People Twitter

I had a dog named Newbie. The name had nothing to do with her when I adopted her; she was rescued from a dog fighting house (yet still somehow the sweetest dog I've ever met) and came with the name "Ariel." At the time she came into my life, I just thought "Newbie" a fantastic name for a dog.

Before the dog was around, I had mentioned that to my wife, then girlfriend, and justified it by saying it was short for "Anubis." Then my wife got a nametag for the dog with "Nubie" written on it and I thought it looked far too much like "nubile" so I changed my mind and went with a more honest spelling.

I can't remember any specific examples at the moment, but I'm pretty sure not a single vet tech/receptionist ever got Newbie's name right. She was so incredibly sweet, though, that every one of them loved her.

Our dog’s name is Kat. That’s always a fun conversation

We named one of our cats Snow White once. The cat was male and was bright orange ginger.

The reason we did that was this:

The cat was a street cat we had recently adopted. He didn't have a name or anything: we just called him "The cat". My son and I brought the cat to the vet to have him neutered. My son must have been 12 or so. The vet was a crusty old guy with overly polite, really obsequious, really old-fashioned manners. Nice guy, but zero humor and he seemed like he had been transported from the 19th century.

The vet said:

"So you would like to have your little companion neutered, do you? I see... Who's the animal's owners if I may ask?"
"My son is" I replied.
The vet turned to my son. "May I ask young Sir what the name of the animal is?"
"Snow White" my son said, with a deadpan face.

The guy was completely taken aback. There was ZERO reason to name that cat Snow White. But... he was too polite and too contrived to ask why.

So his face contorted with utter incomprehension for 5 seconds, then finally he said:

"I see. Then Snow White it is. Snow White... the male ginger cat..." as he wrote the name in the form.

I nearly pissed myself laughing.

Later in the car, I asked my son why he said that. "I dunno" he replied, "I just wanted to shake him up a bit with some complete nonsense. I've never seen anyone this old-fashioned."

And so for the next 10 years or so, we owned a male ginger cat called Snow White 🙂

My name a Jeff

I moved recently and am procrastinating on finding a new vet for my girl Reverse Reverse Oreo (Revy for short)

So I sarcastically said we should name our new kitty Tupac. Then I made some AI slop that made the whole family laugh, then the name stuck.

Brent Spiner and Johnathan Frakes (of Star Trek The Next Generation fame) have a podcast together. It's really good, and you should listen. It's only about 25% about Star Trek.

On a recent episode Spiner talks about losing a beloved dog named "John Hamm". Apparently, when they got him the litter were all temporarily named pizza toppings, and the dog they chose was named "Ham". They thought it funny to keep the "Ham" and call him John Hamm.

The Spiners are apparently big donors to animal rescue / welfare organization in their area, and their local rescue recently upgraded to much larger facilities. They called to ask if the Spiners could give, and if so in recognition of their donation they'd name a wing of the newly opened rescue center after their beloved late pet.

I'm not sure if Brent donated or not, but he said it gave him pause because he realized the actor John Hamm would get all the credit.

I have a Dachshund/Chihuahua mix that I named Chorizo. Everyone has a little chuckle.

For the record, the kitty's legal name is Jeffrey Junior

Dwarf hamster Nyarlathotep used to cause confused delight in the vet's staff (until he finally left his physical shell behind at the ripe old age of almost 4).