I have two dogs at present, Rosie and Buster. My son's cat is named Midna, after a character in a Legend of Zelda game, I think. Growing up I had
Julius, a chicken with some physical impairment issues. If I hadn't saved her (we weren't sure of her gender until long after I named her) she would have died. She knew her name and would come to sit on my lap or let me carry her around.
Andromeda, an Angus-Brahma mix cow. Her mother had been a bottle-feeding project and was really tame. Andromeda just sort of accepted me and would always come to stand by me when I was feeding our cattle. She would also try to play by butting me and knocking me down. Then she'd lick my head.
Mutt, the best dog that ever lived.
Bootzkatt, a large, long-haired grey tabby who would pry open the screen doors at night (in summer we often slept with the doors open, only a screen door to keep the wild critters out). He was always bringing me "presents". Many were the mornings I woke up with a dead chipmunk or bird next to me in bed.
Waffle, a cat whose fur actually had a sort of pinkish tint to it.
Dan, a horse that tried to run everything ever out of his pasture. He gave up trying to chase the chickens out, but anything or anyone else was fair game.
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This is a fun one. First decide if you want to use a people name (my family’s tradition) or a cool animal names. For a dog, you want to start with a nice hard consonant like B, D, G, or K; then a vowel that you can yell at top volume, since someday you will. Another consonant, obviously, and wrap it up with a vowel like ‘ee’ or ‘oh’ or ‘ah.’
Something like these: Kira (Keerah), Bentley, Bella, etc.
Interestingly, both Xenophon (4th century BCE) and Columella (1st century CE) agreed on short names. I would disagree that it needs to end in a vowel, it's easy to drop the last letter when yelling (or soften it after lengthening the vowel).
I'd also add that a lot of two syllable Greek and Roman words/names make good dog names.
Many years ago, several roommates and I adopted a dog from a shelter and his name was Clarence. The dog was extremely sad. One of the roommates wanted to name him Tidus (we were playing FFX at the time). I felt that the dog needed more dignity than that, so we named him Titus, after the Roman emperor.
Another method I like is to do a google search for foreign words. Pick the word you want in English, and look up the translation in multiple languages. Then pick the one you want to use. Currently, my black dog is named Cenka (Serbian for shadow). He isn't quiet like one, but he does stick pretty close.
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I like to give animals their title.
Cat: Mouser or Pounce
Dog: Dunno yet, haven't a job for a dog at this point. Maybe Wing, or something along the lines of chicken guardian in the future.
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In my family, we have a tradition...
The names are usually insulting, weird, or hard to explain.
First dog I remember as a child was a creature named Face. Her brother was Son Of. Prior to that, my dad's dog was Worm, and Uncle Robbie had a dog name Slime.
Other dog names spread across the non-immediate family have included such social delights as Moon Eggplant, Sundog Pest, Commissioner Slea, Omah, Foxy, Wanda Weaselpig, and, of course, the legendary and fearsome Petie.
Since then, we've had a dog I named Bomber when I was six, his sister Buttercup, and the least intelligent vertebrate I've ever met, a chocolate lab formally named Carmen, but almost always called The Doopster.
Cats have included Mao Ling, Stormy, and one that was named Oreo by the people who dumped her at the shelter and who actually seemed to respond to her name, so we were stuck with it.
My current dog is named Nookie, largely because I thought it was hilarious after reading it as a dog name in a book. "Nooks" is a socially acceptable shorthand, and she also has numerous nicknames which, being a blue heeler, she's smart enough not to learn, and just wiggles at the tone we use when calling her things like "goblinface," "monsterpig," "weaselrat," "slimehead," and so forth.
We generally don't worry about specific vowel or consonant sounds. Cats and dogs both hear far better than humans do. If they know their name, they respond to it.
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We're kinda lazy and uncreative when it comes to names in my family, so we never had names that were anywhere near as inventive as some of the other stuff in this thread.
My first memory of a pet was a beagle named Patches, followed by a chow mix named Cheyenne. When we moved from that house we were petless for several years. When we did eventually end up with one again, we started with a dalmatian mix named Bandit (he had a large black splotch over his eyes like a stereotypical western bandit mask), a terrier mix named Nutmeg or Meg for short (because of her brown color), another dalmatian mix named Sweetie (adopted with the name), and a stray blue heeler mix named Hunter (by one of my high school friends, who said he looked like he was hunting for something the way he ran around the yard).
