's very similar in personality and stature (slightly cranky, somewhat petite).

We have two rats: Ashley, who came with her name, and Fiver, who is not only small, nervous and frail, but also happened to be our fifth rat at the time.

DragonHeart · Jan 18, 2007

Chaos named himself. He found us when he was only about a year old, he had a collar but he was clearly a stray, so we took him in and he just never left. It took ages to figure his name out though cause we like our pets to have names that fit them. I don't know if it was the eating of the two frozen pork chops left on the counter or any number of other incidents, but eventually it was clear that his name is Chaos.

Unfortunately, he's done a very adequate job of living up to his name to this day.

~DragonHeart~

Soccer Mom · Jan 20, 2007

I love this thread. True name story. My most favorite dog ever was named Fred, from the group "Right Said Fred" who had the song "I'm too sexy for my shirt." Fred was a Jack Russell and the attitude just fit. I still miss the little rascal and my tribute is that every single story or novel I right has someone named Fred in it.

I frequently name characters in my stories after my pets.

Chumplet · Jan 20, 2007

Our first dog was a beagle named Kelly, but Dad renamed her Snoopy. Go figure.
My first dog as a grownup looked like a baby harp seal when she was a pup. I wanted an aboriginal name for her, so we visited a local Ojibway and he said to call her Quasanche which means Little Girl. I spelled it as close as I could to the pronounciation - it was a bit gutteral. Short form Quasi. She was great. She walked herself by holding the leash in her mouth, and learned to shut the front door when the cats pushed it open.

We got our first cat after we returned from a year in Spain, on a Saturday, so we called him Sabado, or Sabby for short. He acted like a dog.

Another cat got a Mik'maq name. He was a hellion, so we called him Gidgimidge which we were told meant Asshole.

Later came the golden retriever that ate our house - Jesse James. He ate the walls, the floors, the kitchen door handles, a tent... you get the picture.

Our current dog is Chester. We had a cat for fifteen years called Trixie, and I really wanted to get her a companion boy cat and name him Norton. After she passed, we got a long haired solid grey and named him Ridley.

My sister in law had two dogs named Hemingway and Shakespeare (Hemmy and Shaker).

BlueBadger · Jan 21, 2007

I always wanted two Scotties or Westies so I can name them Macbeth and Macduff.

sdarb · Jan 23, 2007

My husband is forever renaming our pets after he gets a sense of who they really "are". About six years ago my son brought home two puppies from the pound and announced he had named them Tahoe and Daisy. In less than two days my husband was calling them Fred and Zippy. So, they have a name, and a "call" name. If we were to yell "Tahoe" and "Daisy" for diner time they'd probably both turn around, looking the other way, to see who we were talking to!!

What's in a name?

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

alleycat

Still around

Cath

The mean one

oarsman

Salt water is the cure

Unique

Agent of Doom

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

MMcC

Alex Bravo

violetmuse

Fern

practical experience, FTW

TheIT

Infuriatingly Theoretical

AnnieColleen

Invisible Writer

CATastrophe

endless

Of course I'm listening....

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

BlueBadger

Knows notebooks can kill.

DragonHeart

Oerba Yun Fang

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

Chumplet

This hat is getting too hot

BlueBadger

Knows notebooks can kill.

sdarb

You want me to write what?