Mama Tiger, I don't know for sure, because they had their litters almost the same day and they're always together, so I'm not sure whose are whose. (I knew that black cat that showed up for a couple days and then disappeared was up to no good.) Most of the kittens are still pretty wild, so I've never been able to get a sure count, but there are at least nine altogether. You're right about the Eddings names, but when I got them, Bel was affectionate while Pol was wilder and had white stripes, so they fit perfectly. Now I have to name 9+ kittens, and I have no imagination for names at all. Maybe planets.

Thanks for all your kind words.

My sister's name is Amelia, after our great-grandmother. I'll have to ask her if she's ever been taunted with Bedilia. In everday use, it generally gets shortened to sound like "Milya" or just "Mill".

Will Beldaran nurse Polgara's kittens, do you think, Roark? That would certainly make it easier for you. And are you going to keep them all as barn cats, or are you going to try to tame them and find homes for them?

As for:



It sounds to me like it's the subspace marker left by the mothership when they dropped your son off, so they can locate him again when they come to pick him up again. We're still waiting for the mothership to come for Young Tiger (although Papa Tiger says that now that YT is in the Air Force, the mothership has him) because we're sure he's not originally from this section of the universe!

You aren't feeding the cactus blood are you?

(the background music is M. Darcy singing Little Shop of Horrors).

Hee! It's a mean green mother from outer space. Feed me, TPorter2!

I really like Tessa and Isobel, particularly b/c I love that spelling of Isobel. I have to say, however, that I know three different Isabelles right off the top of my head, so you might want to check for a popularity spike on that one.

Also, it seems to me that you can use names of pets that are no longer in the household. That seems safe.

I vote for Amelia, but that's just because I love the Amelia Peabody books. Her niece in the books is also named Amelia, but she shortened her name to Lia to be separate from her aunt. (Theories abound as to why.)

All very pretty names, JenEx. My vote would be for Tessa. It's always been one of my favorite names. I have no idea why except that I heard it when I was a kid--Tessa Dahl is the daughter of actress Patricia Neal and Roald Dahl (the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".) I definitely like Isobel. There are a lot of little girls named Amelia or some variation of it around here, so it's not one I would pick. Sabrina (even though it's a beautiful name) always reminds me of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

1) I vote for Amelia. Always liked that name.

2) When I was just a wee whereverthelass, we had a cat named "Quincy" (Best. Cat. EVER.), after Quincy Market in Boston, which was one of my and whereverthesister's favorite places growing up. Unfortunately, most people didn't make that connection, and instead would ask, completely bewildered, "Why would you name your cat after a TV guy who cuts up dead people?" or even better, "Why would you name your cat after Oscar Madison?"

My gf and I joked about renaming my cat George, because he reminds us of George Costanza. He's short, stocky, and not too bright. His real name is Connor, but he also gets called Fatty, Puffy, or Puff Daddy. Oh, and Doofus.

I've also got a female named Maggie, but we could rename her Elaine, then find Jerry and Kramer at the pound.

JenEx, I like Amelia and Tessa for names. Sabrina, honestly, sounds a little too much like a stripper stage name to me.

I've already told Mr. Weds that if we ever have a girl, the name is Elizabeth Skye (after my mom and sister), which we'd shorten to Lily to distinguish her from all the Beths, Lizes and Betsys in the family. He likes the name Porter for a boy, since it's a family name. After my jaw was picked up off the floor, I said, "Only if the next kids are named Lager and Stout." I am NOT going to name any child after beer.

I also vote for Amelia. The spelling of "Isobel" bugs me. "Tessa" was a girl at summer camp back in 1981 who was really mean to me. (Not that I hold a grudge or anything) And "Sabrina" is a teenaged witch. Therefore, Amelia it is. Besides, it's prettier then the other names.

My first reaction was whereverthefk, why did you name your cat after the 6th President of the United States? Though, you could have named your cat Faneuil. (I lived in the Boston area for four years and in my mind, Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall are really the same place. I probably just caused all the Boston posters to start writing angry posts).

