My Friendly Pets

What you call your dog today tends to mean a great deal more than ever before. Dogs names have become a popular conversation piece. It becomes a major family decision today when a dog is brought into the home and a name needs to be given to that new family member.

When deciding upon names for our children it is very common for people to come up with names that “mean” something or a name that we believe our children will grow into. A name like Leo, connotates a lion and we associate that with strength. The same type of thought is now being put into the name of our pooch. In the past, for the most part, names of dogs represented a physical characteristic of the dog, such as Spot or Hairy (lol!) Now names are given to dogs that either are closely related to human names, indicating the bond we now express to our canine family member or a name that represents something that we hope our dog aspires to.

According to the ASPCA’s list of top dog names, are Max and Sam or close sounding names to thoses like Maxie, Maxwell or Maxine and Sammie or Samantha. Max means “the greatest” in Latin and Sam derives from “the listener” These are both wonderful traits that we want in our dog. Many names are chosen by people who relate their dogs to other more famous canines, like Lassie or Benji. In fact famous characters who are not dogs, supply people with a large choice of names, such as Rocky or Elvis. In fact, a coworker who only has cats (poor guy) names them after characters from a popular television show and related series. (Cordelia and Wesley). I’m not going to tell you which show; you can guess or try to figure that out.

The names we have had for our dogs came about by strangely. I had never had a dog growing up and my Mom had always said, “When you have your own home, you can have whatever pets you want.” I thought long and hard about pet names and I loved the name Ziggy, not for the cartoon character, I just thought it was a cool name. So the day after my return from our honeymoon, I went to a shelter and adopted a german shepard mix puppy and dubbed him ZIggy. He grew into his name quite well and whenever I hear the name, I think fondly of the dog who became the first official member of our new family. Our next dog was named by my husband. He was a pitbull and my husband named him Geo. That’s not short for George, its just Geo. (like the car). Again, the name fit him well and we will always keep that name in a special place for he was a very special dog.

So think carefully what you name your dog. He/She will respond to that name and like anything else will come to represent what you call him/her. Make sure the name comes with love, praise and appreciation for the family member that you have so generously welcomed into your home.