Heh, that is true. I can name my future possible child Darcy Rebecca, sorry, Darcy Rachel. (I bet you thought I'd forget that Rachel). Except, I'm pretty sure that is a big no no in the Jewish religion (naming children after people who are alive). Oh well, I'd tell the world she is named after Fitzwilliam Darcy but you guys would know the truth :-) Fictional characters are ok but people aren't.

That would be the greatest conversation - when someone got mad and told the kid, you know, you are named after the cat.

My first two cats had provisional names as kittens. The long-haired white one was Collette, and the dark striped one was Nicole. One evening, Collette came into the living room, fluffed up her tail, and hopped like a bunny. She became Rabbit, aka Bunny. Nicole lived to climb, so I named her Hilary, after Edmund Hilary (first to climb Mt. Everest). After Rabbit died many years later, I found a beautiful pound kitty with dilute calico coloring and long hair. The Zzard took one look at her and said "it's Rabbit with colors." Actually, her name had been Persephone, with the nickname Prissy (her family moved overseas and couldn't take her). I thought Prissy was a dreadful name, but since she was 5 already, I wanted to stick with something close. So she became Priscilla. Only she's prissy, so I do call her Prissy and Priss. I suppose she renamed herself back to Prissy. After Hilary died, Priss was very depressed, so I decided I had to find a new cat immediately. A friend owned a rescue dog, and her fiance had just adopted a kitten that the dog wanted to eat. The kitten (1-year, so like a teenager) had been with its mother's owners, another family, an animal shelter, a pet store that placed animals from the shelter, and my friend's fiance -- and had a different name at each place. My friend's fiance got the kitten on the last day before he would have been sent back to the shelter as unadoptable and probably euthanized. I figured I could call this cat anything I wanted. So I chose "Eddie", naming him after the ballet dancer Edward Villella and the travel writer Eddy L. Harris. That was 8 years ago, and he hasn't renamed himself.

Although it was never an issue, these are not names I would ever give to a child. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but they just don't appeal to me in that way. On the other hand, with Gwyneth naming her kid Apple, I suppose Rabbit is now perfectly acceptable as a girl's name. If I were naming children after objects, I would prefer something like Embroidery, Credenza, Lawnmower, or Nuclear Reactor. The first two being girls' names and the last two being boys' names, of course.

See, my brother would so do that. And I wouldn't even have to get him mad. He warned me that if my child was named Tobias - first, middle, or last, he would bring out the story of the rabbit, guitar and dog.

He also decided years ago that, no matter what I named my children, he was going to call the girls "Sport" and "Scout" and the boys "Tiger" and "Champ".

On a related note, is it better to be named after the cat/dog, or the name that the cat/dog would have been named (but a cat/dog that fit the name was never found before baby's birth)? Anyways, some kids would rather be named after the dog... ("We call the dog Indiana!")

ETAFor whatever reason, my husband has called me "Bunny" since we first started dating. My name is nothing close to Bunny (though what really does get shortened to Bunny, I find myself wondering). No one has ever given me a nickname before (well, because I wouldn't answer to them). And this is how you end up with a Great Aunt Bunny that isn't really your aunt and no one really knows her real name and you just wonder, "who the heck names a kid Bunny?"

Daria, you are so wrong - Credenza is clearly a boy's name.

Ah yes, the naming of our four legged family members.
Guess we get to blame my dad for this. When we adopted our first schnauzer (for my dad, as a 25th wedding anniversary present), he chose Liebchen as her calling name, but followed the tradition of using parts of the sire and dam's AKC registered names for her registered name -- Silver Lady. The AKC added the "XVI." My dad felt that female schnauzers should have names that reflected terms of affection in their native language (German).
When we lost that puppy as the result of a MVA, we went that very next day and adopted another schnauzer puppy. Yes, another female, and yes, another runt of the litter. This time, we chose the German name as part of her registered name, "Edelweiss" added "von (our last name)" to it as the rest of the registered name, and used th"weiss" with a feminine sounding "e" added on for her calling name. Weisse lived a long life, and when I got my current younger schnauzer as a puppy, I named her after Edelweiss, but her calling name are taken from the first two letters -- e, d (Edie, in other words).
The schnauzer puppy that the original Edelweiss raised was named "Kinderlieb von (our last name), and Liebe for her calling name. The six year old schnauzer that I have now, is named for Kinderlieb, but her calling name is Lieben. So far we've been able to keep the same pattern of names, and I still have a couple of Germen ones (Edie almost got the one that means Flirt, and Lieben almost got the one that means Beautiful) that I haven't used yet.

