All About Animals discussion

If you have adopted an animal from a shelter or elsewhere, did you keep the name it was given? Or, did you change it? What was the name? And, what did you change it to? Also, why? If there was a reason other than not just liking the name.

I have two dogs I adopted from the animal shelter.

My older dog was named Henry. I have a relative named Henry and just didn't like the name for a dog. So, we changed it to Tucker. He was a year and a half old when we got him and he took to his new name pretty well.Tucker is a Rat-terrier/Jack Russell mix.

My younger do was named Sire from the shelter. He just didn't look like a Sire. My puggle (part pug/beagle mix) isn't really prim and proper. He's more of a crazy funny dog who loves to get himself into trouble. So we changed it to Rufus. He was 3 months old when we adopted him.

I didn't like Phoebe's name at first but being from a sailing background, where we think changing a name of a boat brings bad luck, we kept the name. Then my niece was born and named after a beloved friend of their family with the name Phoebe. We proudly proclaimed we had named our cat before they named their daughter. Now whenever Phoebe-the-girl visits us we address her as Phoebe-the-girl (to avoid confusion) and we address our cat as Phoebe-the-cat.
Phoebe is right for our cat as it sounds like furball (which she is) and it sounds sufficiently regal when we use the complete name which is "Queen Phoebe of Bagnall's Hill."

Tui,

I think Phoebe is a great name too. Sounds like a good cat name or a girl name.

My first two rescue pets, the Chihuahua, Taco and the Dutch Mix rabbit, Oreo came to me named and I never changed them. At first my sister and I argued about Oreo's name, we were thinking of renaming her. I wanted to call her Skunk (because of her coloring, not her smell!) but my sister wouldn't agree to it so we ended up leaving her shelter name. Oreo was only a few months old when we got her and didn't know her name yet.
While I believe that naming an animal is part of the bonding process for pets and their owners, I don't really like renaming adult animals if they already have a known name, especially when the animal knows it's name. To me it just seems to be unnecessary confusion for older pets and I also believe that calling them by their first name can help certain animals warm up to their new owners and surroundings quicker and learn the rules of the new place by being called by the name most familiar to them. This is why Taco was never renamed, although after he became mine several nicknames were born. The names happened gradually over time and each, while he learned the names applied to him, the names came to reflect something else too. Taco has learned that often, the name I call him by or use at the moment, can reflect my mood. So far Taco's nickname list include; Pup, Lil' Dog/Little Dog, Bud, Kitty, and just plain Dog. While I may call him any one of these names, when I want something I say to be clear to him, I use his name.
Chibi & Kojikaki, when I first got them I had hoped they would already have been named because I had no name ideas. If they had been named I wouldn't have renamed them unless I really hated the names. Now I am actually glad I got to name them because it really made me have to observe the bunnies and get to know them. Chibi was first named. His name was chosen based on who he was and the kind of rabbit I hoped he would grow up to be. The name of Chibi is Japanese for Small, and is also the name of two of my favorite characters; a small Dragon from the Dragon Drive book series and TV show, and a young wolf from the Okamiden video game. Both of these characters are friendly, loyal, brave, and independent. They are also heroes. Chibi has exhibited all of these traits and appears to have been perfectly named.
Kojikaki was named based on Chibi's name. Because Chibi's name was Japanese, I felt Kojikaki's should be as well. I eventually decided to name her the way the cats in the Warriors books are named; they all have nature based names such as: Fireheart, Leafpool, Graystripe, or Jayfeather. Looking at her coloring, I thought something representing this would work. I tested, in English, the ideas of the names; Brownpaw, Brownear, Brownspots, and more but none of these seemed to fit. Eventually I came up with the idea of using the word Fawn for the first part of her name. This would work perfectly because Fawn would describe her brown coloring as well as her personality. Just like a fawn, Kojikaki appeared to be gentle and cuddly but at the same time their was a wildness about her. So I decided to call her Fawn something. To help decide, my mom and I looked up the Japanese word for fawn, which was Kojika. Then we started putting in random words such as; paw, ear, and tail, but none of these words fit with Kojika the right way. Eventually, as I was thinking about the names of the different warrior cats, the end name of heart came up and seemed to stick. Fawnheart sounded pretty good to me so we looked up the word for heart, which was Ki. Ki also means Spirit, so not only did the two words sound good together and create the name of Kojikaki, but my bunny now had two names in one. Kojikaki is both Fawnheart and Fawnspirit, both of which fit her various moods and her personality. The name of Kojikaki represents her ability to be gentle and cuddly when she wants as well as her wildness.
I am planning on my next rescue rabbit being at least a year old, maybe two years, so the next one will probably be named already. Will I change the name? I can't say for sure but probably not. Still we will have to wait and find out when it happens. The same goes for the next dog I rescue although I don't know wether the next one will be a puppy or an adult yet, all I know is that I would like it to be old enough to train it for agility, but if I get a puppy and have to wait for a while that's what I will do. If it is a puppy I may rename it, depending on what it's shelter name is. If it is an adult it's name will most likely stay.