What's In A Name?

Bo (woof) In Commentary:

Much like our owners, we don’t have much input in selecting our names. At least we’re getting closer to being named as if we were a member of the larger family than in days gone by. I can’t complain about my name, but my sister may have a beef since I haven’t heard of many kids named Copper. Here’s an article on trends in dog names based on surveying owners in the bay area of SanFrancisco.

They’re not just Fluffy, Rover and Fido anymore.

As dog and cat ownership has expanded to nearly 2 out of 3 American households and spending on pet pampering products has exploded, Bay Area residents have taken to giving their animals more human-sounding names - such as Max, Lucy, Samantha, Charlie or, in the case of one San Francisco papillon spaniel, William III.

But the most commonly loved pet of all, according to a Chronicle review of more than 60,000 pet licenses, is a Labrador retriever named just plain Buddy. He lives in at least 89 different Bay Area homes, the data show.

My old man likes to call me Buddy too, as in “Buddy, stop licking yourself”, “Buddy, take the cat’s head out of your mouth”, and “No Buddy, I don’t want to watch Air Bud again.”

The Chronicle looked at animal license records from San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose to find the most popular pet names - and the most perplexing.

The computer review showed that people are naming their pets like children. Seventeen out of the top 25 tags for dogs and cats are typical people names. Six pets were named Jennifer, seven Marcus and four Kevin.

Beagles are likely to be Bailey. Boxers often are Rocky. Dachshunds are Oscar. And Jack Russell terriers are, of course, Jack.

That’s borderline breedist, no? What if this article were about humans, do you think they would observe: Italians are likely to be called Joey Bag of Donuts, Germans are likely to be named Wolfgang and Canadians have propensity to have last names of Eh?

“Personally, I don’t understand it,” said Spivak, who first worked with the San Francisco Society for the Preservation of Animals and now is a part of Maddie’s Fund, a new family foundation dedicated to saving the lives of shelter animals. “I like food names myself - like Honey, Peaches and Cookie.”

I’m with him. I like to name my humans after food names too. I refer to my father as (con't at http://boknowsonline.com/2008/05/12/a-rose-by-any-other-name/#more-396)