Naming Pets, Naming Characters

Dogs and cats provide love, laughter, and activity. Naming our beloved furry friends can be challenging yet fun. Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

Naming our pets is like naming a baby – sometimes the process is excruciating, and sometimes it’s easy. Whether you get a kitten or puppy or if you adopt an adult animal, naming (and having your furry friend respond to that name) is important.

When people adopt a dog or cat, sometimes they keep the moniker given and at other times the pet’s name is changed. For example, the shih tzu my husband and I adopted from Hearts United for Animals three years ago had been christened ‘Stormy.’ Before we even met him, we knew we wanted to change it – that name, for us anyway, just didn’t seem to fit. So, we named him ‘Jeremiah.’

My shih tzu, Jeremiah, was named ‘Stormy’ by the rescue organization from which we adopted him. He learned his new name quickly.

Why that name? I don’t know exactly, except for this: it’s the only one we agreed on! For us, re-naming this rescue dog didn’t come easily – we tossed ideas around, including names of St. Louis Cardinals baseball players, like ‘Yadie,’ (nickname for the team’s famous catcher), but none appealed to both of us. Then, we started with Old Testament Biblical names, and ‘Jeremiah’ clicked … for both of us! The little guy, who was five years old when we adopted him, learned his new name fairly quickly.

Last year, we adopted a springer spaniel named Sadie. We didn’t change her name. She was already eight years old, and we both liked the name, so we kept it.

We adopted the two cats living in our home when they were 10-week-old kittens (they are more than 15 years old now). Coming up with names for them seemed to be an easy process. My husband’s ancestors are Irish, and we both like Irish drinks, so Murphy (stout beer) and Bailey (Irish cream) seemed appropriate.

Murphy and her sister Bailey were fun to name, and their names came easily — in honor of my husband’s ancestry and the Irish drinks we enjoy!

A person can find meanings of names on the internet as well, for example at and . These can be helpful resources if you’re naming a baby, a pet, or story character. (I learned ‘Jeremiah’ meant “exalted by God,” which seemed appropriate since our beloved shih tzu came out of a horrible puppy mill situation).

As a fiction author, I must come up with names for characters. I find that a somewhat difficult process. For some reason, my female character names come more easily (perhaps because I’m a woman??) than names for my male characters. While writing Rescue Road, my first pet rescue romance novel, I needed a villain; my husband suggested ‘Dylan the Villain.” I nixed that. However, I’m considering the name ‘Dylan’ for one of my 2021 releases because it seems an appropriate name for the setting and story.

Naming characters in my books, including the animals, is a process that includes research … but it can fun!

A fun way for me to research names, especially for book characters, is via the internet. I’ve discovered several websites that provide potential character names. The same is true for baby names and for names for pets. Recently, came out with a list of popular dog names for 2020, including ones named after food items! (That list includes Croissant – a friend of mine christened her cat with that moniker!).

‘Sadie’ is on that list, so our springer has a popular name. However, Jeremiah didn’t make the list, however, one of the dogs in my book Rescue Road, whose name is ‘Jax’’ is on the list. My Jeremiah is the role model for ‘Jax.’

Daily Paws also provides a list of , which includes book-inspired names like ‘Jo’ from Little Women and ‘Edward’ from Twilight. You can also choose from celebrity names, like ‘Kanye’ (West) or junk food, like ‘Soda Pop.’

Naming our pets can be a fun experience … and a lengthy process. Just like with human babies, we want our pets’ names to be meaningful in some way. Pixabay photo.

If you’re a fiction writer or want to be, provides some helpful tips on naming characters, and the famously helpful author platform, , even has a name generator.  Both could also be helpful in naming pets, as could be the other resources I mentioned earlier.

How do you choose a name for your pet? Have you ever changed an adopted animal’s name?