No, you are absofuckinglutely correct on this, M.Darcy. It's always been a pet peeve of mine.
Besides, Boston natives never go down to FH/QM anyways, unless they have relatives visiting from out of town.

Heeee. Very much like people from in and around Philadelphia never visit Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell. The guy dressed like Ben Franklin just doesn't impress us that much after a while.

Piece of cake, and piece or slice of pie. (central Canada)


I knew a family that did that with Js - their answering machine message chirped 'hi, you've reached the home of the five Js!...' Way too kute.

While I like the names Hannah and Abigail (and know several young girls/babies with the names), they're becoming the Jennifer/Lisa/Kayla-type name of the newest generation (see the name website linked recently, both are in the top 10 or so).



That's a nice way to combine her heritage and new family (and allows her to choose between the two when she's older, if she's interested).
I was looking through the social security name site, and they list the most popular names by decade, and looking through names from the first few decades (1900s onwards), you might have some luck finding nice names that haven't been run into the ground recently (though you might want to steer clear of Myrtle. The lists are an interesting read (for example, Pink and Rose are listed as boys names, near the bottom of the list. I'd always thought of my grandmother's name as fairly uncommon (Ethel), but it was the #12 name of the 1900s, so I guess my greatgrandparents were being trendy after all (who knew?). The funny thing is that her name was Ethel Amanda, and she originally went by Amanda or Mandy, but kids at school made fun of that name and so they switched to Ethel.

Welcome back, celiviel!

I like Amelia, too... and like auntlada it's mostly because I love the Amelia Peabody books.
Fortunately, she's a pretty good fictional character after which to name someone.

As I kid I liked people names for pets... my first cat was Judy, because at the time (I was four) it was absolutely my favorite name ever. Then there were lots of fish named after assorted people, but the fish always died quickly (either suicide or the cats).

The last couple of pets I've had have been food names. I now have a cat named Spud, which is fitting in many, many ways. I'm kind of wanting to name the next pet Ziti, for the Sopranos reference.

I come from a family of highly creative people. Growing up we had a cat named Cat, and a cat named Kitty.

So I always thought I'd use interesting, unique names when I had pets of my own, but when bought my house and was ready for a pet I wanted to get an adult cat, because I hate to think of an animal dying simply because they didn't find a home fast enough. So I came home from the APA with a cat who already had a name. And guess what it was? K.C. For Kitty Cat.

I did better when I got KC a pet. When I brought her home she was so shy and spent so much of her time hiding and/or moping that I went and got her a kitten, who named herself. I brought her home and the next day she got terribly ill. I had been planning on calling her Mango, but I held off because she was so sick. She almost died, but then she suddenly got better and started eating everything in sight, so her name was Piglet. If I ever get a dog, and if he doesn't insist on naming himself, he'll be called Mundungus. Gus for short, Gus-Gus for cutesy. Although if I ever had like a matching pair of great danes or greyhounds or something (which I won't, but whatever), They'd be Moose and Squirrel.

Oh! I'm going to Vegas tomorrow for a long weekend of fun. Anybody have any must-sees or dos I should know about?

I almost wish I were a soccer fan so I could name something after the captain of the French soccer team.

I used to work with someone named Amalia. It's a pretty twist on Amelia, and nobody called her Amalia Bedalia.

We named our boy kitty Spenser after Robert Urich. His full title is Sir Spenser of Urich. Hee. We also have a kitty Sophie. Our most recent that passed was Leila. I'm always on a Hawaiian kick for names as well(as you can tell by my username). I absolutely love Maui especially and am always trying to fit bits and pieces of the islands into my dreary life in Pittsburgh. We are in the market for another baby kitty and I believe that we are leaning towards Ava.

We also have a dog named Stella and don't have to tell you what people say after I tell them what her name is. It's quite funny.

I like Amelia too. Plus the Joni Mitchell song is great.

My boyfriend's cousin has a cat named Dog.

I was looking at that social security website, and it astounds me that last year there were 604 boys named Beau born, not to mention 1777 girls named Genesis. That just makes me think of Sega.

