How did you pick their name?

It's true, but I still don't think I'm that old nor you that young for him to have it "growing up" 11 years ago.
Please don't say I'm that old LOL.

2004 was actually his junior year and the year the Fighting Illini went to the NCAA championships. His last year in college was 2005 and he was briefly in the NBA before he went overseas to play. Still plays overseas last I checked! But not a name most people know outside of Illini Nation.

Emily - Was named by a 13 year old me. My mom wanted to call her Ginger (because orangey-red fur). I hated it. I got her name from a white and red pit bull off of The Dog Whisper. I do not like this name at all. I have no idea why I named her that. I dislike human names for most animals. I guess it fits her... She was Holly by her breeder (my uncle) before coming to me.

Bayleigh - She was surrendered to the shelter as Angel. I have a cat named Angel. I was taking her home to foster and could not have two animals with the same name. The shelter director told me to choose a new name and the first thing that came to mind was Gremlin because that's what she looked like. I loved the name. I took her home and three days later made the adoption official. My family hated the name Gremlin and I was pressured to change it. I'm not sure how I ended up with Bayleigh. I do really like the name still. I opted for a different spelling than the normal Bailey. It feels more feminine to me. Gremlin fit her perfectly though. She's a crazy, little, evil dog. Her Canine Partners name is Baby Werewolf. It absolutely fits. When she's scruffy she kind of looks like Michael J Fox in Teen Wolf. lol

Pirate - When I was in the 6th grade, I did a report on pirate flags. I learned they were called Jolly Rogers and I thought that would be a great name for my first show dog, Pirate being the call name. Fast forward 9ish years and I did use it for my first show dog. I've always been in love with it and I still am three years later! I think it fits him. His litter name was Male 7, so he didn't really have anything else. He was Pirate from the moment I knew he was mine. Pirate seems to be getting more common as a pet name. I didn't know any when I came up with it but now I know of at least five different Pirates. lol

Penny - She's technically my aunt's dog. We live together but when it comes to the animals, I'm kind of controlling. We couldn't settle on a name for what seems like forever! She was Piper, Pepper, Paisley, and I don't remember what else. (I think we must have a thing for "P" names). Penny came up while we were watching The Big Bang Theory. I like it and I do think it fits her. She was an owner rehome and we did not ask them what her name was before. She was a mess and we just wanted her out of that situation. Her PAL name is Littlest Wolf. She was the smallest until we got Gremlin. lol Wolf to go along with Bayleigh's registered name. Also a reference to The Originals because I LOVE that show!

Gremlin - She was also an owner rehome. She was called Diva at her old home. It did not fit her at all. If you remember, above I had named Bayleigh Gremlin originally. I regret so much that I didn't keep that name for her. Gremlin is pretty much Bayleigh's clone in every possible way. It fits her well and I'm so happy that I finally used the name. If I ever get her AKC registered, it will be Death by Chocolate. She's a chocolate (red) Yorkie. It's an off color and frowned upon. They're supposed to be purebred but I don't know how I feel about that. The traditional Yorkie people say no, the color breeders say yes. I'm just not sure. Anyhow, I think it's a fitting registered name. lol She was Wicked for a while because that's what I was going to name my Standard Poodle. Little miss Gremlin interrupted those poodle plans...



I have an enormous favorite names list. My next male will likely be Banjo and my next female APBT will be Siren or Scarlett. Cowboy and Dillinger are next up on the male list and Gemma and Wicked are on the female list depending on breed.

There's no real story. They were all just names found while browsing the internet.

For Juno, that was the only name the whole family could agree on liking, interestingly enough the name Cajun made it on that short list but only my brother and I liked it. we actually really wanted to name her Cajun. Magic was another one we had on the list.

Somewhere deep down my mom must have secretly liked the name Cajun too and held onto it for the next few years. I don't really think she seriously considered any other names at all for her dobe.

With Lucy, I remember we had tossed around a bunch of different names but none of them were sounding right for her. I did not like the name Lucy at all but could admit that something about it just seemed to fit, so we went with it.

I think their names fit them. I guess everyone kind of says this but I really can't imagine calling them anything else.

Blue was originally called Bo, first picture I saw of him he looked sad so I named him Blue. I kinda wanted to keep with the color theme with dog 2, Smkies suggestion of Verde won out, so I had my green dog. I still wanted to keep the color theme with the new dog but nothing seemed to work. I looked at her the second or third, may have been the first night and said " you look like a Lucy".

Well I was a young teenager 11 years ago, and he's 2 years younger than me, so he was still a middle school aged kid Haha I don't think you're that much older than me, 11 years is a long time!!

ETA: and SO follows NCAA basketball probably closer than then NBA, and probably did back then too.

She just looked like a Xena to us. Cute as hell but mess with her at your peril.

With laika her name was mushu for all of 10 hours but family have me crap about it. . so then it was maddelynn but my cousin used it for her tiny human so I had to switch it.. She then became laika.. It fits her much better I mostly call her bug tho lol
Sirius was sitkah but sitkah and Laika was to close together plus Harry potter so Sirius it is

My husband named my first 3 Border Collies I had an as adult, they were Maddie (named after Maddisons Road where we lived at the time), KC (named for the brand of spotlights he had just put on his truck), and Gael (as her parents were imported from Scotland). He is very practical. As far as I was concerned he could name then what he liked as long as I was allowed a puppy.

Scout who is my husband's dog, I had that name planned for a female BC for years (From "To Kill a Mockingbird") but it suited the wee Brittany pup so much I was willing to lose it from the top of my "future BC names list".

Kep is short for "Kepler" and he is named after Keplers Track which is a beautiful multiday hike in the south of New Zealand, which is in turn named after the Astronomer, hence his reg name "Kepler's Mission".

All my cats bar the current ones have been adult rehomes and I just kept their names!

Liz came as Liz (at four years old and a finished grand, so I wouldn't have been able to change her papers anyway...). It just fits her...

Keena roughly translates to "brave" or something to that effect in Gaelic (no, iPhone, not garlic!) and she was my husbands service dog (he named her).

Rage was originally Ava, then Jade when I bought her. My ex and I got in a fight once and he yelled, "I'm naming your next dog Katie's infinite rage!!!!" It sent me into a fit of giggles, and she was named before I even saw her. Plus it was close enough to Jade so as not to confuse her more

Bruce I originally wanted to call Fox. I was told that was too common for a pom. My husband just started throwing names at him and Bruce stuck. Still not sure how I feel about it.

Daisy was Daisy (Duke) before I got her.

ETA: Swagger was going to be Cocaine Carl (he was white when I bought him) but Andy vetoed it, so I went with Swagger. Which he also hated, but I told him it was that or Cocaine Carl

Venice's name at the shelter was Pooh. Nopenopenope.

I think my boyfriend came up with her name - after the RHCP song Venice Queen.
But it worked on a couple levels because my last dog who died the winter before was named Lucca (also an Italian city) so bam, continuity.

My first dog growing up that I named was named Princess Diana. Because I was 7 and thought it was perfect. She didn't have a name before, we brought her home at 8 weeks.

I got a walker coonhound when I was 11 to train and taking hunting with my dad and his dogs. I named him Old Dan after the dogs in the book "Where the Red Fern Grows." I think the "breeder" had a nickname for him but I can't remember what it was.

Hugo was "Prince" at the shelter. We went in wanting to name him Hugo because be fiance loved that name. She thought it was the perfect dog name after hearing it when I worked with a guy named Hugo at Pizza Hut in college, lol. I actually ended up really liking the name Prince (and it reminding my of my Princess girl!) so when we registered him with Canine Partners we made his registered name "Prince Hugo Enneking."