How do you come up with names for your pets?

[Dunquixote]

Tomorrow morning our kittens are arriving. Right now I’m brainstorming names for my cat (my mom is going to name the calico) and I was wondering how everyone else comes up with a name for their pets, like if you go on a baby name website or book, or name them after something you like?

The names I’ve though of so far are:

-Taiga since the kitten is a runt but according to the adoption agency worker, she is very assertive and makes sure she is first to food bowl.

-Furrdinand von Aegir - yes the character is a male but thought it still would be cute and unique.

-Furrtaba (instead of Futaba)

If my kitten was an orange male tabby, I’d have named him Ser Pouncealot like from Dragon Age.

If my kitten was a black cat, I’d have named her/him Morgana, Jiji, or maybe Kiki.

I’ll edit this post tomorrow when I have a better picture of my kitten and post her picture.

Feel free to make suggestions if you want

 

[LadyDestani]

All of the names you've come up with are cute!

When I'm naming a pet, I usually visualize the animal in my mind and try to think of a name that I feel suits them. For instance, when I saw a picture of my rescue dog, Tanuki, on the shelter's website, I didn't like the name they had given him (Simba). Nothing wrong with the name Simba, but it didn't feel right for him and I think of it as more of a cat's name. He was brown with a lot of black on his face and black ears, so it reminded me of a raccoon mask or a tanuki mask. Tanuki are known for being tricksters and a bit mischievous, and even though I hadn't met him yet something about that image felt like it fit. Plus, Tanuki just sounds like a cute name or word and it's pretty unique.

Other animals I've named:

- Capone, my pug. Lots of people go with Winston for dogs that have droopy faces and jowls, but American gangsters are an area of interest for me so I went that route instead. I also liked it because, again, it was a unique name. Sometimes people would do a double take when I told them his name, but I didn't mind explaining it to them.

- Kira, my diluted tortoiseshell cat. It's a fairly normal female name, which is unusual for me, but it felt right for her. The name sounds pretty but also strong and maybe a bit sassy to me, and Kira was definitely all of those things.

- I used to have a koi pond and each of the fish was named after a character from Arthurian legend, another interest of mine. I had Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Uther, Igraine, Tristan, Isolde, Merlin, Morgana, Mordrid, Galahad, Gawain, and Percival.

 

[daringred_]

hm, well i've named all but one of our still living cats, but i don't exactly have a set way of doing it? our oldest cat is called smudge because i was about 12 or so, and she has a smudge of white fur on her chest. of course, i don't call her that now. i call her fish instead. no, i don't know why. i think someone else said it once and it just stuck. she seems to like it though.

our second oldest cat is samuel. (sam or sammy for short.) i just liked the name at the time. he's a very pretty boy. long-haired and fancy looking, and the markings on his face make it look as though he has a mustache. i also just have a thing for giving animals human names. it's way more fun.

our third oldest is timothy mcgee. (timmy for short.) he's named after a fictional character because i had to pick a name on the spot. i originally wanted his sister, but my mom made me pick him instead because she wanted a tabby cat. now, the sister i had a whole list of cute names to choose from. him? nothing. so i said the name of the first male character i could think of, and i was binging ncis at the time.

the baby is lisa, one of two black kittens we got in august. (her sister is called mochi, courtesy of my sister.) i knew i wanted to name her after a fictional character too, although this time deliberately lmao. there were a couple of options, but the two that stood out were, well, lisa, after my oc, and kisa, after the oc's own cat. (it also means "kitten" in russian, i believe, which is fun!) lisa wears a lot of black, and kisa the cat is also black, so it seemed like a no-brainer. in the end, i chose the former just because the character means a lot to me, and i knew my family wouldn't enjoying trying to pronounce/remember the latter even though it's only a letter different.

personally, i'll probably stick with naming pets after fictional characters in the future. (although i hopefully won't have to for a while.) personally, i prefer human names for pets unless there's very obviously a "non-human" one that works better, and fictional characters mean a lot to me, so it makes sense. for reference, our past cats have been called: twinkle, star (both black cats; i might've been responsible for one of those at, like, age 6), narnie (black and white; named after a goalkeeper by my dad), tigger (tabby; no clue who was responsible for that one), ted and teddy (near identical ginger siblings; they arrived with completely different names, and i think their new ones were my idea). we also had a dwarf hamster named stewart, who i named after my crush's surname lmao.

 

[Croconaw]

I had two dogs. The first one was named Cupcake. She was a beagle. I was very young at the time, and I didn’t know too many words. All I knew was that I was very hungry and was craving cupcakes, so the name stuck.

My second dog is one you all might know. He’s a chocolate lab named Keagan. I posted a lot of pictures of him around the forum. He actually came with the name Keagan. He was a rescue, so I didn’t choose his name. His owner was abusive towards him. The owner has two dogs and put his favorite one on a pedestal while being rude to Keagan. Keagan is a lot happier now.

I’ve always wanted a golden retriever, and I would name him Dodger. I’d love to get one when I get the chance.