I would definitely recommend seeing the Guggenheim Hermitage museum at the Venetian hotel moongirl. And of course the Liberace museum. I’m serious…
Hee hee. I’ve promised myself that the next male dog or cat that I get is going to be named Dan Tanna for Robert Urich’s character on the great show Vega$.

My cats? Bob and Ally. Found Ally in an alley and named her Alley, but the vet kept spelling it Ally and it stuck. But now I have to explain to people that even though I call her Miss Ally, I was doing that before I knew Miss Alli.

We had a super-rich guy in our law school class (no really, his parents apparently do grow money on trees), and the coolest thing he did was throw an enormous graduation party for us the night before graduation, at the Ritz-Carlton, inviting every single person in their class and their entire family. There must have been, like, 1,000 people there, with open bar and tons of food. But the most impressive thing? He had Ben Franklin there.

You know there's only one guy in Philadelphia who is allowed to play Ben Franklin - he's licensed and everything.

Ohh... cat names. My first cat was named Gink. I used to read these books called The Littlest Witch, and her cat was named Jinx, which I thought was pronounced Gink (hey, I was three). Mom spelled it at the vet's as I said it, hence the name. she lived a good life, but tragically died of Kitty Leukemia when I was 10.

My cat (now my parents' cat) is named Princess Tiger Lily (their last name), but is usually called Tiger. Other common names to be called are Tiggy, Poopy, Princess Poopina, Poopetta, and Poops. See a trend?

My brother's girlfriend's barncat gave birth to a litter of the cutest little kitties last month, and then disappeared. My bro and his gal took over mothering and bottle feeding them. We named the three that stayed at our parents' house Smokey Robinson the Miracle (a cute gray one with white tipped tails that was the kitty-runt)(I named this one), Dumbhead (named by my Democratic brother who renamed him Dubya in the Political Kitty battle), and Waffle (named by my Republican father who renamed him John Kerry in the Political Kitty Battle)(Smokey Robinson stayed out of it).

My non-partisan brother asked for a kitten as a HS graduation present, so Smokey still lives with them.

edited because I sometimes forget I don't have that last name anymore

I have two kittens - one black female, named ju-ju, so that when she's naughty we can call her "bad ju-ju," and one tortie female named Gary (after Spongebob's snail) Why, yes, I do have small children. Why do you ask?

I am totally calling my next dog Shi-THEAD. After Steve Martin's dog in "The Jerk," of course.

My boys are Sam and Charlie (given the formal names, shortened to these). I just knew that's what they should be named. Fortunately, Mr. M agreed. Mr. M's first name is Boyd. Great name for a great guy. Fairly unique, but not unheard of, and not listed in the top 1,000 for any year 1990-2003. Gave it to one of the boys as a middle name. Good thing I never had girls, because, although there are many names we both liked, none of them seemed to be right for "our" kid.

The baby is 10 months old today. He's our post-vasectomy baby. Absolute joy of my life, and I was formerly the most non-maternal person alive. [PSA]Get your specimin checked after the vasectomy. It is important.[\PSA]

Question for y'all parents of young children: what's the going rate for child care where you are? For two children in home day care and pre-school, I'm currently paying almost $1100 per month. That's almost 25% of our gross income! Top quality care, but it's killing us. People always say my husband and I should alter our jobs or schedules, but it's not really practical, considering our lines of work, and my job is the one that provides insurance and other benefits for the family. Other people say look forward to the day both are in school and we'll get the biggest pay raise of our lives.

ETA - One other PSA if y'all can stand it - having another baby allowed me to once again donate cord blood. Cord blood is used to help people with blood cancers and other disorders, even possibly MS. I believe it also contains stem cells, which we hear so much about in relation to research and "dead babies." Considering how useful, abundant, and easy to donate it is, I'm surprised the airwaves are not flooded with PSAs all over the place. Anyway, I felt very good about donating and highly recommend it for those with no moral/religious opposition to it. Any OB/GYN should have info.

So sorry to hear that. Even if Polgara was a barn cat, it's still a loss.

When my cat Bebop died, I had to leave work I was so upset.

