Naming styles for children vs pets

raefre

For those of you who use human names for your animals, how do those names differ from the names you choose for your child(ren).

For instance, I like the names Elise, William, Thomas, Corinne for children but, when naming our animals, we have gone with Mila and Valentino. Where one set of names has a traditional feel, the other is a bit more...frilly/romantic.

How do your naming styles differ between your children and your pets? 

Elsa1984

LO's name is Greta Vivian

Dogs name is Adi (pronounced like Addy). She is names after Adidas. SO is a soccer player.

Took him weeks to come up with the dogs name. Baby was named by me while I was drugged on the OR table ("Greta" was on his name list. "Vivian" wasn't on the list but was his grandma's name....she passed in '97). 

punkrockabye

Well, this baby will be Paula Jean, and would have been Julian James if she were a boy... other names we have in mind for future kiddos are things like Vera, Corinne, and Owen.

Our dogs are Fletcher and Evelyn and our cat is Oakley. Fletcher and Oakley were named by the rescue; they didn't know their names, but we loved them and decided to go with those. Evelyn was originally Pepsi and that was just not about to happen.

So I guess I could say I like human names for my pets and kids. ha. 

anna7602

Hmmm, it seems like your "frilly/romantic" would be in my "legit people names" category.

Our chosen animal names (yes, we've discussed this, even though we're probably still 5 years away from getting a dog) would fall into the "legendary/historic" category- Beowulf and Pelayo.

KearaD

I think that naming a pet is the perfect time to use any of your guilty pleasure names that you'd never give to an actual child. 

DH and I named our cat Cornelius (although when I got him we were still in high school and he was only my cat because we obviously weren't married yet). If our next pet is a boy, he will be named Spurgeon after Charles Spurgeon the theologian. DH has been pushing to use this as a MN for a human baby, but thankfully I talked him down to just using it for a pet. 

CayleighDawn

For baby names I tend to lean towards old fashioned names that will age well. For pets, I don't have to worry about how the name will look on a resume, so I tend to go for more cutesy names that I love but can't bring myself to use for a human. The cat I have now is Tia, but I've also had Cato, Roxy, Sashey, Milo, Daisy (a hamster), Lucy (a lizard), and the list goes on....

lily_721

The dogs have very trendy names and we (read "I") like traditional names.  DH likes trendy names all the time.  He named dog1 and I named dog2

LoCarb

I foster dogs so I get to name a lot of animals. I usually choose a whimsical name, GP name or something cute ending in an E sound.

Cranang

I don't really know.  My oldest dog is named Miles, after Miles Davis.  He was the sweetest little black dog and he just had this cool vibe about him.  Almost like he named himself.  And I love jazz. :-)

Same with my younger dog.  My husband just blurted out "Sasha" and she jumped on his legs.  And that was that. 

I would've named a son Miles, if I hadn't used it on my dog 11 years ago.  I wouldn't name a daughter Sasha, though I like the name for my dog.

knitsandgiggles

I just name my pets whatever name comes to mind when I see them.  That said, my cats names have been Jasper, Taiko (DH named him), Evangeline (Evie), Korben.

DH and I are still working on our lists for baby names, but I feel that we are going to name our child once we meet  him/her from a list of our top 5 boy and girl names.  We need to get working on the boys names - we are so far apart on style.

We (actually I) also name our cars - those names include Bertha, Madeline, Sophia, and Oliver, formerly Alexander. LOL. 

So I guess to answer your question, my naming styles don't really differ!

baloneydisc

Our naming style for pets and kids is pretty similar.  Our DD is Madeleine Elaine, our boy name was Gavin David.  Current pets are Cassandra Rose (Cassie) and Toby.  Previous pets named by previous owners/shelter include Satchez, Roxy, Abbey & Winston.  Previous pets named by us include Kyra, George, Bailey, Chester, Gossamer, Mila, Bella & Whitney.  Most of them are human names and span dogs, cats, snakes & a bird.

ames71

My kid has a common dog name (Max) and my dog has a common human name (Henry). I'm not sure what that says about me.

CharlieMomma

This is funny!

