Pet Names
73Naming Pets
How to Choose a Pet Name
When trying to decide upon a name for your new pet, you may hit a rock. A name can involve different things in which you may want to accomplish.
- Do you want to give your pet a majestic name? Royal? Ancient? Mythological?
- Do you want to match personality with the name of you pet?
- Do you want to give your pet a name that will show some kind of status? I.E. do you want the name to express something to others who may hear the name and see the pet (naming bully breed dogs tough names).
You may want to just find something that you like to suit your pet. The problem is how to choose the right name...
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Popular Pet Names
- Parenthood Baby Names
On ParentHood, you can input a name to find the meaning, or my favorite, you can input a meaning and hopefully find a name. Do an advanced search, specifying only male or female names, first letter, and origin. - goReptiles- Name List
Find and alphabetical listing of various names from A-Z. The names are differentiated between male and female with an 'M' or an 'F'. - Pet Names
Browse by alphabet and find names with their meaning, origin, and gender. You can even add your own names to the list. - Popular Pet Names
Find a listing of the top dog and cat names in the United States. The names were compiled by the Veterinary Pet Insurance Company.
Group or Pair Names
Choosing a Pet Name
When you are taking on the great task of picking a name for your pet, you will want to keep in mind some of the following rules.
Keep it Short and Sweet- Short names of one or two syllables usually work best, and it's wise to avoid names that could be confused with commands. If you are naming a pet that is not trainable (reptiles, fish, hamsters, etc.), the length of the name is not as big a concern.
Personality Comes into Play- Try spending some time with your new pet, getting to know the personality and traits before you decide upon a name. Sometimes the pet's behavior, personality, or appearance will suggest a name. Example being a shy pet may not call for a powerful name such as Zeus or Cain; an aggressive dog just may not be a Fluffy.
Popular vs Unique Name- Many times over popular names for pets such as Sam, Max, Lady, Maggie, and Buddy, may not be quite what you're looking for. You may want to consider a more unique name such as your favorite character in a book, movie, or television show. You may, also, want to consider historical figures and mythological characters, just as you may consider your favorite team, food or drink, song, color, or car. You may even want to take into consideration the origin of the pet or breed; an example being Olga for a Russian Wolfhound or Yung-Qu (Yun-Chi) for a Pug, a breed originating in China.
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Unique Pet Names
- Pet's Name
Find a name for your new pet by searching this site for various dog, cat, and other pet names. Find unique and popular names. - Fun Pet Names
Find various pet names ranging from celebrity pet names, common pet names, cute names, famous names, funny names, unique and unusual names, and Disney pet names. Even search for names by country. - Original Pet Names
Find a listing of original pet names contributed by people like you! - 4,000 Pet Names
Find over 4,000 names that may suit your fancy. Find a few tips and an alphabetical listing of pet names.
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I want to get a miniature schnauzer male, and name him Mungo. In gaelic it mens "my wolf", and in celtic it means "lovable" :D
Hi Whitney - what a lovely name you have!! You're right short name is best, especially for dogs - you've seen my westie Dougie - chose his name from Douglas being a Scottish name - he knew his name within 3 days as a 5 wk old pup. Great hub!
those are some great tips for naming pets - we tend to spend a little time with ours as you suggest so that the name that best suits them will pop into mind :)
It's handy to have some references to get more ideas though, we are not terribly original with ours at the moment lol
Good Stuff! I just recently got a guinea pig and named him Mohawk (Mo for short). He's pretty crazy just like his hair!
Also, how is it with a chinchilla? I've always thought it would be cool to have one.
i really really want a puppy/dog. I've been looking at Rough Collies, Shetland Sheepdogs and Hungarian Vizsla's currently.
If I get one, for a girl it will be named Elly, and a boy, Walker.
I named my pug sasha im sorry i havnt responded earlier i was very buse sorry!