 

[rip]

my first cat’s name came about by accident. we were in the car on the way home from adopting him and brainstorming names. i was super young at the time and said “we should name him furry!!!” (lmao). my dad, who is a bit hard of hearing, then replied “Murray? that’s a great name!” and he became Murray. i miss that cat so much, think of him every day.

my current cats were actually named after animal crossing villagers (kiki & bob)! they are siblings. my baby girl kiki actually looks exactly like kiki in the game (black cat with a sweet, slightly goofy little nose) and bob is a bluish grey cat who my mom says looks purple in some lighting. he also has a very laid back, loving personality just like animal crossing bob :’)

oh and i forgot to say, congrats on the new additions. i’m sure whatever you decide on will be absolutely perfect (purrfect?)

 

[NovariusHaze]

The only animal I got to name was a few chickens. I named them based on their colour.

A black Hen I named Pengu, corruption of Penguin and Penguins are known to be mostly black
A grey rooster I named Gary, which is a corruption of Gray.
A brown rooster I named Brian because it sounds like Brown.

 

[Bluebellie]

Congrats on the new kittens! I saw them in another post and they are adorable!
I’m sure you’ll find beautiful names for them.

I think I name my pets the first thing that pops into my head? Usually based on something that I’m seeing or that’s around my environment at that time.

Most of my pets I’ve gotten when I was very young though. I feel like if I were to get another pet now, I would probably put my brain a lot of thinking.

Some of the names are so random too, and Sometimes they start with one name and morph into another as well.

Here are some examples.
My current pets:
My Chihuahua- Toulusa. Started off as Toulouse, and it has since morphed. She’s named after one of the cats in the Aristocats.

My pea puffers: I have Petey Pufferson, Twitch and Big girl and Little girl. Twitch is named Twitch because when I first got her, she had trouble with her motor skills. She would try to swim one way, but go the other instead. It looks like she has grown of it though, which is great. And Big girl and Little girl got her name because of their sizes compared to the rest.

Past pets:
My cockatiels : Kiko and Fifi. Fifi is based on the feather dusters from beauty and the beast. I got her when I was in third grade and we were doing a beauty and the beast school play. Kiko might have been a neopets inspiration? I don’t remember much since I got him when I was 8. I also had ET. ET got his name because it looked like he might have been someone else’s escaped pet. He has a little ring around his leg. He saw my other two cocktails and wanted in on the cage, and became part of the family. He just flew one day into my yard and into the cage. He got his name from happy feet the movie. The penguin that had the ring around would say he was abducted by aliens. Which made me think of ET, and so he got that name.

My foster Quaker parrot: I first rescued Pablo. He was learning how to fly and crashed into the school library window. I nursed him back to health, but unfortunately, he had trouble with his feet and was never able to fly again. While in recovery, I actually had a wild Quaker who used to come visit him everyday. It was a wild Quaker, but she would open up his cage and get in there with him. I named her Pabla. Pablo + Pabla.


Edit: for the name suggestions, how about the kitties from the Aristocats? I ended up naming my dog Toulouse, but I always figured if I had more dogs, I’d name them after the other two. Marie and Berlioz. I always thought the name Berlioz was nice. The three kitties are Toulouse, Marie and Berlioz. My dog doesn’t like other dogs though, so my plans were foiled. I love her, but she’s a dog hater
No more dogs for me.

 

[Violet Witch]

I have two cats named Evie and Finn but initially I had completely different names for them (Luna & Leo) but it wasn't until I picked them up from their original home that I realised the names I had picked out didn't suit them. Seeing them face to face for the first time was when I could truly start brainstorming their names but I will admit when it came to naming Finn I Googled "best cat names" and Finn was top of the list. My mum and I liked the name so much it stuck and it suits him perfectly. As for Evie she was more difficult, we went through every cute female name possible until I came up with the name Eva but my mum hated it so she suggested Evie instead and just like Finn the name stuck.

 

[Tao]

Usually something from a thing I've been doing at the time.

The first pet I remember having was a dog we called Bob. Got him from my auntie who's dog had puppies. I was young and liked Bob the Builder.

Later on my auntie couldn't look after her dogs anymore so we took the dad dog from her...Also called Bob. We then had to alter their names to Big Bob and Little Bob.


Years later after the last of the duo passed away we got another dog. I said we should name it Jazz and insisted it was a nice name...Even though I had been binge watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air where there's a character called Jazz.

Moved out with my partner and we got a snake. We had been playing Monster Hunter and I suggested the name Poogie.

We're also looking into a dog and we've narrowed it down to some sort of bulldog. We were both on the same playing field there as we both thought that we would name it after what we had for dinner that night, Burgers.

 

[fairysyndrome]

my mom is the one who got all the final say for our cats' names and the rule was that they had to be human names, so by the time we put a limit on adopting we ended up with Riley (my mom's pick), Molly (which was her original, pre-adoption name), Lia (my sister's pick, after Lia Kahn from Skinned), Charlotte (my pick, after. a character in a game i was looking forward to and then later did not enjoy <3 it suits her though, so it's fine), and Carley (my dad's pick).

personally, though, i'm the type who prefers non-human names; i was fighting for my life to name Charlotte "Orange Creamsicle" because, well, she is very orange, until mom threatened to take away my naming rights if i suggested it any more. so i like naming them after food lol. ultimately though, preferences aside, i'd just recommend something that fits the cat and makes sense whether it's human or non-human -- something you thought of and seems cute on paper might end up being too clunky or too lengthy to call the cat over and over for years on end (even with nicknames involved), or people might not get it and it might get tiring having to explain the origins, or it just might not suit them. naming things is tricky. good luck thinking it over!