Our current boys (canine-types) are Charlie and Henry. Ironically when we rescued "henry' his foster name was Charlie. Hen....reeeee... he's kind of slow and dopey so it just fit him. I also liked George.

Fast forward to baby girl and she will be Vanessa. Unfortunately we REALLY loved Charlotte with a nn Charlie, but that would have just been wrong. If we were having a boy, it would have been Jack. DH liked Max, but I insisted that was a dogs name.

And even more strange... if we had rescued a female dog it would have been "Riley". Good thing we didn't because 2 months later I had a niece Rylee... 

 

 

mAnYaSha

Interesting thread.

In my country pet names are completely different set from human names. I think in DH's family it has mostly held true with some exceptions. My own pets were Killer (fish), Chinchilla (dwarf hamster) and now our cat is Chloe (she was Patty when we adopted her, but it did not go with her at all, since she looks like Egiptian meo, Chloe seemed to fit). I think pet names are chosen based on individual pet's personality and fit.

We look at combination of sounds and name meanings , considering how it will work in life, etc. when chosing kids names.

mscheevus

I don't think there is a difference in mine. My cats are Scarlett and Hazel, my favorite names are Felix, Simon, Milo, and Jasper. I just like old names in general. Actually, my favorite names for children are more catlike and the names for the cats are a little more human.

mindy0711

punkrockabye:

Well, this baby will be Paula Jean, and would have been Julian James if she were a boy... other names we have in mind for future kiddos are things like Vera, Corinne, and Owen.

Our dogs are Fletcher and Evelyn and our cat is Oakley. Fletcher and Oakley were named by the rescue; they didn't know their names, but we loved them and decided to go with those. Evelyn was originally Pepsi and that was just not about to happen.

So I guess I could say I like human names for my pets and kids. ha. 

Paula Jeanne was my MIL's name.   We are trying to come up of some variation of it if we have a girl.

mindy0711

punkrockabye:

Well, this baby will be Paula Jean, and would have been Julian James if she were a boy... other names we have in mind for future kiddos are things like Vera, Corinne, and Owen.

Our dogs are Fletcher and Evelyn and our cat is Oakley. Fletcher and Oakley were named by the rescue; they didn't know their names, but we loved them and decided to go with those. Evelyn was originally Pepsi and that was just not about to happen.

So I guess I could say I like human names for my pets and kids. ha. 

Paula Jeanne was my MIL's name.   We are trying to come up of some variation of it if we have a girl.

g8trkim

DS is Grant and DD will be Brynn. Our dogs are Rocco and Lucy. I like the names Rocco and Lucy for kids, but we got our dogs years before we were married and had kids, so we just went with names we liked (I named her and DH named him). I don't like non-name names for pets, like Precious and that kind of crap, but I also wouldn't name them a totally human name like Steven. If we didn't have a Lucy already, I would totally use the name for DD. Rocco, not so much, because it rhymes with our last name.

Soap&Cider

Hmm... My dogs are Otto and Oscar and while I wouldn't use Otto on a child, I would definitely use Oscar! My naming style for animals tends to be fairly spontaneous and I just go with what I feel, but baby names are pretty well thought out and quite the process for me.

mrs.birdie

We like to name our animals after literary characters. Our mini-dachshund is "Dante" after Dante's Inferno and our cat is "Dickens" after Charles Dickens.

I feel we can be more creative with our animal's names. With children, we like to go with names that aren't super popular, but not made up or strange sounding. 

raefre

anna7602:

Hmmm, it seems like your "frilly/romantic" would be in my "legit people names" category.

Our chosen animal names (yes, we've discussed this, even though we're probably still 5 years away from getting a dog) would fall into the "legendary/historic" category- Beowulf and Pelayo.

They are definitely legitimate names for people but Mila and Valentino has a different feel from Thomas and Corinne. 

I've also had cats by the name of Smokey, Beastman, and Chloe and dogs by Kody, Max, and Windy (like the wind).  There was a bird named Mohawk, a mouse named Mickey, and a turtle named Ruth.  Many of these ended up being descriptions (Mohawk for a cockatiel) of the animal or from when we were younger.

