Welcome Wednesday: How did you come up with your pet’s name?

[Monique vdB]

Hello, Welcome Center members! And a special welcome to our new users on this fine Wednesday.

We’ve selected some extra-special users to tag in the comments, but we want to hear from everyone about this important question, which may or may not be an excuse for everyone to post cute pet pictures.

How did you come up with names for your pets?

I don't have any pets at the moment (trying to change that) but have had some over the years! My first pet was a parakeet I got when I was 8 years old, and I named him Gumdrop based on his color. Still a solid pet name, I have to say.

My subsequent pets were also parakeets: Cassie was a yellow parakeet, and her name was short for Kaas Kop, which means “Cheese head” (literally) or “Cheese lover” (colloquially) in Dutch. Cheese = yellow = Kaas = Cassie.

Finally I got Phoebe and Pigwidgeon, a pair of birds named after the Titan goddess Phoebe and Ron’s bird from Harry Potter, respectively.

Next I am hoping to get a Lineolated parakeet and am already thinking of names! Do I go for human names? Cute names? Mythological? Literary? Do I let my child inevitably name the bird after its color, e.g. Greenie or Tealy? My naming has been all over the place, so give me some inspiration!

So how did you come up with your pet’s name?  

[Monique vdB]

We would love to hear from some of you about your pets! 

@Tania Nikolova @Rahul Jakhmola @Андрей Васин @Mamatha Badeti @Jason Schafer @[deleted] @Jewgeni Zyganow @lepape Claire @Bastian @David Coudron @Ooná Campbell @cynthia womack @SivaKumar @Valentine Buckler @aman @Anh Nguyễn Đức @Igor Bushovskiy @Jordi Mateu @Matthías Ólafsson @Mohamed Chaaban @Sara Toschi @MANUEL VARGAS ESTRADA @teja kammili @Anvesh Gajula @Bharathi.Gidugu @Carl Narcisse @Chris @Christopher Miller @erling @James Spere @Jose Angel Mielgo Saez @krasnosvar @max @Mikhail Varian @Nem W Schlecht @Phil Hobgen @Quang Manh Dinh @Sean McCabe @VOVAINUA @Amanda Baker @Angelo Gabut @bmuthelo @CalibrationTools @cancobanoglu @Christopher Clark @Cindy Shi @Cory Beaudoin @Courtney Heba @Dana Cannam @Dominique

[Monique vdB]

Do we want more pet pictures? Yes we sure do! From the following fine folks: 

@ellai @FelixL @Gayatri Kulkarni @Jordan Stoeger @Klaus-Peter Schreiner @Michael Lee @Murat.Balci @Ravindran Subbiah @Reza Ahoui @Steven Herring @Sunny Cheng @Syed Hassan @Yizeth Acuna @Aaron Keller @Abhishek Garg @Agnieszka Olszewska @Apurva Patil @arun.peeyem @Ash H @Atsuko Inagaki @Axel Díaz @Boyd Bankston @Catti Lundsgård @Christian Baum @Dave Hattig @Dominic O'Kane @Garry Finch @Harald Balzer @Heiða Dóra Jónsdóttir @[deleted] @I Hoevenaar @IT TNB @Justin Abdallah @Jan Carlsson @Jensen Mwombeki @Jeremy Dyche @Joel Van Blommestein @Jonathan Major @Joshua White @Julian Ball @Konstantin Sakirkin @Lai Dai @Manisha Minde @Matthew Ostrowski @Michael.Bonner @michael.wolf @Mohammad Shadab @Natalie Shade @Nick Z

[Monique vdB]

Last, but not least, one final group of pets. I mean, community friends! (I mean pets.) 

@Nikos Kastanas @Nivetha Ganapathy @Ranjan Mondal @Richard Kong @Richard Thompson @Rob Benovic @ruben beaujolais @Sanford Scheppele @Sharma, Divyeshwari @Siddharth Jagtiani @Tasha Mele @zafeer hashir

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I usually end up telling long stories about my pets, but I'll try to shorten it.  In chronological order:

• Puddah : Cat : Grandma's cat, her choice of name, but when I was nearby, she was my cat
• Olga : Guinea Pig : Only pet my father would let us have while growing up, named from a kid's story about a Guinea Pig my sister liked
• Mulder and Scuzz (Scully) : Cats : My partner's family had kittens, we had a home for two, and no idea what to call them, so we nabbed the names from the next partnership we saw on the idiot-box
• Pepper: Cat : Next girlfriend's cat who seemed to prefer me to her