Agreed--it's first cousin to Highboy, after all!

So a friend just sent me this link. It's for a band called Big and Rich. Click on the video for Save a horse (Ride a Cowboy.) It's like Fellini meets Texas, somehow. Oh, and the button to turn off the intro music is at the top right.

Okay, here's my thing, I am toying with naming my daughter (if we have one,but I'm not pregnant, yet) after our truly amazing cat that died in our house fire last year. The name is very pretty (Gemma) and was named after Gemma Zaprogna from "Road To Avonlea", our Gemma was part siamese and had incredible blue eyes. We loved the cat like a child and my husband still mourns her more than a year later, so my thinking is it is a tribute to name my child after the cat. Of course, all our cats get people names, right now we have 2 cats, Meghan and Susie, and they seem to like their names ok.

Credenza can be male or female, depending on the middle name: Credenza Alphonse would be perfectly cromulent for a boy (if you don't mind having him come home from grade school everyday in tears or beaten up,) , while Credenza Tiphaine would virtually guarantee that your little girl would be a pageant princess. Or a goth.

Kate, if it's wrong to name your child after your bass guitar, is it equally wrong to name it after your stuffed bunny?

On the naming of pets, I've gotten most of my pets with pre-existing names. The only one that I got to name was a foundling kitten who only had three legs. Mr Rabrab called her Tripod, at first, but she was always under things--the table, a chair, your feet, so I changed her name to Trivet--it suited her much better.

Oh, and congratulations to all, and thanks for the piece/slice input--after crunching the numbers, I've concluded that it's clearly random.

No, Hildy and M. Darcy, Credenza is a girl's name. Notice the feminine "a" on the end?

Btw, Hildy, I sent you an e-mail, which might be pointless if your address has changed in the last year.

Fields, I understand your husband mourning the cat. After Rabbit died, I had to go to several sessions of (free) pet bereavement group counseling at the local animal shelter. I highly recommend it. I finally had a dream in which everything I knew intellectually about Rabbit's death came together emotionally, and I woke up in a much better state of mind. Of course, the therapists loved the dream, since it was an obvious case of the subconscious mind healing itself, etc., etc. Anyway, yeah, name your kid Gemma (if you have a girl someday). It's when the animal and the kid have the same name simultaneously that it gets weird.

A friend who used to do volunteer work at the zoo named her daughter after a seal. It was my friend's favorite seal.

And that annoying Australian buffoon Steve Irwin named his daughter Bindy Sue after his favorite crocodile and his favorite dog, so it can't really get much weirder.

I think Credenza sounds like a boy's name. For some reason it makes me think of that guy on Saturday Night Live now named Finesse. Finesse Credenza.....Credenza Finesse....the two names are just meant to go with each other!

I keep picturing boy and girl twins : girl - Credenza, boy - Armoire

And oddly enough, that never really came up as an opposition to me. I suppose it might have if I hadn't gotten the guitar yet (it took a few years to find the guitar that was named Tobias. Geez, I sound/feel like Sara from A Little Princess looking for the doll whose name was to be Emily.).

Now that I think about it, I think that naming my child after a stuffed bunny *should* be worse than after the guitar, but I can't really muster up that emotion. Odd.

Or the twins, Credenza = girl, Chesterfield = boy.

And don't forget their sister, Etagere.

I don't even remember all their names, and I've met them all....there's June, Joyce, Joanne, Jacqui, Jim, John, Joseph, Jamie, two other girls and two other guys.

I'm not planning on having kids for a long time, but I like Olivia, Nathalie, Claire and Taryn for girls; and Nicholas, Sean, Tristan and Scott for boys.

Not that I ever plan on having children because I despise them with every ounce of my soul, but I always said that if Hell froze over, pigs flew, the Leafs won the Stanley Cup and I somehow became pregnant, I would name my daughter Taryn as well. I've always loved that name.

Great. Now I have to hurry up and get accidentally pregnant so I can beat mel to the name.

I have friends-of-relatives who named their daughter after their favorite food. Her name is Callie Marie. Yes, she is named after squid.

