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Karlie, Anna, and Jasmine were all named by someone else before we adopted them. I loved their names and just kept them. I like that they have pretty girl names because, to me, they all are/were.

My first day on this site and I find this great subject!! WOW!!

We used to have a chicken named "Meow-Meow". My then 2 year old son kept asking for a chicken, or so I thought. He gave me the strangest look when I handed him the young hen. I didn't understand his confusion until he told me he was naming her "Meow-Meow"!! :-) For years she followed him around the yard like a puppy.

I had a rottie named Skilos, which is Greek for dog. He was an awesome friend. I miss him everyday.

Currently I have a seven year old mix breed that I brought home when he was two weeks old. He was taken in an abuse-neglect seizure. The baby wieghed four ounces and was very ill. My husband told me not to bring home any more animals. When I walked in with him in my hand, I told my husband I had something for him. My husband said it had better be a new gun (He is a shooter.) so I said it was a Remington. That is how he was named. Remie now weights 27 pounds and is spoiled rotten.

Dolly was named by my husband. He wanted a Rat Terrier. This puppy was neglected by the mom. I hand raised her from two weeks also. When she was able to walk, we found that she had problems with her back legs. When she was x-rayed we found out her back had been broken. But she is still our little Dolly.

My first dog was husky/lab and I was describing him to a friend and when I asked so guess what it is she said a bear, which he did resemble solid black and fluffly, so in order to be a little different I name him BAER, when he was about 9 years old I wanted to get him a companion and i really wanted a husky so months before i found her i knew her name was gonna be BLEU for my little blue eyed husky, well of course one of her eyes turned brown, but with a blue spot, did not matter i had my BLEU, so when Baer died Bleu needed a companion and once again long before i found him i had his named picked out, he was gonna be BONO after the lead singer of my favorite band U2, time went on and Bleu joined the rainbow, so now my new little girl is called Baileys. Bleu was my first pedigree so officials names from her on down are:
Baer - mutt
Baers Bleu Lady - pedigree name
Baers Bono Legacy - pedigree name
Bleus Irish Baileys - pedigre name
so my next husky though i hope it is not for a long long time as that means i loose one i have now, well i dont know what the name will be but i guarantee it will start with the letter B and have the previous dogs name in its pedigree as a memorial.

WoW!!!! Dee, this is my first visit back in forever as you know and what do I find - you have picked THE best topic ever for a journal entry - LOVE it!!! I have just read all the comments and am so thrilled for you that you have generated such a wonderful and entertaining journal - you are stepping to the forefront right where you belong,Girl:):)
So my 2 cents .... Becca - Original name was Black'nWhite - feral stray kitty arriving in middle of winter eating our stale bread crumbs and chips - would so not let us near her - fast forward April - kittens -9- and a very sick Momma cat who was trapped and hospitalized - when she came back to our home she needed to stay in a crate for meds - I was very determind NOT to keep her - little house already occupied .. anyway, I thought if I just called her Black'nWhite after her colors that I would not become so attached and we all know how that goes - so eventually Black became Bec became Becca became housecat became the queen of the house....
More on the big girls another time - bet everyone was glad to have a break from my wordy comments LOL. Very proud of you Dee - this is a great journal!

Hey, Deedee, still going strong with the names topic! I go to it and read all the new comments every time I sign on. I think you're getting close to beating the number of responses from the Million $ Makeover Site. You picked a winning topic, that's for sure! I love it!

Well this is a long story as I had the chance to help name our magnificent 7 at once. Daisy was named after her grandmother on her mother's side of the pedigree, that ones easy.
Little Bear just looked like a little bear when he was born, Inky so named because of all her spots, I once knew a dog named Penny and loved her, so, when ours came along she was given her Penny girl tag. Teddy was named because we had the Bear now we needed a Teddy too. Nicky is nicknamed for Nickle I don't know how we came up with that but I like Nicky better. Freddie was originally Freddie Waldo glad we dropped that! And Lucky was last to be born and wasn't breathing when he came out so Lucky just seemed to fit.

