s/o of the name threads -- using a name that belonged to a pet?

[nadia105]

I never thought I would consider this, but we have a hard time coming up with boys' names and found out last week that #4 is a boy.  I had a dog as a teenager named Oliver and I keep coming back to that name.  It's a bit trendier than I would like, but I haven't heard of any Olivers in the area we live in, so I'm okay with it.

Would you ever use a name you had used for a pet?

[nova22]

Yes. I have done this...twice.

When I was pregnant with my first, DH loved the name Maximilian. I had a dog named Maximilian. Not just Max, like a normal person would do with a dog - my dog's name was the long version. I eventually conceded and we used the name. We call him Max. It's surprisingly uncommon in this area although I think it's generally a more popular name...I've never run into another Max. Just a sidenote: our child with the most unusual name - something that doesn't even rank on the Social Security Administration's list of top 1,000 names for the past 50  years - is the one that we run into a lot. There are two other girls in our church with the exact same name (first and middle). 

Back on topic...our youngest is named Veronica. At the time I didn't know it but DH had a childhood dog named Veronica. Now we have two kids with names that were once used for one of our pets.  For what it's worth, I never look at Max and think "black lab" and DH doesn't look at Veronica and think "pug." They are definitely their own person.

Granted, it's our own fault for giving People Names to pets. ;) I will keep this in mind if we ever get a dog, because in the past almost all of my pets have had very distinct people names - Peter, Donovan, Maximilian, Frederick...

[erigeron]

I don't think I could dissociate it from the pet! Most of our pets have had pretty off-the-wall names that I'd never use on people, anyway. My parents still have a cat named Isabelle, though, so I can't relate to the current Isabella trend... sounds like a cat's name to me.

[la mamita]

I think if you are not the type to be super attached to your pets (as in, not naming your child in memorium of your lost pet...) and you had used a name that is typically considered a people name (not Spot!), it's fine. I think babies really take on their name and make it their own, so unless you have a really negative association with some name, it will become "theirs" and be a non-issue.

[Liora]

My daughter is named after something worse than a pet...my World of Warcraft character!  lol.  However, it took us 10 years to get pregnant so really it was always meant to be her name and I just used it for my character (lvl 80 blood elf if you must know :P yes I'm a geek).

I think any name association you might have will disappear quickly.  Once you get to know a child then that child just *is* that name, kwim?

[bella99]

Nope, not weird at all, unless of course you do give your pets/animals very off the wall names.

We have three dogs, two we've had since puppyhood and they have people names.  My cats have people names too.  I consider them members of the family and I prefer pets with people names.  That said, I actually like both of my dogs and my cats names on people, and a good friend named her third son the same as one of my dogs (Henry).  Not a big deal for either one of us.

Our third dog used to belong to a relative, and has a random word as her name.  It actually suits her, but it's weird.

[spargel]

I would love to use my deceased dog's name (Luke), it's always been my absolute favorite name and my DH says no way! I can't tell if it's more because it previously belonged to my favorite dog, or he's just not all that fond of it. Definitely not using the current dog's name (Yoda) ;)

I laughed at the person using their WoW character's name. I'm actually surprised my DH hasn't suggested this before!

[heathenmom]

LOL, I so considered this!  Before I met dh, I was convinced that I'd never marry or have children, so I named my cat my favorite girl name (Molly).  She doesn't live with us anymore (did not do well with all the family additions so a dear friend adopted her) but I still don't think hubby would go for it.

[greenmulberry]

This is so interesting!

I have to say I am rather sad we "used up" some on my favorite people names on our dogs. I don't think I could name my kid a name that was my dogs.

However, I am naming my daughter the same name as a friend's dog. I had already decided years ago that was what I would want to name a baby girl. I waffled on still using it, but decided I liked the name, and I am going for it.

[LSUtwinMama]

Originally Posted by Liora 

My daughter is named after something worse than a pet...my World of Warcraft character!  lol.  However, it took us 10 years to get pregnant so really it was always meant to be her name and I just used it for my character (lvl 80 blood elf if you must know :P yes I'm a geek).

I think any name association you might have will disappear quickly.  Once you get to know a child then that child just *is* that name, kwim?

Ha! I read your reply to my husband. He wanted to name our twins after our WoW characters if they were boy/girl twins... Lucky for my twins, they ended up both being girls or else we'd have a little Zannin and Kiola running around...

[ArcticRose]

My daughter is named after something worse than a pet...my World of Warcraft character! lol. However, it took us 10 years to get pregnant so really it was always meant to be her name and I just used it for my character (lvl 80 blood elf if you must know :P yes I'm a geek).

You aren't the only geek here. =) We did the exact same thing! DD's name was one hubby had picked out before we even met. I liked it so much, I used it for my character in WoW. (and in LoTR) Then DD came along and we just knew we wanted to use that name. =)

Now we are trying to come up with a name for this new bean. Without having a name that's been hanging around waiting for a baby, it's hard!

[dakotablue]

I hate that my sister has taken a number of really great names that we would have considered.

One is Charles, I really like it, BUT she currently has a dog named Charlie and its a girl . Very cute name for a dog, don't think I can use it.

Same problem from my best friend, her brother has a dog named Zachary.

I wouldn't have an issue with it if the animals were not still part of the family and it had been a while, otherwise its kinda like "No, I was talking to the dog"

[Liora]

It seems to me the actual problem here is naming pets with human names! 

Oh and Horde FTW! :P  glad there are other geeks here.

[allisonrose]

My mom wanted to give me a name they had already given a cat but my dad said no. I'm glad because I like my name much better than the cat's name (who passed away either shortly before or shortly after I was born). :)

[4Blessings]

DH had a dog named Ruby growing up. I would have loved to use the name for one of our girls but he refused.

We did not plan on having kids so we used three perfectly lovely girl names for our dogs and I can never imagine using them for our children either.

[greenmulberry]

Originally Posted by 4Blessings 

DH had a dog named Ruby growing up. I would have loved to use the name for one of our girls but he refused.

We did not plan on having kids so we used three perfectly lovely girl names for our dogs and I can never imagine using them for our children either.

This is us. Oh, and we are naming our girl Ruby. Luckily, we had not used that on a dog. But we did already use Emma and Amber, so I cannot name any kids those names now!