Meaning behind your pups name
It is always so interesting to learn and hear the stories about all the many pups on this forum. But one thing that I have been wanting to know is the hows and whys of each pups name. Why did you name your pup that name? What is the meaning behind it? Where did the name come from?
For Tetsu, I couldn't find the right name for him and he had remained nameless for 2 weeks until I found it. We were in Maine at lobsterfest and taking a break from all the walking and crowds. Sitting down, I remembered how one description of a shiba was that they had an 'iron-will' and were know for their stubbornness. I had brought a English to Japanese dictionary with me, promising to have named him by the time we returned to NY. In it, I found a word that translated to 'iron' (as in the metal) and it stuck. Though for the longest time Tom kept calling him Tetsuo often thinking of the character from 'Akira'. His long name is Kaizoku Ittetsu, but I forget how that had come to be and even what I thought it might have translated to. But I know that I had always loved the name 'Kai', but it didn't quite suite my shiba pups.
For Tikaani, Tom had wanted to name him some sort of 'Eskimo' name, so he compiled a list of different words that he had liked the sound and meaning to. Then he decided that he wanted to name the pups 'Blizzard' cause he was totally white. But he started to turn gray and Tom was like "Blizzards aren't gray" and changed his name to Tikaani which means 'wolf'. If we didn't have a falling out with his breeder, he registered name would have been 'Jalerran's African Blizzard', to resemble his father's registered name 'Teeco's out of africa'.
What is your dog name story?
For Tetsu, I couldn't find the right name for him and he had remained nameless for 2 weeks until I found it. We were in Maine at lobsterfest and taking a break from all the walking and crowds. Sitting down, I remembered how one description of a shiba was that they had an 'iron-will' and were know for their stubbornness. I had brought a English to Japanese dictionary with me, promising to have named him by the time we returned to NY. In it, I found a word that translated to 'iron' (as in the metal) and it stuck. Though for the longest time Tom kept calling him Tetsuo often thinking of the character from 'Akira'. His long name is Kaizoku Ittetsu, but I forget how that had come to be and even what I thought it might have translated to. But I know that I had always loved the name 'Kai', but it didn't quite suite my shiba pups.
For Tikaani, Tom had wanted to name him some sort of 'Eskimo' name, so he compiled a list of different words that he had liked the sound and meaning to. Then he decided that he wanted to name the pups 'Blizzard' cause he was totally white. But he started to turn gray and Tom was like "Blizzards aren't gray" and changed his name to Tikaani which means 'wolf'. If we didn't have a falling out with his breeder, he registered name would have been 'Jalerran's African Blizzard', to resemble his father's registered name 'Teeco's out of africa'.
What is your dog name story?
Comments
Mookie is named after Mookie Wilson who used to play on the Mets. We are big Mets fans, hence the name. He has many nick names including Mooks, Mook dog, Mookle Dukes, Dukes, Dookle, Nibi (shortened from Shibi Nibi), McNibin (from Shibin McNibin), Sonny, Momma's boy and probably more. He answers to all of them too. LOL
Penny's name comes from the Hanson song Penny & Me which was stuck in my head for a while when we decided to add another member to our pack. We knew we wanted a female so the name would work. When we met her for the first time, the name just fit. Whenever we play or sing the song, I'm convinced she knows and gets a little more cute and happy. Her nicknames include Mei mei (which is little sister in Chinese), Pennifer, Nurse Penny and Penny RN. We got the nurse thing because she is always grooming Mookie and it's like she is his little nurse. Also when we get hurt, Nurse Penny always comes over to check us out and lick us to make sure we are okay.
I'm looking forward to Brad's long explanation. lol
http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/Tailed_beasts
Jesse
My Shiba inu comes from the anime OVA(manga and anime series) Blood + I really loved that anime and the characters in it. I also looked it up to see what's it's meaning in Japanese and I think it means "Swift Arrow" which fits her since she loves to run fast it's her favorite thing to do it seems.
Luckily for me toki in japanese means "time of opportunity" which seems fitting for the time in my life and in korean it means "rabbit" which works cause of how silly and bouncy he is sometimes...I am both Japanese/Korean.
it was a strange beginning for toki but I lucked out and got him all to myself in the end. :)
Bacon was named Bacon because I really had a thing for bacon at the time lmao. I was eating bacon like once every other day if not everyday.
I'm totally going to pick up some bacon salt sometime, it just sounds amazing.
