Naming Your Dog

So, you’ve got a new dog; you’ve picked the perfect pup, and you’ve brought him home and made him part of your family. Now, of course, comes the difficult part; finding the perfect name for your brand new dog.

Okay, maybe this isn’t as hard a house training a young dog or teaching an older dog that the furniture is for human people and dog people, but a lot of people struggle to figure out what exactly they want to call their new dog.

This is actually kind of important, because dogs actually respond to their name. If you have a cat, it kind of doesn’t matter what you name them, because they’ll either respond or, more likely, not.

A dog name, on the other hand, is something that you’re going to find yourself saying, maybe a lot. A good rule of thumb is to imagine that your dog runs off and you need to go looking for him; would you be happy yelling their name all over the neighborhood? If not, you might want to pick a different dog name.

There are a few different approaches that you take when it comes to picking out a dog’s name:

Personality
Probably the most common way of picking out a dog’s name. You look at how the dog acts and then pick a name that seems to fit the dog’s personality. If your dog runs every where at full tilt and takes corners on two paws, something like Scooter or Turbo might be appropriate.

This does take a little time, because you need to get to know your dog before you give him a new name, but it does tend to give a you a name that feels right for your canine companion.

Appearance
Of course, you might want to pick you dog’s name by looking at their appearance rather than their personality. Probably the most basic example is a dog named Spot because he has, you guessed it, spots.

Certain names make you think of certain qualities. A dog named Tinkerbell, for instance, is likely to be a tiny little dog, possibly of the miniature poodle or Chihuahua persuasion. A dog named Bruno. On the other hand, is very likely to be a stock muscular dog. The relationship between the physical quality and the name doesn’t have to be a direct, one to one correlation.

Irony
Of course, the other way is go is to use the dog’s personality but go the ironic route. Say you’ve got a dog that is terrified of anyone but their owner and spends most of it’s time hiding behind the couch; well, there’s a dog you could call killer. :)

Themes
If you have more than one dog, you could stick to a theme. I have a friend whose dogs, Sooner, Buckeye and Nittany, are all named after college football teams. You could also name them after your favorite Shakespeare characters, or even after your favorite cars. Just remember that you’re going to need to use their name a lot, and plan accordingly, and you’ll be just fine.