Actually, RachelMyDear, you'll have to beat both mel and me to it. Taryn is whereverthesister's name, and I've always intended to name whatever little girl has the misfortune to have me as a mother after wts.

(Of course, Taryn was also my name for about 3 years, while I had her ID at college. Yes, I have brown hair and eyes, as opposed to whereverthesister's dark blond hair and blue/green eyes, and no we don't look aaaaaanything alike, but whatever. It worked.)

Excellent taste, mel. Of course, I only say that b/c you've got the names of both my kids in that list, but still. Excellent taste!

Peanutbuttercup, maybe Marie can play with my kid, Macar O. N'cheze. The father was evidently French by way of Phonectically Questionable.

And I'm pretty much with Rachel, with slight modifications:


ETA: Illiteracy is. Fun,!

In a slight reverse of the previous discussion, my brother, who has a fairly long first name with lots of nickname possibilities, used to name pets after himself (and the various nicknames). Of course, they were fish (which no-one else bothered to name) and he was four at the time.

Hey, I used to name my fish! Of course, I named them all Valerie. My father would systematically (er, accidentally) kill them, and I'd get another, and name it Valerie as well. One time I had two fish at a time, and then the other one was called Mallory.

I don't know. I was four, too. Fish naming must be a big thing for four-year-olds.

Only for four year olds? Oh, I don't know. Every year, I go to the local country fair and win a goldfish. I always give them the same name--Flushy. It just seems appropriate somehow. The longest any of them have lived is about 3 weeks. And one of them even committed suicide. (It was very sad.)

About six years ago, I got a tiny box of three little guppies from Target because I thought it would entertain my cats. The cats totally ignored the fish and I was left to care and feed the fish until they passed (which I figured would be about 3 weeks like Bubbagoldfish). After four years and three moves, two of fish died within a couple of months of one another and I thought, Yeah, the fish are finally dying of old age. That last darn fish is still living in its little cube!

Every time I go away and ask my family to feed my cats, and, oh yeah, the fish, they ask how that fish can still be hanging on. I want to know the same thing. What is the lifetime of a guppy anyway?

I had a goldfish that lived for, like, 5 years and I was devastated when he died (I was about 6 at the time, so it's excusable).

My family has a long tradition of only giving our pets real-person names, none of that cutesy stuff for us!

So we've had three cats in my life - Charlie, Bert and Harry, and two dogs - Fritz and Henry.

Apparently all of our pets were also old men in a prior life.

It should be noted also that while Fritz is not really that common, we needed something super German as he was half German Shepherd and half Daschund.

Just stop and think on that one for a minute.

I seem to have started my sucking-up early in life, so at the end of my kindergarten year my teacher gave me the class goldfish to take home. His name was Bubble-eyes. At my first job a coworker got a fish then decided to get another to keep it company. Neither survived the first weekend they spent together. I don't know what happened -- if they got so hungry in two days that they ate each other or they just did not get along -- but it was a pretty nasty red mess Monday morning.

Long ago my brother went to camp with a kid whose family's last name was Park. I think the humans all had normal names, but they named a bunch of their pets and belongings to rhyme. There was the dog (Bark Park) and the fish (Shark Park) and, I don't know, a canoe or something (Ark Park), maybe a bird (Lark Park). Who knows how far they went. (The car, Park Park? The picture developing room, Dark Park? The stool pigeon, Narc Park?) The kid's name may have been Mark, which might just turn this story from light amusement to deepening pity.

joland, several sites list the life span of a guppy as 2-5 years. So you have an elder guppy. As opposed to a puppy guppy? Sorry...

I still have the cactus my son used in his 3rd grade science fair project. He is 26 now, and it is still growing.

It'sAllAboutTheGiants, that Park family story is hilarious. You could say that you were showing responsibility early in life, instead of sucking-up...

I have a cousin named Fritz (short for Freeman). They got a bull whose name was Fritz, but luckily cousin Fritz was away at college.

We had a cat (mostly a barn cat) whose name became Meeses (plural of Mice, of course), she had a kitten who became Meeses Kitty. Meeses Kitty had a kitten, who was named Cat. Creative kids, we were.

The question is, of course, which was papa and which was mama? Because if papa was a Daschund, that's more than a little impressive!