Then I start to get to choose names.  Ish.  (All cats, they're the only pets we can support for now)

• Eskarina: name suggested by her rescuer, an old university friend.  Esk is (was) well-known in the Community, having been featured in a Summit Keynote.
• Black Aliss: same reason as Eskarina (sisters, same litter, same rescuer, same home)
• Wicca: adopted when I moved in with Chrissy
• George: I tried, but Chrissy wanted to "name her George, and I will hug her, and pet her, and squeeze her" and never be allowed to watch Bugs Bunny / Daffy Duck cartoons ever again
• Morticia : We struggled a bit with the theme, but settled on something close enough.  I know no-one will believe it but we didn't realise until we'd signed her up at the vet that it leads to "Nic and Morty!  Wubalubbadubdub!"

We expect to outlive our current pets.  If/when we do, there will be more rescues, and there are a few more names already on the list - Hecate, Rjinswand, Melisandre, Sycorax, Ridcully, Morgana, Agnes Nutter, Gwinifer, Empusa, Lilith, and, of course, Esmerelda Weatherwax.

[Monique vdB]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- I'm hiring you to name all my pets in the future! Esmerelda Weatherwax!

[nina_schmidt]

Pictures, we want pictures!!! 😎

[Deleted user]

This is a picture of my first two Gordon Setters, Bramble (Left) RIP our first, Biscuit Right) RIP our second Gordon.  See the pattern starting, "B".  Whee did "B" come from, well my initials are BB.

[Deleted user]

The honorary "Gordon" in the middle is Breeze because she breezed into our lives one Sunday morning 3 years ago when she ran out of a building when the boys and I were on our Sunday morning walk, she had been dumped. She is still with us and will be 14 in December, bless her she is showing her age now.

[Deleted user]

This is a link to our dog group on FB 

[Monique vdB]

Aw, they are so cute @[deleted] and I love the B theme! Glad Breeze is still around, what a sweetie. 

[nina_schmidt]

@[deleted] soooo cute!! ☺️ And Breeze chose you, that’s the best gift you ever can get! 🐕

[Damien]

Never answer this kind of questions. Remember most password recovery methods rely on questions such as "what is your mother maiden name", "what is your first pet name", etc.

Hackers use algorithms to liaise forum ids, email, pet names, mother maiden names, etc.

This is an open breach to your digital security, the digital security of your company and to the websites you administrate.

Sorry to switch fun off.

Cheers

[Jason Schafer]

Fair enough, 
Although I've had so many pets now that most of them aren't really used for the types of questions they give me. 

[Monique vdB]

@Damien I should have put a disclaimer in here. If you use your pet's name as a password, use a pet pseudonym when answering this question! 

[Jorden Van Bogaert]

Hi there

I have a dog named Buzz :D

It's a reference to Toy Story, which was my favorite movie. First I thought of Woody, but as Woody is a cowboy, I imagine a more brownish dog.

Buzz (Lightyear) however was a perfect fit!

[Monique vdB]

Buzz is so adorable! 

[Jason Schafer]

My Wife and I have 4 Cats and a Dog:
Cats:
- Techno: Named after my wife and I's love for technology and electronic music
- Gizmo: Named after the gremlin off of the Gremlins movie
- Keanu: Named after Keanu from the movie Keanu (He was super small!), his middle name is "Fleas" making him Keanu Fleas
- Rowan: My wife wanted a cat with a normal name. Fair enough haha.
Dog:
- Huey: Named by the no kill shelter we adopted him from, the name is definitely suiting with his loving and goofy behavior. 

[Monique vdB]

"Keanu Fleas" oh my god amazing. 

[Maria P.]

Ah! Loving the pet pictures 🐶🐱 Here's mine!

 

She's named Mona Lisa Saperstein, after the iconic Parks and Rec character:

 

It's a perfect fit because she's extremely sassy and a little bit bonkers, and she also has the cutest, but very loud, high-pitched meow. 

A peek into our dynamic:

 

(Spoiler: she does lots of things wrong but we love her anyway 😻)

[Monique vdB]

@Maria P_ Mona Lisa Saperstein might be my favorite pet name ever. And I love the final two pictures hahahaha. Oh cats, we love them!