Dog Names

One of the simplest ways to care for your dog is to give him a really great name. You are probably thinking, yeah right, this from a woman whose dog is named Wanda. But keep in mind that all of my dogs were named before I got them. Even though I wasn’t quite sure about her name at first, now I really love the name; it really seems to fit her. And while people do give me weird looks whenever I tell them. Wanda’s name, no one ever forgets it. Additionally the dogs love that they get a lot of attention when people first meet them because people seem to love to repeat “Wanda.”

Let’s face it. You’re bound to come across quite a few Maxs or Ladys, but how many Wandas or Napoleons or Cassablancas have you ever encountered. And if you pay attention, you will find that dogs with really great or unique names get instant attention. I remember when I was a little girl a neighbor of ours named her little dog Ronnie Reagan. At the time Ronald Reagan was president. Every time someone would meet little Ronnie they would lavish attention on him. And little Ronnie (who was rumored to actually be a Democrat) loved every minute of it. It used to be that people named their dogs after a physical feature or personality such as Spot or Happy. That is no longer the case. More and more people treat their dogs as children. Hence human names for dogs are increasingly popular. Now you see more dogs with names like Max, which means ‘the greatest’ in Latin, or Sam, which means ‘listener.’

Dog names are also very dependent upon the sex and age of the owner. Studies have shown that for the most part men give their dogs more masculine names like Spike or Rocky. Women on the other hand favor more feminine names such as Samantha or Tasha. Children like to name dogs after characters from their favorite movies or television shows. Consequently there are a lot of Skips (My Dog Skip), Simbas (The Lion King), and even Barneys (for that popular dinosaur). Even adults are not above naming their dog after a favorite character such as Eddie, the popular dog on Frasier.

Copyright 2000-2007 Margaret Svete