 

[michealsmells]

When naming a pet, I usually come up with the first thing on my mind. The first thing that I think of when I see them. Over my years of owning Fish I have named a LOT of them. I can list some off and give a little info abt them cause I LOVE infodumping about my fish.

Boots was a red Betta I got when I was like 3-4. He was named after Boots the monkey from Dora!

Ghost was pure white when I got him right around October, but over the year or two I had him he turned more into a blue mustard color!

Alfredo was named after my favorite kinda pasta sauce. I got him as an Itty bitty baby who was see through. He grew up into a yellowish sweetheart and lived the longest of any fish I've ever owned (2 years and a month!).

Marinara I got after Alfredo, he was a white fish with bright red fins, and I also got him as a little baby! He was a grumpy guy, who got himself injured several times because he was constantly trying to intimidate me and his own reflection.

Reinhardt was a female red-wag platy that was part of our community tank that we tried and failed to have (kept encountering problems, losing fish unfortunately). She was a trooper! She had babies (like 30-50 live births!), only one eye (we bought her like that), and was one of the sweetest fish I've ever met. After having her babies her spine began to deform (I think it's a result of inbreeding, some kind of disorder or damage done after the births), and she eventually couldn't even move from the bottom of the tank. Regardless, no matter how little she could swim, she would ALWAYS get excited to see your face at the tank. And she lasted literal months compared to a different platy with a similar issue who lasted about... a couple weeks?
I named her Reinhardt because of her glorious spirit, and her one eye. She just reminded me of the character.

I also find that giving animals multiple/long names is nice because you tend to fall into what you call them eventually, which is the opposite of what vanivon said!! Granted, I like explaining name origins. I had a fish named Squid Ink Spaghetti due to him being black with blue iridescence, but I just called him Spaghetti. Alfredo's full name was "Cheesy Alfredo" and Ghost's was "Danny "The Spookster" Phantom".

 

[SirQuack]

I have lots of pets and honestly the names just come to me randomly, or by the way they look!

 

[nyx~]

My cats' names make my family seem like we have a Disney addiction (I mean we kinda do but still xD)

My cat who turns 5 in a few days is named Tigger. When we adopted him his name was Tiger but it was obvious that wasn't the name he knew cause he didn't respond to it at all, we still don't know what happened to him and why he ended up at a shelter when he was 3. Anyway, we didn't want to change it up too much so we just went with Tigger.

My other cat who is about 1.5 years old is named Figaro after the cat from Pinocchio. I always thought the name was cute and unique, and when he was a tiny baby he reminded me of him.

Then for my past cats, they were named Colby and Dempsey. I was 2 years old when my parents adopted Dempsey so I have no idea where they got his name from and then Colby was orange and white so we named him after the cheese lol.

The names you've thought of are all cute! Bringing a new pet home is always such a fun and rewarding experience, I'm excited for you!

 

[Bluebellie]

Please let us know what you ended up choosing!

 

[visibleghost]

my cat is called Udo but we didn't name him that, that's the name he was given as a kitten. when we were getting him we were talking about what to name him but kept saying things like "when udo gets here...", so the name kind of stuck. idk what we would have named him if it hadn't been udo. probably something silly but cute :0

 

[dizzy bone]

Louie, my beagle, was named after a singer by the same name. Just thought it would suit her.
The kittens I'm currently fostering, I named them based on how they looked or acted. One is called Baessal, which means belly fat. Another is called Honyangi, because she reminds me of Tabby from ACNH. The last one is Dewey, who my friend named after Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle lol. The momma cat I just call mommy because that was the name I called her when I was trying to get her to trust me.

My family also had a poodle who we named Sooni. After she passed away, my mom got another poodle a few years later and named her Sooni as well. She has a brother named Hengooni (means good luck).

 

[piichinu]

i give them dignified human names only. except for my hamster nugget when i was 12

 

[salem_]

my parrot's original name is "Boris" but due to my sister deforming it everytime, it is now "becunus/secunus". It's funny tho, he recognizes himself with a non-existant word.

 

[MyLifeIsCake]

I usually name my pets based on foods/music/media I like. I have pets called Kiwi, Kirby, Krobus, Lenny, Smeagol. Sometimes I don't give my pets a definite name for weeks because I'm still getting to know their personalities. Though my most recent animals, my tree frogs, I'm calling Wasabi & Matcha for now based on their colors.

 

[LexxyRaptor]

All of the pets I have named so far are named after some form of Monarch, historical or fictional. Kings, queens, emperors, etc. A bit of a history nerd here and I do treat my babies like royalty.
My two cats are Josephine (Napoleon's wife and Emperess.) and Charlemagne (great king of the franks)