Do Europeans "cheat" when naming litters alphabetically?

PoetikDragon

I have a number of European breeders on my Facebook, and I have noticed that the ones who name their litters alphabetically sometimes put X` in front of the dog's name, where X is the letter for that litter. For example:

Litter "D" puppies: D`Taishi, D`Goro, D`Unshou, D`Yumi, Daichi, D`Makoto
Litter "W" puppies: W`Taro, W`Toshio, W`Tadashi, W`Katsumi, Wakana, W`Sachiko, W`Natsuki

I wonder if they pronounce the letter when talking about the dog, and if so, do they say "Dee Makoto" or "Duhmakoto"?

Losech

That's an interesting way of naming litters. I'd probably do it too if I couldn't find the chosen letter names I liked.
I'd most likely pronounce it Dee Makoto, or D'Makoto with no pause between the D and M. Not quite "duh" but close to it.

WrylyBrindle

(nerd alert)
Those are their Vulcan names.

ShikokuSpirit

You'd pronounce the actual name. For registration purposes you need to include the litter letter first. Assuming you do not name your dog starting with that letter.

For example, my Lynx is from the "L" Litter. Her name is Lynxiene and starts with an "L". She has a littermate brother whose name initially was Ricky but his registered name starts as L'Ricky. He is known by a different name now but we refer to him as "Ricky" and not "L'Ricky".

Some names may be spelt that way...such as D'artagnan. In that case you would pronounce the D. Otherwise you would not. In your case one would normally refer to the dog as Makoto. I guess that could also be pending on the person speaking and what country they are from. =]

"Dee Makoto" sounds more comfortable then "Duhmakoto".

WrylyBrindle

Is it required by certain registries that litters be named by letter like that? I thought it was just a convenience that breeders use when they have a lot of litters to organize, but L'Ricky and W'Taro aren't convenient to remember. It seems silly to bend into awkward names just to give everyone the same letter. What is the reason some breeders name litters that way? I'm new to purebred dogs, so this is an honest question.

ayk

I think some Europeans skip letters.

ayk

For the kennels known for following an alphabet convention, an outsider can instantly identify littermates, approximate date of birth, etc.

The X' can be a little awkward, but not much more than the show names in the US. For instance, my co-owner wanted to name her brindle "See'N Stripes by ReKwest". The call name would have been entirely different from the show name, too.

PoetikDragon

I planned to name my litters alphabetically, but was simply going to skip the letters that don't exist in Japanese.

venus

apparently it is required by certain registries to be included. my friends new french import has H on the front of his name. other puppies I've seen from french breeders also have the H on the front of the name. when my friend was asked what she would like her puppies kennel name to be she was told that the h had to be added. i'm assuming that the letters changes each year so you can see at first glance what year a litter was born.

Sangmort

Wraith's breeder does that too. She tried to do the corresponding Letter in the beginning, but then later on just started doing A'name, B'name, C'name..etc. lol ~

PoetikDragon

@venus Is it by year or by litter? Eg. If a breeder has three litters in a year, do they all get the same letter? Also, do all the breeders have to do the same letter every year (all puppies born in 2012 must begin with "H").

I still think its neat, like naming tropical storms.

venus

i'm not certain the details Claire i can ask my friend if she can find out, i only know about it because of her new puppy. she wanted him to be called claude then the kennel name but he is H'claude.

ayk

Curious what Venus finds out. My understanding is that it is changed by litter, and the alphabet starts via individual kennel.

Heidi

That's kind of silly. I thought that part of the fun of the alphabet naming thing was being creative coming up with names. I mean, I guess I don't really care either way, but I would like the challenge. They're just going to have different call names anyway.

ShikokuSpirit

Each litter should have a different letter. So if there are 3 litters born in a single year then there would be A Litter, B Litter & C Litter. In the order as to which they were born in. January = A Litter, May = B Litter & November = C Litter. Alphabet litter is suppose to organize litters such as Ann ( @ayk ) said...to make it easier to keep track of littermates, dates of birth, parents and so forth. Not only for outsiders but for the breeders themselves.

I'm also doing litters by letters but I will separate by breed. Some kennels if they produce more then 1 breed (on average perhaps they are breeder of 2 or 3 breeds of dog) will either continue to follow the alphabet in order by kennel or will follow alphabet by breed.

For example, let's say I have a Malinois litter and then a couple of Shikoku litters in the same year. My Malinois litter will begin as "A Litter" and my Shikoku litters will be "A Litter" & "B Litter". I'm going alphabetize by breed. If I were to alphabetize by kennel then I would do "A litter" for Shikoku (assuming a litter of Shiku pups were born first), "B Litter" for Malinois (assuming the Mali pups were born in between) & "C Litter" for Shikoku (assuming the next litter of Shiku pups were born last).

Following? Or did I just make that more confusing (lol)?


Alphabet letter and litter depends on the individual breeder/kennel. No one is required to use a certain letter. It just depends on what litter they are on. If it's the first litter then it will begin with A. If it is the third litter it will begin with C. However, a breeder can choose to skip letters if they wish as well.


Claire ( @poeticdragon ), that is a great idea to skip letters that do not occur in the Japanese alphabet. It especially makes sense when having litters registered with NIPPO and JKC!

venus

I've asked my friend to ask her breeder, there is a slight language barrier so may take sometime to get a response. if i don't i'll contact someone on facebook and ask. because in the UK your kennel name always goes in front of the dogs name we don't have anything like this so found it interesting.
my only issues with the way we register names is the fact that you are limited on the amount of letters you can have. we are only allowed a name that is 24 letters long including kennel names. so if i ever breed after my kennel name Kyuuten i can only have another 17 letters.