New Puppy: What's in a Name?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

15 Apr 2007 10:10 AM

My sister-in-law just bought a beautiful, cuddly and absolutely adorable 7-week-old golden retriever puppy for my nephew. This is a momentous occasion in his life because he's wanted a dog for as long as he could say dog. He loves to play with ours (we have five of them), but they have never been in a position to have a dog before. Today was a big day for them and what ended up amusing me was the biggest problem that they had was what to name the puppy.

Agonizing Over a Name

Naming a child is something parents can spend nine months debating before the baby arrives, but when it comes to naming your newly acquired pet - it can lead to a lot of stress, hair pulling, laughter and of course, the familiar chiming in of the entire family as they deal out their suggestions. On the list of names that were offered up today included:

• Twinkle (not to be mistake for Twinkie, which is what I thought they were saying)
• Goldie
• Muzzy
• Sunny
• Tika
• Tiki
• Lilo
• Jasper
• Jasmine

Before you ask - yes, Jasper was a real suggestion and I think I laughed myself silly over that one. One, the dog is female and two, Jasper is the name of one of the dog thieves that worked for Cruella de Vil in a 101 Dalmatians. The counter argument is that plenty of girls are named Taylor and Chandler and those are male names and well - my response was well not the most intelligent, but it basically revolved around the idea that if they could show me a girl named Jasper, I'd hush.

As of the last update that I received, my nephew was pretty attached to Jasmine and he was deeply attached to this beautiful and absolutely sweet golden retriever puppy. I'm delighted for him, but in all the hulla balloo surrounding what to name the puppy, I had to think about all the different names we've had for pets over the years.

Naming Conventions

When it comes to naming an animal whether it's a dog or a horse or even a cat that is going to be registered, there are often naming conventions to be followed. When we registered my oldest female dog, her name was Max. Everyone kept asking if it was short for Maxine or Maxwell or Max something and I said it was Just Max so often, well - that's what her name became on her papers. A horse I bought years ago was blessed with the moniker of: She Can Hypnotize the Moon - Hyppie for short.

Registered names are great and they are fun and they can be thought provoking and entertaining, but our pets need names that we can call and say in fewer than three syllables. So when it comes to naming your dog, your cat, or your horse, here's the best advice I can give you:

Fulfill the requirements of whatever registry you have to register the animal with; then name your new family member from the heart and whether it's for their looks, their personality or from some deep place of affection - that's the name you give to your new pet and please - don't name a girl dog Jasper - please

What names have you given to your pets?

Heather Long is the Fitness and Marriage Blogger and you can check out her latest blogs here!

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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