I already have future names picked out too.
Female...Cinnamon, Ginger and Nutmeg, my favorite spices

Male... Leonidas (from the movie about the spartans 300)
Davinci (love the art) and Darcy (from the movie Pride & Predjudice)

Wiggles Blue Heeler pretty much named himself. I knew how much he wiggled (the stumpy tail DOES wag the dog!), but was not wanting to give a boy dog a name that might seem feminine. For over a month I worried over what to name my precious Australian Cattle Dog / Blue Heeler, until "Wiggles" stuck to him and had obviously become his name! He's lived up to his name and is still wiggly to all, almost ten years later. He loves everyone and is mystified when people occasionally shy away from him because he's blind (that mystifies me, too) or simply are not doglovers. He's quiet, well-mannered, affectionate, and all the things I ever wanted in a dog, plus! ... He WIGGLES!!!!

I usually name my animals by their personalities after I have them for a short time. I call my Tabby cat MiMi because up until she was about a year old she would barely make a sound when she meowed except for a little "mi" sound. So I just affectionately started calling her that. My box turtle's name is Godzilla because when he walks, he mows everything over like the great zilla monster. Often times I would name my animals one thing but end up giving them nicknames that stuck because of these little personalities.

well i have a black lab retriever griffin wire hair and it is a girl and the hole family decided on koko or else if it was a boy i would like jimmy

When I was working at a vet someone brought in 2 kittens. At a certain age it's hard to tell the sex of kittens, so the owners said we'll just wait and see. Well the names stuck and their offical names became "Wait & See"

Hi there! I never had the priviledge to have children so I name my four legged children as though I had given them life! They always have a first and middle name: Daphnee Kathlene, Allison Katelinn, Adrienna Baylinn, Elleighe Kaziah, Zoeighe Sierra, Emilie Madison, Olivia Slayde, Priscilla Katherine, Briez Alexis, etc. I enjoy putting names together. It seems, when I first see each "child" a name comes to me. My Yorkie Poo, that I had to put down last year at age 18, had a name very fitting him: Elliot Grayson Fitzgerald! What a gentleman he was! Thanks for asking such a neat question. T

A girlfriend of mine named all her dog's after her favorite alcohol - Bailey, Blackjack and Jaggermeister (Jagger for short), so I thought this might be a good idea for our first dog together. I thought about Cabo, since we love margaritas, and we love Sammy Hagar, and our dog is a red tri Aussie - see the connection there with Sammy? Anyway, we then thought about our honeymoon in Las Vegas, and Margaritaville came to mind, so I started thinking Buffett, for the entire afternoon we spent at Jimmy Buffett's bar drinking and eating Cheeseburger's in Paradise. After that we started going on all tangents related to that Vegas vacation, so I just decided he needed to be called Vegas. Let me tell you - even before we met him, I was adamant that this would be his name, even though my husband insists you need to get to know a dog and it's personality. Well, this name fit's this dog and his personality to a T. He's been non-stop action since we have had him :)

I found my Abigail's (Abbey for short) name by searching a baby name website. I saw many names I loved, but ultimately and fairly quickly I found the one that fitted my little girl.

I've had, and have many different pets in my 50 years but my favorite naming was our "Rosie." My daughter found a kitten and upon finding out that she could keep it, named the cat Rosie. I've never been 100% accurate at looking under cat tails so I assumed it was a female. When I took her to be spayed, The vet pronounced that she was not a Rosie, but a a Roosevelt. Hence, the male cat that we continued to call Rosie. When Rosie was about 2 years old, he came into the house in great pain with a very distended abdomen. I rushed him to the vet. Numerous tests were done but the vet couldn't find anything. He thought he might have been hit by a car and fortunately only had some bruising and edema. hang in there....this story does come to a point. He was at the vet for 30 days and lost all of the hair on his body. The hair grew back but his penis fell off. So, he had a urinary catheter in and I had to take him to the Kitty Kat Hospital (yes, this is the name of it) in Pittsburgh for surgery. The vet there surgically changed him into a female cat and he lived that way for another 12 years. So, that's the story of Rosie, my gender challenged transvestite cat

The easiest way to name an animal is to think of a favorite show or movie.

I am a huge fan of Dukes of Hazard. Thats how I got the name Daisy and Bo for my chihuahua and dobie.

I just have to say Deedee this has been alot of fun reading all these stories.You had a great idea!