My cat Polgara was killed on the road last night. I live out in the country on a gravel road, but there's still a little traffic, and my place is closer to the road than I'd like (by a mile or so). She wasn't a real close pet, but she was a good barn cat, and the sad part is that she was still nursing her first litter of kittens that were born a couple months ago. So now I'll be playing momma cat and giving them milk for a while.

Actually, the saddest part is that I have a digital camera and never got around to taking any pictures of her. Have to remedy that with her sister Beldaran and their kittens.

How very sad, Roark! Poor kitty! How many kittens are you having to be mama for, and how old are they now?

And as an Eddings fan, I also find it ironic that Polgara would be the one who died young rather than Beldaran.

Well, someone was doing something impressive either way. I admire the courage of a female Dachshund who could take on a German Shepherd. But for the comfort and safety of all who were involved in this misbeggoten match, I like to think that the German Shepherd was the mama and she was lying down at the time of conception and stayed that way throughout the process.
More bad doggie matches:
--a friend who has a dog who is half Old English Sheepdog and half Miniature Schnauzer
--a co-worker with a purebred Golden Retriever bitch who she thought couldn't get pregnant - now the GR bitch is expecting half English Bulldog puppies
--The Chihuahua-Basset Hound cross that lives down the street from me.

I used to babysit a kid named Fender. Don't know if it was a bass guitar, but when I asked the origin of his name was told it was after the absent father's guitar.
Sorry, to hear about your cat, hope the kittens will be ok. I've never had another cat since I lost my childhood one to a car. After my great dane was dog napped, I've not had another dog either. I'm going to stick to stuffed animals, less traumatic.

In college, my roommate and I had two goldfish and some neon tetras. We let our boyfriends name the tetras while we named the goldfish (scooby and scrappy). My boyfriend named 'his' three fish Mac, Blue and Tiny. Her boyfriend named his three fish Fred, Fred, and Fred. Guess what his favorite name was?

Hmmmmm, trying to imagine a kid named Fudgie........ Well, actually Fudgie is my teddy.

My fur-babies are Piper MacTabby, Sweet Bear, and Hanky Tank. Hanky is a Maine Coon cat who, at 15 pounds, is a little tank. Sweet Bear is a petite little black girl cat. I tried every "black cat" name I could think of on her, but Bear is all that stuck. And Piper pipes - he sings and pipes his way through the day. He's also a rascal, and ye all know what rascals pipers of the clan MacTabby be!

My dog's name is Bingo. It is great fun when he meets little kids, they sing his song to him and he dances like Snoopy.

Oh I got one: My ex-girlfriend had a dog that was half Chihuahua half Rottwieller. Ouch.

So if it's wrong to name your kid after posting name, is it wrong to use your pet's name in your posting name? Because I don't want to start back at Just Tuned In.

Sorry to hear about your cat roark.

I've always named my pets after actors or tv characters. There's been:
Lou Grant
Ed Lover
Barnaby Jones
Rip Torn
Ginger Rogers
And my latest is Charles Nelson Reilly

I've had the same dream-list of names for my children since I was about 15:

Jackson, Eli, or Gideon if it's a boy
Olivia, Julia, or Rynn if it's a girl

Ooh, Olivia, I love it. I also like Oliver, but only one or the other.

Rachel, you've got lots of time to spare if you want to beat me to the name Taryn. I'm just starting University, and I don't plan on getting married until I'm done that, which will be a minimum of five years.

We do that too, but it gets problematic when you get around to having to name a kid and have used your favorite names on your animals because you thought you were never having kids. To wit: Dogs Luke, Jake, and Nick when I was younger, and current dog Sophie, and cats Maggie, Lucy, and Charlotte. Damnit.

If you come up with a plan, Hildy, do let me know! I think I'm going to need it. We are currently debating Tessa, Isobel, Sabrina and Amelia. I won't tell you which ones are mine and which are Mister Ex's, so as not to sway the jury.

ETA: I'm not familiar at all with Canadian Idol and "Kaleb" makes my skin crawl too, Aisling. I pretty much detest any pointless alternative spellings. My stepson's bio-mom did that to my poor kid (replaced a perfectly good "Ch" with a "K"), and as a result people see his name and assume he's a girl before they meet him.

You don't think she'd get made fun of and called Amelia Bedelia? Because that would kind of be sad.

Eek! It's a sign that I'm far too obsessed with Canadian Idol when I see "Kaleb" and my skin starts to crawl.