Not to mention... the PNW now has Bakon Vodka - talk about the ultimate breakfast cocktail!!! mmmm bakon blood mary... mmm....
ps. I usually dont believe in this kind of stuff. Being "lucky" or waiting for signs but even I can't refute this one.
Our puppy has already been named regardless of the fact she's nothing more than a twinkle in her sires eye. We settled for "Eski" which is short for "eskimo" because of how they look, I suppose. We argued for 3 days over a name and as soon as we found one that we both liked we jumped on it. John prefers "eskimo" whereas I prefer "eski" but it's a close enough agreement!
Sage's name was Kobe, which I thought was cute but Jeff said he didn't like that name b/c "Kobe Bryant's a jerk." (?? I dont follow basketball). Sage's real name is Seiji, after the violin maker in "Whisper of the Heart" Seijji Amasawa- we loved that film because it is about being a young artist, making stuff, and inspiration and polishing your geodes. We thought he should have a Japanese name, being half Kai. Nobody I meet knows Seiji Amasawa, so we tell them it's like Seiji Ozawa. We would have named him Pazu, (paat-zoo) the boy in Castle in the Sky, but I knew I would get tired quickly of people around here saying "Potsy? I loved Happy Days!" Sage is shorter than Seiji, and I soon learned that he is my Teacher-Dog, so it fits our relationship well.
When I learned that his facial deformity is called a Wry Face or a Wry Bite, I told him we could have named HIM "Wryly" too. (the word Wryly thus represents both my dogs.)
Towards the end of our tenure at the Field, the dogs and I were nearing the gate and there was a Weimaraner galloping around, freshly arrived and pretty excited. I knew Sage was tired and possibly not up for a pleasant greeting with an excited Weim, so I called him, "Sage! Sage! Come!" and he and the weim were goofing and playing and not listening. The other owner was calling "Sage! Sage!" too, and I thought this guy knows my dog? or is he saying something that *sounds* like Sage? We leashed up the dogs, and I heard him speak to his dog Sage, and I said "your dog is named Sage, too?" He said yes- yours is Sage? I said Yes, Seiji, shortened to Sage. He said "hers is short for Sagacious-"
I had to go home and look that up and felt completely out-nerded.
Nicknames for Reilly- Rei, Reill, Rei-Rei, Reillos, Brindlicious, Reilly-Gal, Gal, Greyhound Girl, Wagatha, and "you spindley-brindley dog'
Nicks for Sage- Sagebrush, Brush, Brushie boy, Brindle Brother, Boy, Kai-guy, Amasawa-san, Seijiko, Michael Stripe
my daughter also has saccharinely sweet nicks for Sage- like "Cutesicles" and "Cutey Boy" and she describes his expression as "crestfallen." I think in the end, I am glad that as much of a grumblepuss as he seems to the owners of strange dogs he snarks at, there's a ten year old girl who cuddles him and calls him things like that.
Tuli by itself means 'fire' or 'burning'. However it is an abbreviation of Tulitekitaja which means 'mischief-maker- or 'troublesome'. How they knew this when she was a mere 2-day old slug, I have no idea, but perhaps Tuli thought she had no choice but to live up to this name!
A Triepak is a lively jig or folk dance. It's appropriate. He is a jaunty fellow and when he gets excited he will bounce up and down and twirl. He always twirls to the right. We joke around that if we took him to Australia, he would reverse. We also joke around that he is like the guys in Zoolander and incapable of turning the other way.
Guska is also an abbreviation. His whole name is Tunguska. The Tunguska event was a proposed meteor explosion in northern Siberia in 1908. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
Their other littermate, a male who does not live with me is named Tolik. Tolik is something like a precious metal or ore...
We were informed that Katsu meant victory so we just through the two together and got Katsu Tonkatsu.
Some nicknames are Brat, Baby, puppy.
When we get another shiba or nihonken (I'm working on Dawn right now) I want to name him Tanuki Bunbuku Chagama. It's from a japanese kids story my mom used to read me about a racoon dog who turns himself into a teapot. Obviously he would just be called Tanuki.
I'm also thinking about sticking with the whole food theme, and even the repetition in Katsu's name.
Maybe Maki Negamaki?
Chrystal you could have named him Kobe. I'm pretty sure it's Kobay not Kobee. Although I think Sage is a better fit. Is it really that bad to be out nerded?