Well, Deedee, for the most part my animals have very simple names: Puppy (now 12 yrs old) was adopted through my vets when my then-teenage son worked there. They were calling him Puppy although even then he was a approximately 1 yr old, but the name stuck. My son said he answered to Puppy so that was that. So, cute, though, when I'm walking this big black Lab/Pit mix with his neighbor-friend, Slayer, a little white Westie Terrier. Then there's Kit-Kat, not because of the candy bar, but because my granddaughter couldn't say kitty cat. DJ, our cat who passed away a little over a year ago at 14, my son named when he was little because he wanted to be called by those initials when, in truth, his initials were TJ. We also had Bluto, our boxer, already named when we adopted him. My beloved Red (Irish setter, Golden retriever mix we think) was named because of his coat color. And, Friday, a cat we rescued as a mere kitty from our garage when his mother had been killed. My daughter actually named him 'King Friday the 13th' (a character on Mr. Rogers), but we also found him on Friday the 13th. So fitting. We also had Nipper whose name was pulled out of a bag of names; the name was very fitting for unfortunately he lived up to it. A cockatiel we had when we first married was Bird, simple name but so much character! When I was younger and living out west, a friend gave me a Great Dane which she named Brooklyn because that was where I originated. There were my childhood dogs, Duffy and Duchess, but truthfully I don't know how their names came about. Duffy my father named and Duchess was my first rescue. She was slight-built and such a sweet thing so the name was fitting. After looking this over, I suppose we have some original names in there, too. Gee, Deedee, you've brought me down Memory Lane with your question, and it feels good! Thank you for posting it; so much fun reading others answers, too.

When my brothers and I were little we always got to name our pets. And, when my Dad bought Buster for me as a present...I gave him a gift. He got to name him. Dad was so pleased....on his AKC papers it reads Sir Buster Brown Farris (my maiden name). It has always seemed to suit him. As a puppy he was a little Buster. And, it just seems proper that I had help naming him...he "belongs" to the whole family. Buster remains to be the only pet my Dad has ever named....he was the baby of his family growing up and never got to put his 2 cents worth in with 6 older brothers and 1 older sister. Buster is a Papa & Mamas' boy...there were many times before my children came along that Buster would decide to go for a visit to their house. When they were leaving my house, he would grab his duckie and head out the door with them and get in the car. He won't hardly leave his boys now to spend the night with them by himself....but, they do all go together every now and again.

As a child, I lived on a farm and we often had to "foster" farm animals that for one reason or another weren't being cared for by their mother--we had Billy the Goat, Porky the pig (and I believe a Petunia at some point) and Donald the Duck. Now that I am old, I am a little more discerning (I hope) in naming my friends. We lived in Italy for three years and adopted a kitten that a neighbor was going to drown. She was black and white so we named her Sale e Pepe (sal-eh eh pey pey) or salt and pepper and she was called Sal most of the time. My current cat is a rescue who came to me with the name "Little Buddy". My husband suggested that we change his name to Harry (as he was--and as he was no longer Little anything!) He responds to Harry just fine, but I still find myself greeting him when I come home from work at night and he meets me at the door with "Hey, Buddy, how's it goin" so I guess he just needed 2 names!

Great happy subject DeeDee! What I usually do is ask the animal if it has a name and if it likes that name. Then I get quiet and just listen. They usually tell me something, then when I do get the message I say it back to them and they will respond or not, it's pretty amazing and it has worked for me easily every time. Call me crazy.....but it works! When we adopted Rex from the shelter, they were calling him Skippy, and he did not like that name one little bit. So, I just asked him, what would you like your name to be? Michael, my husband was sitting right there..I said Rex? and Rex jumped into my lap and gave me kisses! It was amazing!

Well, where to start. My daughter has named most of the pets we have had. My little black Mikki, I guess you can say is her name sake being that her name is Michelle and her close friends call her Mikki (her familiar!!HaHA). Mr. Fluff was originally named "Fluffball" by my daughter as when he was born he was the only one that was a handfull of "fluff" in the litter, all the other had shorthair. He graduated from Fluffball to Fluffer and we decided to give him the respect he deserves as the ruling "King" of the house and he elevated to Mr. Fluff. Callie goes without saying, no imagination there! Buddy was a true Bud from day one of entering into the household. Bo was a "HoBo" that was shortened to "Bo", hense we have Big Bud and Little Bo. As to my 3 that are no longer with me, Frankie and Sebastian ALMOST had the names of "Motley" and "Crue" Michelle's favorite group at the time, I frowned on it as I didn't think it fit them and she agreed so she decided to name them after 2 members of the group, much better fitting names. The little rescue that we had for a short time was named Angel as she sssoo looked like an angel, pure white and the big blue eyes!. GREAT topic for a journal!!! A lighter side!