The cats I have now are the longest surviving pets that I've had (nearly 9 years) and would be devastated if they died. Isis, Stormy Cloud, and Coleman (who was going to be called Shazam, but it just didn't fit). Coleman has the most nicknames as he's a big black cat who whines like a little girl. Gobler is my favorite nickname for him.

My dad is a veterinarian so I've had pets all my life and the names run the gamut from Bebop and Gizmo (cats) to Tiny, Lucky, (dogs) and Fritty (cat).

A friend of my dad's had a dog named Jerk. Named after the movie itself.

Ooh, KarateKate, I loved those books too. At the age of three or four, they were my absolute favorite, except my Mom disliked reading them to me because they were "too long." Only "long" in comparison to other picture books, but anyway....so the family legend has it that I taught myself how to read so I could read The Littlest Witch series without bugging Mom.

Roark, I'm really sorry about your kitty.

I love that DuchessKitty. Most of our pets tend to be girls so there aren't as many cool girl names as Dan Tanna for the boys. Every time I find a cool name - it's for a boy. But, I love all things Robert Urich so I would agree to the Dan Tanna name.

P.S. I enjoy the political kitty battle. I think that I'd go nuts. :)

edited to change a few "love" words. I used that word too often in this message. Ok, that's better.

My mother cannot name pets. The first pet I remember is a cat named Purple Nose. We had dogs named Patrick, Lucky, Smokey, and Star. She now has Misty. Other cats were named (with some input from me, my brothers, and my dad) Tiger, Tiger (again), Pinky, Judy, Judy Jr (called JJ), Lucy, and Baby Cat. It's this last one that drives me nuts. Mom stole Lucy from neighbors who were abusing her and her kittens (who never lived very long). Okay, so Yay, Mom! on that one. Lucy was pregnant when Mom stole her. Three of her four kittens from that litter (her last before being fixed) were nicely robust. The fourth seemed to get only about 1/2 the nourishment he needed. So he received supplemental bottle feedings. Mom took to calling him Tiny Baby. I called him TB. Once, TB hid under the porch, and Dad said "I thought only a snake could crawl under there." So I started calling him Snake. Mom never got the hint. The other three kittens were adopted out, Lucy realized that she only had TB and began aggressively mothering him. Mom started calling him Baby Cat. He's now quite large, about 8 years old, and Mom still calls him Baby Cat. Or just Baby. This from a woman whom I think would have chosen a career over childrearing, had she had to pick only one. What a squish!

A friend let her kids name their pets. So there was a black cat named Black, a dog named Puppy, and a cockateil named Birdy.

STELLAAAA!!! Can't you hear me yell-a? You're putting me through hell-a! STELLAAAAAA!!!

Well, that's what I would say, at least.

A couple of years ago, I rented a house on a farm with many barn cats. I tended to give them all boys' names--Grover, Max, Bert, Ernie, Winston, and Salem--because it's sometimes hard to tell the sex of barn kittens for a while. (They're shy and don't often like to be picked up.) When I moved to an apartment in town, I only brought one of the cats with me--Bubba (hence my screen name). Bubba seemed the perfect name for this particular kitten. Bubba would try to get up on the porch of the farmhouse by repeatedly running at the concrete steps. However, they were too high for Bubba (who was tiny), and the kitten would go head first into the lowest step. After watching this process repeated for a few minutes, I would lift Bubba onto the porch--and a few minutes later, Bubba would invariably fall off again and start the process all over. Bubba was also a very chubby kitten with brisly hair that stuck out like a hedgehog. So fat and stupid equals "Bubba". Since that time, Bubba has grown to be very sleek (almost thin) and has proven to be very intelligent (just hard-headed, apparently). And oh yeah. She's a girl. But she's still Bubba because it just seems to fit somehow.

I'm so glad Rachel settled this for us. Now I just have to inform Mr. Ex. Heh.

Actually, Amelia is my favorite of the ones I listed. I love Isobel/Isabel, but apparently Isabella is hugely popular now, and that's just too close. Tessa isn't bad, but she'd get called Tess and a)I was scarred in high school by an AP English teacher who made us read Tess of the d'Ubervilles and b) When your first name ends with s and your last name starts with "Ex" you might have some trouble in junior high.

