What’s In A Name?

When you have a pet as a family member, you gain companionship, loyalty, unconditional love, and a deep reservoir of fun experiences.  Okay, there is nothing new or earth shattering about that statement (I do have a flair for the obvious!), but often times, amongst all the memories, we forget some of the little experiences that bring a smile to our face.  Recently, as I was recalling all of the pets which were a part of our family, I realized how much fun was had naming each one.

There was our albino pet rat.  We named him Ralph, though we never called him just Ralph, he was always Ralph the Rat; we just liked the way that sounded.  Of course, all of us tried out our best Jimmy Cagney with the “Ralph, you dirty rat.”  (This loses its effectiveness on paper, but trust me, it was a lot of fun to hear our household doing Cagney; it actually came out as more like a cross between Elmer Fudd and Jimmy Stewart, but the effort was there!)

My daughter had an anole.  She named him Stud.  Have you ever seen an anole?  I don’t think there is a muscle on that creature’s body!  He was fast (we had to chase him on many occasions and found him to be very elusive), but Stud?  I didn’t see it!

We had a bright yellow parakeet with a green marking on his chest.  We named him Mistletoe.  He was great fun at dinner time.  He would have free reign of the table and take turns nibbling at everyone’s bread.  For awhile, he was used by me to get a kiss from my spouse by simply holding him over my head, until he “relieved himself” in our hair once!

Our family dog was given to me as a birthday present.  (Funny, the kids used my birthday to get their dog!  Well played.  Not even my cold heart could complain about a dog now!  Go ahead kids; feel free to use this one.)  I used to sing my girls a song; Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper (and no I am not that old!) so they decided to call our pup Tilly.

There was Slimeny the snail, Mr. Hobbs (a rabbit), Joshua and Caleb (father and son long haired doxies), Brutus (the smallest living tiger in captivity!), Koby (a bird purchased at Koby’s Swap Meet in San Diego), and many others.

So what do these names say about us? Well, I guess they say that we have a sense of humor! Beyond that, I think they speak to our togetherness. Each name had special meaning to us as a family.  We bonded with the new family members, but even more importantly, we bonded as a family; our pets brought us closer together as a unit.  Those moments, on the living room floor, all together, deciding on a name were priceless.

What about you? How do you name your pets? What’s your favorite pet naming story?

However you do it, have fun naming your pets!