Tsuki was going to be Yuki since she was all powder puff cream as a 4 month old pup, but it didn't seem to do it for me. My husband wanted to name her Hikaru (after Utada) but I'm not really into any of her music besides the one from Kingdom Hearts. He found the word Hikari joined with the phrase "Tsuki no hikari" which our old neighbor told us meant "moon beam". Tsuki just means moon and I really like that. When we picked her out of her cage at the millers, it was just about midnight with a full moon. Somehow, it all came together.
Other names we toyed with for Tsuki were Ichigo or Hachiko. We named a foster Hachi.
Kitsune's name was Trotter (aka Fox Trot) when we adopted him, but I really couldn't say it and he didn't even know it, so we just looked up the Japanese word for fox and it stuck. I had a whole slew of names I wanted for him (like Kuro, Jiro, Hokusai, Hanzo), but as he and my husband bonded so fast, the husband finalized Kitsune.
We named a foster Hanzo
Our next dog will most likely not have a Japanese name. I dearly love the homage I feel is paid to their breed heritage by choosing a Japanese word/name, but I'm thinking a strong mythological name might be more fitting next time around.
TeamLaika - all their names are just fascinating! My great grandmother was from Estonia, I love the language.
We picked the name Kenji when we were on our way to pick up Ryu. It means "Second Son; Strong and Vigorous" All the way home, I was texting everyone saying "Say Hello to Kenji!" Then we got home and within 5 hours, he took 3 separate LONG naps! We knew that he wasn't as "Vigorous" as his name implied. We started calling him our little sleeping dragon when we found him wedged between the couch and the side table. I looked up dragon and found Ryuu! Just shortened it to Ryu and butchered the pronunciation. It was and is still the perfect name for him
Great thread!
Her alt names are Spuddy (b/c she looked like a potato), pup, psycho, cat, and anything else she reminds us of.
Jada was when we're driving home from getting her, Jon wanted to name her Jade. Then Jadakiss was on the radio...so Jada!
When we got Sake I knew I wanted to stick with Japanese food. I wanted to name her Mochi (Japanese Ice Cream) but Chris didn't like that name. Then I said, well she is white like rice, and Sake is made from rice, so she will be our Hot Sake!
So we have Miso Soup and Hot Sake...if the cat wasn't already named cookie when I got her she would be my Spicy Tuna Roll.
Weeks before we picked Tank up, we went down the alphabet & picked out names that we liked or sorta liked. We narrowed it down to 5: Able, Bowser, Kenji, Leo, & Tank. One week before, we settled on Bowser. We started telling EVERYONE about Bowser and were certain that would be the name.
On our way home with our pup we called out Bowser a few times but he didn't respond. We then went down our list and he immediately responded to Tank. :P
LOL Some people are so clever!
I was really hoping for a male puppy but none were available in this year's litter. I was going to name him after one of a set of historical samurai that I am fond of. In particular I was thinking I'd name the male pup Soji after Soji Okita, who was a member of the Shinsen Gumi, a group of samurai who fought against the Restorationists during the tumultuous 19th century in Japan. Soji was a quintessential sword genius, licensed in Tennen Rishin Ryu, who was known to be a strangely easygoing, good-natured guy who liked children and candy. Anyway, hopefully my wife will let me get a Shikoku pup in a couple years who will have to be a boy.
We talked about naming the puppy Tomoe for a famous lady samurai, but my wife really wanted to call her Amaterasu, because the litter was born within a couple of days of that big full solar eclipse that washed over Asia the other week.
I think we'll call her Tera for short. Not sure about the full name for the pedigree papers yet.
As for all three of our non-nihonken's call names..
eh, we just liked how they sounded. Yoshiki wanted to call Luna "Goma" but it sounded too hard and masculine to me. It's a cute name, but... :S
Originally I wanted to name Lilith "Carbuncle" because I thought "Lantis, Luna, and Carbuncle" sounded like a comedy trio. But Yoshiki's Japanese tongue couldn't quite wrap itself around pronuncing it, so that idea was dropped..
I'm thinking of names for our 4th dog we'll get sometimes in the next few years. It'll be a nihon-ken this time, but we'll probably conform to calling our pups Western names.
Incidentally, I think a few of the people-named dogs on this site is funny! Though, technically Lilith could be a person's name..
Naming a dog Kenji, lol! I love it when people name their dogs people names with their last name. At the dog park, this lady has 4 dogs.. they all have human names like "jessica" or "annemarie".. and when the dogs don't listen.. I always laugh when she gets upset and says "ANNEMARIE JOHNSON. You come here right now!!!" :)