I'm out of control, y'all. Been surfing ebay for nursery decor and emailing Mr. Ex baby links all day. And it's 6-8 months still, at the very least!
Thank goodness TAR starts soon to distract me.

Connor (see above post), was named by the SPCA, but I kept it in honor of "Connor MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod" from the movie Highlander.



Not true! I was just there! (In 1988)

DariaG My mom is a horrible namer too! Miss Kitty for 2 cats, Foo-fee for a dog, and Pretty-Boy for several birds. I always refused to call the animals by those names.

JenEx Amelia gets my vote too.

Ricci, did you simply refer to the pets with pronouns, or rename them? My roommate had a tank of fish named "Goldie", "Swimmy", and "Fishy", but I always called them Eduardo, Lamont, and Fred.

When we petsat our friend's wife's gerbil, "Fuzzlebutt", we knew his name was really something else and called him that (for the life of me I can't now remember what that was). Interestingly, our friend's wife cautioned that the gerbil bit like crazy, but he never bit us. Think the biting had to do with the sucky name?

A while back, a friend told me a story of people he knew that named their pet Richard Edward, aka Dick Ed. I have yet to verify this.

When I read "Tessa", I immediately thought of Terra, which is what my ex-roommate wants to name his future daughter. He is obsessed with Final Fantasy and has said numerous times that he would name his kids after his favorite characters. Terra or Celes for a girl, and Tidus for a boy.

Oh my, the Shi-THEAD dog naming reminds me of a friend of mine here, who has a neighbor whose dog really is named Shithead. No fancy pronunciation. She also has another Genteel Southern Lady neighbor who just cannot bring herself to call the dog by his name. So what does she call him? "Shoothead!" (Put on your thickest Mississippi accent and say it, i.e. "Sheeewwthead,", and you will understand why I die laughing every time I think about this!)

What in the huh now? I was like 7 when I decided that and I am nowhere near a Fanilow. I don't even get the connection really.

Definitely go see the Bellagio water ballet in Vegas.

[dating myself]Barry Manilow's dog was a beagle named Bagel. It was on at least one album cover that I know of. (I was a DJ in the '70s) [/dating myself]

That stuff from Sephora must work wonders; I would have thought you weren't out of elementary school in the 70's.

I think so, because I used to see them all nursing in one big pile sometimes. I doubt she's got enough milk for all of them, though, so I thought I'd give them some to be safe. I'm really more familiar with how this stuff works with cattle and hogs; they'll usually take on orphaned calves or pigs, but it works best if they were just born.


They'll probably gradually tame themselves like their mothers did; a couple are starting to act more friendly (and intimidating my dog). I'll probably keep them around, although I'd be willing to give most of them away -- they haven't killed all the mice on the place yet. It's pretty hard to give cats away around here, because everyone has plenty. Unpleasant as it might sound, the coyote population probably controls the cat population here as much as anything.

I vote for Tessa - Tessa Sweazy Web was my great-great aunt (or maybe there was another great in there, I always get confused). She was quite the character. She was a poet (pretty folksy stuff) and helped establish the first state poetry day in the US in 1938.

LawDog just made my day! Actually, I didn't have a driver's license, but I did have my third-class FCC broadcast license when I started.

I had a co-worker named Kermit. And he named his son Dermot. That is all.

I know a woman named Lorenna whose identical twin is named Dorenna. Now there is a crime against innocent women!

I went to grade school with a pair of twins named Connie and Ronnie, and one named Doris and Lois, which wasn't so bad. One of my cousins almost completely broke with the twins get matching names thing, though; his daughters were Barbara and Beverly, and went by Barb and Bev.

And macaddictyou've got me beat--I got my third phone right after my 18th birthday. Did you ever go for for your second or first phone? I was studying for my first, but the electronics finally beat me.

I knew a set named Pennie and Ronnie.

Well, Macaddict could have been a DJ at his elementary school. Does that make up for Frodo Lives!?

Rabrab, much to my father's chagrin, I had no ambitions for a career in radio. It was just my afterschool and summer job for three years. And M. Darcy, I can't wait for July 6 so you can tell us what Ken Jennings is really like.