We got cats as well, due to a mouse problem called "living in rural Texas", picking up Rayas (Spanish for "stripes" according to my mother) who eventually had five kittens - Tiger (orange and white striped), Salem, Salema (both black), Punkin (orange), and Canosa (grey striped, spanish for "grey hair" according to someone I don't remember) - before we finally got her fixed. Rayas, Salem, and Punkin all died in various incidents and Canosa went feral after never really bonding with us humans.
When my parents moved from Texas to Tennessee, Meg, Sweetie, Hunter, Tiger, and Salema were still with us, though Meg passed shortly after the move and Sweetie was given away to a new home after she became aggressive with Hunter. The cats were likewise eventually given away due to parents' allergies.
Eventually my sister adopted Ranger, a corgi-collie mix, and my parents got a pair of boxers for one of their anniversaries, Brutus and Bridgette. They would later adopt another boxer, Katie, who passed a few months later, and a boxer-lab mix named Ace (yes, after Batman's dog). Meanwhile I lived in an apartment by myself for a couple years before finances forced me to move back in with my parents, during which I had a pair of cats, Leliana and Eclaire, who I unfortunately had to return to the shelter when I lost the apartment.
Then several years later I moved out and here to Kansas, and Scint and I adopted a boxer-pit puppy named Sophie.
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<chews on forum>
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My favorite animal names came from my grandmother's farm. Some she named with French words, some just had people-names (Shawn, the horse, Andy, the llama). And then she would get silly. She had various Vietnamese pot-belly pigs back when those were popular in the '80s, and named them after Soviet premieres, so we had Gorbachev, Brezhnev and Andropov, IIRC.
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I have a lab called Fafhrd. Yet to get a cat though to complete the pair.
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One of my dogs, Rosie, passed away February 7, 2021, one week shy of her twelfth birthday. I still have Buster, who is now eleven, but his health is in a pretty rapid decline. I have a cat now, who just turned a year old, and her name is Poppet, aka Pops, Popcat, Poptart, The Cat, Get Down From There and GET THE **** DOWN FROM THERE, DAMMIT!
I don't know if I'll get another dog after Buster passes. I want one, but my own health is beginning its own downhill run and I don't want to leave behind a pet if I pass before it does (I already have one with Poppet). But I love dogs, so I just don't know. What I DO know is if I get another dog and if it's a male, I'm gonna name him QeylIS regardless of his breed or temperment...lol
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Do the rest of you have multiple names for your cats/pets, or is it just the humans I know?
For example, when our latest stray started showing up post-Ian, I started calling him Croak Monsieur because of his creaky voice (which turns out he only uses when he can't find anyone, otherwise he uses normal sounding meows), and Dad was calling him Meow Meow. But after he warmed up to us and revealed his loveable goofball nature, I started calling him Ricky Bobby (it was either that or Frank the Tank) and Dad has been calling him Fonzi, Fluffy, and Bailey (the name actually registered for him now). But often none of those names are first to come to mind, so I've also been calling him The Big Meowski, Ned Nederlander (from his habit of leaping off the roof in front of you without advance warning), Boober/Uncle Boober, Mr. Winklebeans, MeowMeowBeans, and Floof of Earl.
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I wanted to re-name our loud deaf rescue Helen Yeller.
I was over-ruled.
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Do the rest of you have multiple names for your cats/pets, or is it just the humans I know?
For example, when our latest stray started showing up post-Ian, I started calling him Croak Monsieur because of his creaky voice (which turns out he only uses when he can't find anyone, otherwise he uses normal sounding meows), and Dad was calling him Meow Meow. But after he warmed up to us and revealed his loveable goofball nature, I started calling him Ricky Bobby (it was either that or Frank the Tank) and Dad has been calling him Fonzi, Fluffy, and Bailey (the name actually registered for him now). But often none of those names are first to come to mind, so I've also been calling him The Big Meowski, Ned Nederlander (from his habit of leaping off the roof in front of you without advance warning), Boober/Uncle Boober, Mr. Winklebeans, MeowMeowBeans, and Floof of Earl.
I guess my pets have nicknames instead of other "proper" names. The cat, Poppet, is called at various times Pops, Popcat, Poptart, Poppy Cat, Get Off That, and G**dammit Get Off That!
My dog, Buster, is Buster Rhymes, Buster Brown, Silly Old Dog, (he's 12), and Buster Boy.