What’s in a name?
Naming a pet is sometimes difficult for me. I need to find that one name that suits them. That fits both their looks and personalities. Mylo just sort of happened. I remember throwing a few names around, but once we thought of “Mylo”, that was it. Manbeast insisted that it be spelled with a “y” instead of an “i” and that was that. Koda was named for the movie Brother Bear. In the shelter, they called him Noki, but it just wasn’t for him. His thick fur and giant paws made me think of a little bear, and he needed a name to go with it, so he became Koda. Odin was originally not meant to stay with us, so he was “Jungle Baby” because of his spotty tummy. Then he became “Mowgli”, but it just didn’t sound right. My husband is of old Norse blood, so after throwing around a few names from Norse Mythology (and deciding we would keep him) we chose “Odin”. We could have even called him “Spot” for a time.
I often wonder if the meanings of their names suit them, so today I have decided to find out.
Mylo: 4 meanings: Uncertain, peaceful, eager to please, and soldier. I don’t really know what to make of that. Mylo could be deemed as uncertain at times, but who couldn’t? He is peaceful for the most part, but he has the telltale energy of a Golden Retriever that makes his peaceful moments more like a lull between storms. He is most always eager to please, it’s perchance his most endearing quality. And soldier? Well, he is fairly obedient.
Koda: 1 meaning: Friend or ally. The definition of “Koda” says that the translation is not entirely accurate. Koda is a word for friend/companion/ally yes, but it is used in a stronger sense. It’s closest translation would be “blood brother”. This makes my heart glad, as the name is a perfect description for my boy. He is loyal to no end, gentle, loving, kind, and protective. That’s what I would want in a friend, or an ally. This one was surprising to me, as I couldn’t have picked a better description of him myself.
Odin: 2 meanings: Fury or frenzy. This suits him well. He is a 9 pound cat, and I believe 8 of the 9 pounds are comprised of energy, hunting prowess, fury, and being “whacked out”. He is small but mighty. Soft yet sharp. Loving yet a wee bit nutty. I’ll take it.
And, just to see what could be found I have searched my name as well. Brittany means “from Briton”, or “Land of the Britons”. I do not come from Briton and as far as I know I have not been deemed a piece of land. Perhaps my ancestors are from there, or were large enough to be considered land masses. I was hoping for a more interesting definition, or at least one that I could relate to, but alas I did not. I suppose it’s better than finding out that your name means something awful.
What does your pet’s name mean? Or yours? Does it suit them or not?
fostrickson 
Happy New Year! Dudley means fields or meadow, it’s a town in England. Zoe came to me as “Rory” which I found awkward to say (although, if you asked the dog her name, she could’ve said “Rory”). I also have trouble with the word “rural”, so I tried to think of a short, similar sounding name — I wanted it to end in the “eeee” sound — and Zoe came to me pretty quick. Zoe is Greek for life.It morphed into many other names, ZGirl, ZQueen, Zo-Zo and Mrs. VelvetEars. But my ZoeGirl embodied the good life, she greeted every single day with exuberance and a smile! Oh, to be as optomistic as the ZQueen . . .
Those are great! Did you know the meanings before or after you chose the names? We have billions of nicknames for ours too (Toady is actually a unintentional nickname), strange how that happens!
I love my name-it describes me. Kyla is an old Scottish name for a female that translates to “hot, like a supermodel”. Yup, Kyla I am.
That’s a good one and it must feel nice to have one that suits you! 🙂
The Producer is lousy at names and she backtracks all the time. She would have kept Raffles as Polaris because he suits Polar Bear, but when one of her sons told her she couldn’t name him after a heat-seeking missile she decided he was right. Okay it is actually the North Star, but how many people think of the star and how many the missile?
As it happens I think naming him after a missile might have been apt 😀
We think of Polaris swimming pool vacuums.
You know, I actually thought of the star. I think Polaris is great! But, so is Raffles. Were you by chance named after a certain warrior princess?
Our dogs’s names don’t have a significant meaning of themselves, though they mean something to us – Rupert was a wedding present and we got married at Rupertswood Mansion, April was born in April (self explanatory) and Billie is a blue greyhound so she’s named after Billie Holliday, the jazz and blues singer. As for my name, Kylie, it is an aboriginal term for a non-returning boomerang!!
Those are great! I love that they have meaning to you. And I have to say, Kylie has an interesting meaning!
We named our first black lab ‘Hendrix’ after Jimi. Our 2nd black lab is ‘Otis’ to keep with the musical theme! When we got our Czech wolfdog we put quite a bit of time in to choosing the name as we wanted a Native American name. We chose ‘Tuchena’ as it means 3 in Choctaw, and she is our third ‘baby’.
I love those names! I love when people give their pets interesting names and I especially like Tuchena, it’s so unique.
In the shelter paperwork, my dog was named Katie, that was crossed out and replaced with Ka-Ka. I took one look at her and changed her name to Cupcake because she’s so sweet. It’s the perfect name for her!
It suits her well, from what I read on your blog. 🙂 It’s not a name you hear often, either!
I wrote about this topic for my dog blog. I love the clever dog names 🙂 The lab that joined our family in May at almost eight years kept her name of Ember. I felt she knew that and her world was about to have lots of new changes. http://dogstwentyfourseven.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/whats-your-dogs-name/
I love naming pets, haha. I named my mother’s cats Merry and Pippin (two brothers), had a skunk named Flower, a ferret named Farty (us kids named him), parrot named Arthur (for King Arthur, we always meant to get a girl and name her Gwen)…it’s fun to look back on the names you picked for your pets, and the reasons for them.
Chancy’s name we think fits him well. The nearest meaning we have found is luck or fortune. It is an English word derived from the word Chauncy. We named him Chancy because he was given a second chance in life. Now that we know the meaning of his name we know it fits. He is lucky and fortunate to be alive. I enjoyed this post. Hugs and nose kisses
That does suit him very well! He looks like a Chancy, 🙂 I’m glad that you liked it, and that you found that Chancy’s name has such a nice meaning.
We often name our lovely pups for something associated with them… perhaps where or when we found them, or what they look like. We have for example Wednesday who showed up on a Wednesday morning. Mama who I brought home from a mall parking lot who then proceeded to have 8 puppies in the night! Bus stop, who was found at a bus stop and has gone on to live at a friends ranch. Wolfie that looks like a Wolf. Runty who was the smallest of her litter… you see the form we follow! 🙂
I like the way you think! We had a cat named Runty once, for the same reason. We have a family friend with a cat named B&E (it’s been turned into Beanie over time) because it broke into her basement. I love hearing about how other people have named their pets, especially when they seem to name themselves like yours! 🙂