I named Chloe that because it was always my favorite little girl name, I did this though when I was in Highschool and never thought that someday I may want to name a real infant that! Miles named himself...I kept trying to name him after the place where I got him (River since we found him on one) and he would never come. Then one day some friends of mine were discussing a football coach with the last name Miles and he just perked up and started prancing around! That decided it for us and he was named! Overall, it does not really matter sometimes what we want to name them...they just end up naming themselves!

What a bunch of great stories!! I usually try to name them after a personality trait or something that happen to them. Bullet (Who's gone now) was shot by who knows and left to die. She was picked up by the city shelter and I adopted her when she was about a year old. Some people thought that was kind of twisted, but to me it was a reminder of how she survived. She like to play with other dogs so much we went back to the shelter and got Ammo. She was named to go with Bullet. Ammo is still going at 11 years. Both Ammo and Bullet are and were awesome dogs. Both became therapy dogs. Now I have Nitro and Cammy (Aka Camero) because I let my husband name them and he is a car nut. Hopefully they will be therapy dogs also.

I've always loved biblical and mythological names. My first kitty the shelter initially thought was a female because he's white with tabby spots so they thought he was a calico. I was going to name him Jezebel, but when I came to get him my friend who worked at the shelter said, "Well, Jezebel just came back from being neutered..." and gave me a meaningful look. I was on the phone with another friend and I told him I needed a new name. He told me he always liked the name Jinx so I went with it. My next kitty was female so we named her Jezebel. Our third cat was... abducted for us... he was a barn cat/stray. We decided to stay with the J names. We were going to call him Jupiter, but I was reading a book that has a character named Jasper and I liked that better. Once I get a dog I think I'll name her Layla, like the Eric Clapton song. :)

I also name my outside friends, at least the ones who are "regulars." Ophelia is a deer with one blind eye who comes up to the porch for treats. Job was a deer who got hit by a car and ended up with a wounded hind leg that had a joint which eventually ballooned to the size of a melon. We fed him carrots, apples, tomatoes, hay, and corn for about six months. At least he didn't starve to death and didn't have to haul his bad leg for miles every day. We're sure the coyotes served as his Angel of Death. There was Bozo, a baby robin who lived with us for about a month. We even gathered moths and bought worms for her! (She made it, by the way.) Last year there were Sundance and Butch, two little baby sparrows who would come in periodically at night, and hung out on the porch during the day. And now there's a ring dove who was attacked by magpie. The parakeets were booted out of their custom-made, large cage so that "Shirley" can recuperate. Anyway, every night I sing "Good Night, My Someone" to my parakeets and realized that the dove looked an awful lot like Shirley Jones. No, really, she does!!

DeeDee, this is a great idea for a topic. It is wonderful to read and participate in a zootoo activity that is NOT controversial, disgusting, depressing, offensive, or ridiculous. It is refreshing to get away from the Drama Club and the arguing for the sake of arguing. This is so much fun to read. Yes, that's it--this is FUN!!! We all need a little fun sometimes. THANK YOU!!

What a fun topic! When I was a kid I loved daffy duck, and when my parents got me a cute little poodle for my birthday the only name I could think of was Daffy. She was the sweetest dog and did everything with me. She had a great life and I still miss her. Then when I was a teenager I was obcessed with Teddy Bears, so when I got a Cocker Spaniel I named him Ted E. Bear. We called him Teddy or Ted. He was so much fun and became Mallory's protector when she was born. The ones I have today...Sugar and Spice (her sister) seemed like such the perfect names for them. Sugar is little, cuddly and just a doll..my mom has Spice and she is a reddish color, spunky and always happy to see you. When we make our trips to MS Sugar and Spice are always happy to see each other. My daughter Mallory actually came up with their names. Then along came Rex our yellow lab. My brother and sis in law called him buck short for buckshot (they are country people) but we didn't care for that name and he wasn't use to it yet....So on our 7 hour car trip home we let the boys name him, and they all agreed on T-Rex. Rex was still pretty much a puppy, a scared puppy, and did not look the least bit terrifying but that's the name they chose so he is now Rex....Nacho came to me with that name and there was no way I was changing it. As soon as I saw the advertisement with his picture and name I knew I wanted him. He is also known as Prince Nacho from time to time as well. Cali our cat is pretty simple, she's a calico so it seemed appropiate. My son also has fish named fireball and gumdrop. He has named so many different things fireball-its sort of funny. Don't tell anyone, but I am thinking of adopting another dog.....still working on the husband about it-but his name is Elvis and he is ADORABLE!

