Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Doggie Drivel; What's in a Name?

So dog/cat owners, I have a question for you. I've kind of been wondering this for a while, and decided to ask. It seems, Some of my dogs will end up with a nickname which doesn't faintly resemble their given name. But I say it so often that they respond to that name also. It hasn't happened with all of the dogs, but the two best examples are Gracy and Baylee.

Gracy is also known as "The Cheez" or "Cheez Wizard." There are millions of adaptations of "Cheez" but where did I get Cheese to begin with? Gracy some how got stuck with an additional name after I adopted her, and became Gracy Louise. I was living near to a Baskin Robins' store at the time, and got their Cheese Louise ice-cream, and liked it, so then Gracy Louise Became Gracy Cheese Louise. And there you go.

With a name like Baylee, you knew the Herbalist would call her dog things like Bay Leaf, Sweet Bay, and Bay Laurel, but the most frequent name was Bay Rum. Bay Rum became Rum Punch, and is now Rummy Rum Punch.

Last week, I was sitting on the porch with my friend and without thinking, I said: "RummY Rum Punch, sit!" And my friend looked at me like I was crazy! Who, exactly was I talking to? So I had to explain about the nicknames thing, and he thought that was weird. But I don't think I'm alone in making crazy nicknames with these huge long stories and meanings behind them, am I? Help me out here, Blogville!

I mean, not all of my dogs have these long Nicknames. Laveau has the least of them with "Veau Head" being her only Nickname. Which doesn't count for things like "Sister," "Girl," or "Chica." Which I call all of them. Am I just crazy? Do I want you to answer that? I think I'm becoming "That crazy dog lady."

6 comments:

  1. LOL, you were the crazy dog lady long before writing this post ;)

    Canyon's nickname is Candyman and he will respond well to it. When friends of mine hear us call him Candyman, they laugh because the whole reason we called him Canyon was because we felt he needed a strong name, but Candyman is definitely not a strong name lol!

    Cessna is probably the one with the funnier nicknames of Beau (her mom's name is Belle), Cessie Beau, Blackie (she's a black lab) or Dobby (after the Harry Potter house elf). I'm not sure how she got Dobby, but Huib calls her that all of the time and she will come running if she hears it used. Maybe he started calling her it after she became our sort of home helper?

    Aspen doesn't really have any real nicknames except for Appy. Similar to Phoenix though, she doesn't listen to any other name but her own.

    Rogue has tons of nicknames, but so far only responds to Roagie. We also call her Monster, the baby, Pupparoo and Rogalini Bocachini.

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    1. If I'm the Crazy Dog Lady, you are one too! Lol! But Crazy Dog Ladies have the most fun!

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  2. You're not crazy!
    I have two dogs, Max and Molly.
    Max's nicknames include Tiny and Munchkin/Munchy (because he's small for a male lab) and Rat (From brat, since he's not always well-behaved). He responds to all of them.
    Molly's include Fuzzball (from when she was a puppy), Beautiful and Gorgeous (she's a Golden Retriever with a beautiful coat), and Sweetheart, all of which she responds too.
    Sometimes they respond better to their nicknames than their names, especially Tiny... I mean Max.

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    1. Can I just say that Molly is a fabulous name for a golden! I have a Mill'E who is mostly called Mill'E-Max (or Millicent Maxine if I'm exasperated with her)

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  3. Let's see, Duncan answers to Thudbutt, Mutt, Doofus, Dork, Big Brown and Handsome. He does not yet respond to Amber Eyes. Twist answers to Roonie (Twisterooni), Crazy, Princess and Legs. Ocho answers to anything with a long "o" sound. Funniest one that gets used most is an old male dog responding to Bellisimo. Jessie (since passed) answered to Worthless (she was free, and a rescue, and became a very good hunting dog, so "Worthless" was ironic), Toro Puppy, Fastest Tongue in the West and You With The MOUTH.

    So, you're not alone in nicknames, or using them often enough to have the dog answer to them. I think it depends on their personality just how long and complicated the nicknames get.

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  4. Monty answers to Boo and Bubba. He is also called Montell, Monteguew and several others. Belle doesn't really have any nicknames. I can call them collectively with puppies or woofies.

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