Ooh, I like Amelia, JenEx. It's pretty, and she'd have an entire series of books that shares her name.

Yes but Mom that thing is a mutant being. The part that existed when it was used in 1987 is still there but it has since spawned a completely different looking cactus. The thing mutated.

Duchess Kitty that's funny about your dream list because one of my coworkers has 4 kids, two of whom are named Jackson and Eli.

I like naming animals after foods. My dalmatian is named Oreo and I wanted the dachsund to be named Snickers. Alas, I was overruled. I do have a stuffed beagle named Bagel though, just as I always planned.

Don't get me started on baby names, the OH hates boys names that can be shortened but loves girls names that can be shortened into boys names.

JenEx My vote is for Sabrina. That's very pretty.

Roark So sorry about the cat! I hope the kittens do ok.

I think my cat must have told me her name as well. I let her walk around the apartment for a couple of days and then just instinctively started calling her Cleo.

Look! A Fanilow!

I've had Nick and Nora (Charles) and Mitzi (Gaynor), and a Luke (Skywalker, because he was a whiner), DuchessKitty.

JenEx, all of those names are pretty! I've always loved Isobel, and Sabrina makes me think of Audrey Hepburn. Working with elementary school kids, when I see Amelia, I automatically fill in "Bedelia" afterward, so that one would be out for me. Which name matches best with her middle name, if you know it yet?

I know someone whose brother named his cat Newman so that when he came home after work he could say "Hello..........Newman" (like Jerry on Seinfield).

Same here. I have a kid named Kortney in camp the first week. Egads. (Should I start calling it "kamp"?)
This is Kaleb. The bio doesn't really show the reason for my dislike, though, since my hate has everything to do with his warbly singing and slacking off during the Top 155.

True . . . I just always wished that I had the same name as someone in a book growing up. One that rhymes with "Bedelia" might not be the best choice, though.

When MrPL and I first set up house, we adopted two kittens that were siblings born in our co-workers closet (mama kitty who was a stray ran into her apartment one night and gave birth the next day in the closet where she was hiding). We named them Sidney (a long-hair, female tortoise-shell...crazy cat, or as our vet calls torties, cats with extra personality) and her way cooler brother Zack (a short-hair, tuxedo....I know, I know....and they had two other siblings that were orange tiger stripes). Zack took on dogs and won when he was a mere kitten. Unfortunately, he took on an owl later in life and lost.

When Zack died, Sidney went into mourning....we thought she'd out grow it, but after 3 years she wasn't getting better....in fact, we thought she was shutting down. At the time I worked in a mall right across from the pet store....I started thinking that the best idea was another cat....but since Syd is hostile towards others we wanted an older kitten...but a cat younger than she was so she could be alpha kitty. We also wanted (we, who am I kidding....I...I wanted) another tuxedo cat. I love the black & white cat. So I found him....the "perfect" cat. A 4 month old kitten who was male, black and white, and adorable....he'd cried himself horse at the pet store.

MrPl and I went round and round about his name.....I wanted to call him Nic or Antonio....he wanted to call him...hell, I don't remember....but we couldn't agree. And then one morning the Mr rolled over and said "Jasper"....It fit and Jasper it was....however, the cat has proven himself to be a real jackass, so often it's Jasper Jackass.

Hey folks, it's been a long time since I've posted over here (or really...anywhere). So hello again!

JenEx, my vote is for Amelia.

My first name is Yvonne, and I've never liked it, though I guess it's coming back into vogue or something. The only other Yvonne I knew when I was growing up was an old lady, so I always felt like it was an old lady name.

My middle name is Chinese, given to me by my grandma (who I adore). And while I have nothing against the name itself, it does happen to include a sound that doesn't exist in English and so people butcher it horribly and it makes my ears hurt.

Right now I'm on a Hawaiian name kick for future kids, if not for a first name, then for a middle name. But that might just be because the last guy I dated was from Hawaii and he did a really good job of making me love things Hawaiian...

Yes, this is because you wanted to name him for something black and white. He came close to being Newspaper or Checkerboard IIRC. Which I would have sounded really funny yelling in the front yard when he got out. As it is, everyone thinks I just have a thing for cookies...

Which brings back the memory of Daria's story about the dog named Surprise, which I am still giggling at. I love it when things come full circle in the Meet Market.