And what makes a name uniquely human (like the example of Steven)?

Edited for clarity and addition.

MandyWes

Our dogs are Luke and Ben.ha ha!

Our DD is Taylor and our DS will be Dylan. We decided to let the Star Wars theme end with the dogs. (Although we were considering Leia if this baby was a girl, lol

Skooled917

Soap&Cider:

Hmm... My dogs are Otto and Oscar and while I wouldn't use Otto on a child, I would definitely use Oscar! My naming style for animals tends to be fairly spontaneous and I just go with what I feel, but baby names are pretty well thought out and quite the process for me.

This.  My dog is Juno Batman (girl).

erniebufflo

Our dogs are Bessie and Olive, and our daughters are Etta and Claire. I guess they're all old fashioned. Our cat is named Tinycat, because we weren't sure we were going to keep him, so we didn't name him, and we started calling him Tinycat, and the name and the cat both stuck.

Zimger

My DS name is Liam.

My furbaby names are all over the place but that is because we adopt and choose not to change their names. There are

Siku (found as a stray during early winter)-I named her. It has different meanings in a few different languages, one being the Inuit word for ice.

Jack-Who was picked up as a stray by the pound then rescued and named by a very friendly couple who run a shelter for cats.

Sweetie Pie and Brownie-Two sweet little Guinea Pigs that someone dropped off at Petco. I don't care for the names personally but they respond to them so I didn't change them.

One of my favorite pet names was Pip (my little terrier)-After Pip from Great Expectations.

broomy

We just adopted a dog. We went with a guilty pleasure name that we would never name our real kid, and that we're pretty much 100% sure none of our friends would want to name their kid: Beulah. If we ever have any more pets, the same rules will apply.

trebeksucks

Good post, I like reading the answers!

 I don't have any kids yet but we're trying and I do have a short list of names I like.  I like classic, strong names, often biblical or old fashioned in nature.  I would stay away from "top 10" names because I grew up a "Sarah" in a birth year where Sarah was in the top 5.  There were 9 other Sarah's in my class and I always hated when I would hear my name but they were calling someone else. I want my child to have a somewhat unique name but nothing that would stand out as weird, made up or too unusual. 

But when it comes to my animals, top 10 names don't bother me a bit!  I named my dog "Sophie Bella" and the name could not fit her more perfectly.  She's such a girly-girl princess dog.  My cat came from the shelter with the name "Annie" and since she was old I just kept it.  I liked the name anyhow.  And my husband named our other dog Apollo.  He has a very strong personality so naming him after a God kinda just fits him.  

ObLaDi

My dog's name is Lucy, and while I love it for her, it's totally the dog equivalent of an Ava, Olivia or Emma. I would never choose something so common for my human child. 

queenbone

I like old man names all around.

Cats: Mortimer & George

Humans: Theodore & Francis

For pets I try to stay with old man names that I'd never use on a human.  Other potential pet names: Stanley, Gladys, Leroy, Ebeneezer.  My biggest problem right now is I've changed my mind on George. 

queenbone

KearaD:

I think that naming a pet is the perfect time to use any of your guilty pleasure names that you'd never give to an actual child. 

DH and I named our cat Cornelius (although when I got him we were still in high school and he was only my cat because we obviously weren't married yet). If our next pet is a boy, he will be named Spurgeon after Charles Spurgeon the theologian. DH has been pushing to use this as a MN for a human baby, but thankfully I talked him down to just using it for a pet. 

Oh, that is an awesome name for a cat! I should steal it and add it to my list!

JumpAroundBucky

For my dogs, I went with names I liked, but knew I would never use them for a child: Kira and Jovie

For my cats, I got a little more creative, and they are definitely pet names. My tuxedo cat is named Sinatra (He needed a classy name to go with his tux), and my kitten has marks on his face like Bucky Badger, so we named him Buckingham, Bucky for short. 

Zaphina

I guess we like different names all around. Our cats are Damien and Zaphina, our rabbits are Guinness and Bailey, and our favourite names for kids at the moment are Xavier and Saoirse.