I don't know, well, I guess I do. First, we determine which names 'feel right' then pick the one we can imagine saying over and over and over again.
I wanted to name my cat Oliver, but we chose Coopurr. xD

Wonderful topic, deedee! Let's see...Karma is just that. A friend suggested the name so that when she was bad, I could say Bad Karma, Bad Karma, but she's never been anything but good Karma for me. She's a wonderfully gentle, loving, intelligent girl. Her kids are named Liam (short for William) because he was the first born and is very regal and dominant, but at the same time very sweet and gentle. He's a big boy and sometimes looks like a miniature collie or a pony! Duke is just a giant ham. He got named Duke because he walks like John Wayne. A definite swagger in those hips. He's a mama's boy through and through. Cinnamon (CiCi) is a tiny little petite thing. She is all shades of red and and brown and the name fit. I swore sometimes she even smelled like the famous spice. I sometimes sing Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" to her and she just goes nuts and rolls around on the floor.

What a great topic!
Okay, Junior- we thought she was a he and "he" looked just like the cat we highly suspect to be her dad. She knew her name in about 5 minutes so would not change it. Her sister is Rooti because I kept calling her Rooti Tooti.
Norma was originally Zena. I had Zak (mischief maker who was poisoned) and Zoe (beautiful cat who just disappeared and I suspect dogs) and so I chose Zena and changed it to a Z to match the others. She is now Norma because she is still feral and crazy (bless her heart). I named her after Norman Bates in Psycho and I do love her as much as she will let me.
Shadow was named by the people who were going to adopt him. Shadow bonded with me and I had nothing to do with it. I was going to keep his brother. When the people came to get him, they saw the bond and that was that. He is definitely all mne. He is a Russian Blue so he is sort of like a shadow so I just kept the name. Besides, he knew his name.
Mickey, his brother, is white with black ears and tail. Mickey just seemed to fit. I really don't know where the Doolittle came from but he knows when I say "Mickey Dooilttle" he is not in trouble and it calms him so I kept it. He was feral until I had to give him medicine. After that he was my pal.
Precious was just so small and adorable and my grandson kept saying how precious she was so it stuck. She's still precious but not so small any more. LOL
She had two brothers who succumbed to the food poisoning mess. I kept the three of them because they were all black and I had recently learned they are very hard to adopt and get euthanized a lot so that was that. Malcolm was her big brother and that name just seemed to fit him. Casanova was my little love. He was a ball of black fluff with orange eyes. When I worked he would jump up in my lap, jump up and look me square in the eyes with his orange eyes. He would kiss my cheek,turn around and sit down in my lap. He would put his little paws on my wrist pad and you could see his head move as he watched me type. He was my little love.
Sassy ran in from the outside. He was feral and had stripes and spots. I would have changed his name to Ali or Rocky because he got to know me by boxing with me when I would put my hand out. He was beautiful and healthy as could be. He was the first one I lost so I never got to change his name.
Sugar is my old lady. She is about 18 and was snow white when little. I guess she is Himalayan as she is like a long haired Siamese and not so white but the name stuck.
They all know their names so they are stuck with them.
Gabriel Gray is a gray and white tuxedo with long, lanky back legs. He's a mess.
You know how Pepe got his name from my journal.
Mamacita is the mother of Junior and Rooti. One of the Outsiders is Lil'Momma so I named her Mamacita. In my ignorance I thought I could find homes for most of the rescues and she would get a better name. Little did I know......
Anyway, Mamacita is adorable and a tiny thing. She is a mostly black, black and white tuxie with white whiskers and green eyes. Tiny, tiny little head and very loving now. I can say Maaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaaa in a drawn out falsetto and she comes a-running.
Another Outsider is Chynna because she is tiny and fragile. The "woman" responsible for the cat problem called her Spot (whatever). She is the mother of Zak, Zena and Zoe. The one who brought her down is Charlie because he has a little moustache so he is named after Charlie Chaplin and the one we suspect is Junior's dad. Charlie brought a very pregnant