My daughter named our current dog (and did a good job at it).

I named our previous dog after the little girl’s imaginary kangaroo in the movie Chocolat.

My dog was already named and I didn’t like the name, but wanted something similar to it so she wouldn’t be too confused.

My mom named her cat Hunter, because she got him to hunt mice.

My husband named our current dog. We were joking around about Spot and the Latin for Marked with a spot was Macula Notare so thet was his name. We just call him Mackie though.

Our greyhound we named Kobe (after Kobe Bryant because he’s tall), and because we wanted something similar to his given name which was Kebo.

One cat, which I didn’t want to keep, I named the name my wife didn’t want our daughter to have. It didn’t work, that cat is still there.

Another, I did the old “Open book, point finger, that’s the name.” Hobb. Worked well. The rest all came pre-named. Our first assignment of an original name went to our daughter.

We had decided our dog would be named Snooter even before we went to the shelter to find one. We pictured a bouncy, happy-go-lucky, funny looking thing.

We fell in love (more like in pity) with a gorgeous, skinny, depressed, Eyore-ish mutt we kept calling Sad Dog. We needed a real name for her, and she was so not a Snooter. The lady at the shelter suggested Sadie, which means Princess in Hebrew. Since her mama is Jewish, we went for it. She’s a total Sadie.

@noelle- I love people names for dogs too! We’re thinking our next one will be Bill or Eugene or something.

My family named our cat oscar , im not sure why but my dad found him in a burnt down farm and brought him home, as soon as my mom saw him she just knew that oscar was the right name :)

I have a pug named Mogwai after the characters in the movie “Gremlins”. He really does look similar.
And I have a calico cat who is three different colors so I named her Delirium after a character in Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” series. Delirium can’t stay the same color.
It helps that my cat is also completely insane.

Last year I found a wandering dog and brought him home. Not knowing what to call him I just started rattling off some names to get a rise out of him. He looks like a small orange German Shepard so I called him “Rusty” and he jumped to his feet so it looks like I hit on it. Going by his color I suppose it was a no brainer.

Our little cat is called “Gatito”, which means… well, little cat.

I don’t even have to explain why we chose that, do I?

We made a list of names that would be fitting for our jumbo cat….it was a hilarious list….Floyd, Simon, Barry, Maurice, and about 20 more…in the end he really just seemed to personify “Barry” best….and the rest is histiory!

One of my cats is named after my brother in law.My dog shares my sister in law’s middle name and my fish are named after whoever asks what their names are.;)

Dakota was a year old when we got her, so her name came with her…it’s a good name for a white German Shepherd.

However, when we got a new puppy I had a name-that-dog contest on Wisdm. And…so…her…name…is…DUTCHESS!! I think Nina (WillWorkForChocolate) named her. It really fits her too. She’s mostly black, but in a few spots she’s got some white with black spots on her. AND there is a white speckled bit that runs from the top of her left shoulder to down under her neck. It looks just like a regal ermine stole draped around her neck.

I tried to think of things that would be fun to say. And I decided upon Spracket.

Our dog came named. We were going to change it but the more we played around with names the more his name grew on us. His official name is Valgai Belcourt Peregrin nicknamed Reggie. More often than not now we just call him Poodles.

Jack the Pug was so named because at the time we got him we were reading the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. A primary character in these books is the loyal dog Jack. My brothers and sisters and I always chose our pet names based on whatever television shows we were in to at the time. We had cats named Maxwell, 99, Larabie, and Chief and a group named Magnum, Higgins, and TC.

My two new cats have ended up as ‘Mia & Marley.’

1st came Mia, the named seemed to fit her princess type to the 10th power.
Then came the brute Marley. lol
My daughter wanted to call him Marley and so it was.

Actually though, as usual, the nicknames I call them the most are Mimi and bad kitten.haha

Our chinchillas are always named after novelists or poets, with emphasis on 20th century writers.

When I was a kid we named all of our animals after golf terms. They were [deep breath] Putter Chipper Chip Divit Duffer Driver Bogey Fairway Mulligan and Four-Balls. And Sad Sack. (LOL! When I was a kid I used to pray for every one in the world, and always ended with “And God Bless —[deep breath] PutterChipperChipDivitDuffetDriverBogeyFairwayMulliganFour-BallsAAAANNNNDSad Sack.”—

My cat’s name is Sy—short for Siamese.

Our dog is a border collie. My wife named him Michael (Mikey), after her brother, who was killed in an airplane crash.

My wife banned me from naming animals after we had a ewe called Eunice, a lamb called Baaaaaatholomew, and a cat called Festus. She named our current cat, Kelly.

Thanks folks! Yeah, my dawg’s named Penny, a name that just sprang into my head at the time, seemed to suit the gorgeous bundle of fun so it stuck.

Right now I have two cats. Magrat is named after a character in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (as was her sister, Esme), and Archer is named after Jonathan Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise.

Why, no, we’re not nerds. Why do you ask?

<—That’s Elizabeth, more often known as Weezbeff. When I first saw her, she looked regal even with dirty fur, eye goo and ear crusties. She sat so straight and proud that I thought that she should have a royal name. Weezbeff came about because she had an upper respiratory infection when I first got her and she weezed a tiny bit. I still miss her. :(

Rishy, whose full name is Licorice, is all black. (Okay, he was all black. He’s starting to get some white hairs as he ages.) His name was Blackjack when my husband got him but Mr. Tedibear didn’t like that. So he became Licorice, and almost immediately nicknamed him Rishy.

Cloudy, when i met her at age 6 weeks, was just a little ball of grey fluff. She looked like a little grey cloud, so – Cloudy.

All cats, by the way.

@Dutchess_III Awww, I remember that! I think we had several questions like that on good ol wis!!

Our dog was 8 when we adopted her, so we left her name as it was- Sierra.

Our first accidental cat we named Chewbacca, because he’s SOOOOO furry and he purred very hard and loud, which kind of reminded us of a wookie, lol.

Our second accidental cat we named Yoda, because we thought it would be cute to stick the the Star Wars theme, plus she was this tiny, wrinkled thing with huge eyes, so “Yoda” just sort of fit.

I liked the name Bella, unfortunately that’sall there is to it. My mum wanted me to call her Pip though! My other dog, Zara, already had her name when we brought her home but I am glad thatshe came with such a lovely name. I think Zara is very pretty and really suits her. I really want to name my next (female) animal Ednaafter Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.

I can’t remember. We give the dogs the same name each time but I’m at a loss to remember why we started with this particular name.