Thanks Susan. I thought my boyfriend was going to kill her. He wanted to set the house on fire, but then she moved out, so there was no point. Haha. He wouldn't have done it anyway...He'll always be Chance to me... I got his name tattooed on my wrist and an APBT on my back all for him. :-\
That's sad. :( I'm not so kind as you though, I would've thrown a hundred venomous snakes at your boyfriend's friend! Hehe. :P I hope Chance (or whatever his name is now) is in the hands of a good family. :)
Very true. I've heard of stories where a family member gets a bully breed dog and everyone treats the dog as though it's going to grow up and attack, so one day it does. Granted there was more to that story than thatbut you get the idea. Treat a dog one way expecting a behavior to happen and the behavior will.
Why?- because he is an American Pit Bull Terrier. Who- some black guy, then he sold him. Other than that nothing. Some 10 year old told us that , but we couldn't ever get back in touch with the kid to take us to the guy's house to find out who bought him. A friend of my boyfriend's was babysitting and she left him outside, which she was told not to do by everyone. If I could I'd kill her.. Ha... I cried myself to sleep for over 6 months, till I realized the only want to get over the loss was to get another dog.
I have no idea which grew to fit what, but my guess is that it has something to do with psychological reinforcement. Like when you keep saying that a child is naughty in front of the child, the naughtiness gets reinforced? Maybe animals are the same. :D
I had a kitten who went missing in action too not so long ago. She simply vanished without a trace. No signs of anything. :( Somebody stole Chance? Did you ever find out who or why? :O
Susan, does the name grow to fit the personality or did the personality grow to fit the name? In many cases, people find little nuances in the personality of children and pets that seem to fit the name years down the line.
I usually have a name picked out before I get the dog for one reason or another. MIA is named such because my of APBT was stolen, so he went M.I.A. Codie was named because I heard the name on TV and liked it. Chance (the APBT who went M.I.A.) was named as such because he had a severe heart murmur and we decided to give him a chance.
But, then my parent's have a dalmatian named Zabu, who was Max for a few days.
Cute story about Princeton. That's kind of weird.
I tend to name animals the first name that comes to my mind when I first see them. And oddly enough, the name I give them seems to fit their personalities when they grow up. :p
Just wanted to share: We had a cute little white dog with a brown patch around one eye when I was little. My father named him Princeton for reasons unknown. Years after the dog and my father died, I met a man who is now my fiance - his name is Princeton. :D
I'm glad it helped you. What did you name your pug?
Thats very helpful it helped me name my pug.
Very ironic MM. I had a friend who wanted to get a cat and name it Ferocious and a APBT and name it Kitty.
My sister have a chihuahua- very little cute dog and she named him Jumbo.
I recall stressing way too much about our dog names. Finally, we started saying names that we liked until they responded to one. It worked, the names they chose fit them to a T. Good hub.
Cute Hub THanks for sharing this
This is a reply to Krista's request for help naming her wombat, but when I tried to respond on that page, I kept getting asked for my username and password which I haven't set up on this site. I'll figure that out later. Krista, I wasn't even sure what a wombat was, but I sure know a ragdoll when I see one! She's beautiful. I have a beautiful bi-color seal point named Sophie. When I brought her home from the local SPCA, I dug out my books on baby names and found some interesting ones from The New Age Baby Name Book by Sue Browder. In the end, though, we went with Sophie which suits her just fine--beautiful, gentle, loving, playful--and sounds nice with my other cat, Shadow. We almost called her Lily, so sometimes we call her Sophie-Lily, and someone stuck Rose on the end too. Back to the wombat - is it male or female? nocturnal? what is its personality like? Its characteristics might point you to a name. A few I liked from the book I mentioned above are: Zuri (Swahili, means "beautiful"); Sen (Japanese, means "wood fairy"); and Nisse, pronounced NIS-suh, (Scandanavian, means "friendly elf"). There was another which I don't remember and can't find whose meaning was "to know her is to pet her". Good luck finding the perfect name!
Thank you!
Krista I hope it helps. Let me know what you decide to name your wombat.
LOL! Well done.
Thankyou Whitney this will really help!!!
Simone 4 months ago
And btw, im from Denmark (scandinavia), and Nisse is a kind of elf, we only use them in December.
I would like to train mungo on english, (good dog, down sit and so on), and i think it will be a fun thing to do, especially because i lived in america in my childhood:)