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Reusing names

2K views 21 replies 20 participants last post by  koda00 
#1 ·
Has anybody ever reused a pet name? I loved my previous GS name "Koda". I also love the new name i chose for my new pup "Ryker". I know each pet has their own individual personalities. Just wondering if anybody ever concidered it.
 
#2 ·
I haven't, and doubt I would but that's just me...I do have a friend tho, who is now on her 3rd golden retriever and they all named BEAR! Kinda drives me crazy, but it's her choice:)
 
#4 ·
No, definitely not. They are unique individuals and deserve their own name.

Somewhat related - we never planned on having kids. Now have a 3 mo old son (isn't life funny that way...! ;) ) Just weeks before we found out we were pregnant, we took in three sickly foster puppies. We always name our fosters. One of them was named "Hannah" which we just loved.

Before we found out we were having a boy, we had Hannah at the top of the list for girl names, but I'm not sure we could have gone through with it. What if she grew up and didn't like dogs, and when she asked how she got her name we said, "Well, right before we found out about you, we had this sick little puppy named Hannah..." It just seemed wrong to name ones daughter after a puppy, no matter how sweet the pup was and the fact that she was only here for 3 wks!
 
#5 ·
My friend had a dog named Peter (Pete for short). They got another one and named him Repeat (re-Pete).
My parents got a puppy that died within a few days of getting him... Since they had a bunch of unused personalized stuff for Lenny #1, they named their "replacement" puppy from the breeder Lenny v2.0.
I personally wouldn't reuse a name of a dog I've had though... I don't see anything wrong with it if it's just a temporary dog though... Ie foster.
 
#6 ·
My grandparents used to have a GSD/aussie mix named chopper, when he died they named my current dog chopper why I have no idea if it was up to me I would have kept the name that came with him which was lucky.
 
#7 ·
i personally wouldnt do it. as someone else said they're individuals. I couldnt stand having dog after dog after dog with the same name.
 
#9 ·
That was a recent topic in our house as we are considering getting another dog.

In the end we agreed that since we consider our pets to be such an integral part of our family and each one has or had such a distinct personality that it just didn't seem right.

The strongest point made was a question. If we had a child and lost it and then had another would it even be a consideration to name give him/her the same name?
 
#10 ·
If you love the name, why not change it slightly. Koda to Kola?
I personally think they all need their own name. My daughter went to school with a boy named Coby. Whose brothers were Cody and Cory.
I always thought that was just odd.
 
#11 ·
Yes when I was younger. I had 2 Dollars, they were brothers from diff litters. I was like 6 or so and when Dollar 1 passed the next litter I had Dollar 2 (I was really in to Ritchy Rich). And when I was in 8th grade or so. I was able to get a boxer/dalmation cross that was related to our old Dalmations and in Honor of our past Female Dal I named her Lady Pup. Her grandma was Miss Lady. And if I ever get my solid Black Male I will reuse the name Uley after the pup I never got to bring home. But only because I like the name so much. And because the pup never made it to my house. I think as long as its in Honor and its been at least 2 yrs since they passed I think its ok to reuse a name. But never more than twice.
 
#14 ·
I personally don't believe in using the same name for two different pets ... each pet is unique and I believe the names should be unique too.

When we were kids my sister named all her birds Topper. My cousin's wife named all her Great Danes Princess. My mom used to work for a man who used his dead son's name when a new son was born.
 
#15 ·
There will never be another DaKota or Salem here. They both were one of a kind. However. Since Salems passing, I did get another kitten. I was looking for specifics. One, it had to be female & 2, all white. Salem was black & a male. I found her & thought of names in honor of Salem. I have a Cousin named Sabriena, so that was out. So I asked my youngest on how she felt about Spooky. My daughter was born in October. Her pet name from me is Spooky. She said no way. So I thought about it & came up with Tabitha.
 
#16 ·
I wouldn't reuse a name I've already used. There are just too many great names to pick from. Now having said that, I'm about to get a pup (hopefully, have a deposit on a yet to be born girl) and I am thinking about naming her after another bitch we had some years ago. I did a thread about it. Anyway her name was Marek von Haus Antverpa. She was named after her father Arek vom Stoffelblick. My pup is going to be from a "U" litter so I was thinking I'd name the pup Umarek, probably call her Uma for a call name, although the call name may change once I actually get to know her.
 
#17 · (Edited)
The closest I've come to reusing a name was with one of my cats.
I had a foster dog, Chinese Shar-Pei who I rescued as a stray and I had named him Harley, like the motorcycles.
A number of years later I had a litter of feral kittens I rescued. I didn't give a lot of thought to most of their names as I wasn't really planning to keep any.
I had trouble coming up with names, and one torbie kitten in particular was still nameless until I noticed one day that her upper lip and the inside of her mouth was black on one side and pink/orange on the other, split evenly down the middle, and Harlequin popped into my head (or Harley Quinn a la Batman.) I ended up keeping her in the end (and 3 others), and I usually shorten her name to Harley.

Most of the kittens in that litter ended up with odd names. I had to come up with names for most of them while on the phone with the spay/neuter clinic because I had been referring to them by their markings up until then and was at a bit of a loss when the clinic receptionist asked for their names so I ended up calling them Spot, Tiger, Pumpkin, Rosalie, and Blaze (mostly named for their distinguishing markings.) Most of the names ended up sticking, and that's why I now have a cat named Spot! :crazy:
They would only fix 5 cats per appointment so the two runts in the litter ended up staying behind, one being the one I later named Harlequin. The other I ended up calling Mister Grey after a character in a Stephen King book since two of his littermates also had names from King books and I already had a cat named Church. :D
 
#18 · (Edited)
It happened here, but not intentionally - what happened was twofold, actually, kind of funny.

At one point a few years ago, I had at the time two cockatiels - a male and female, breeding pair, the female was on eggs. The male was called Lucky, the female, Starr.

While Starr was still on her eggs, taking turns with Lucky sitting on them, she was on my mom's shoulder and my mom didn't notice, opened the door, and she flew out. I was LIVID that she neglected to notice her, but it was an honest accident. Starr was never recovered, unfortunately, even though I had done everything.

Lucky continued to sit on the eggs for a week by himself until he gave up. After the loss of his mate, he was extremely depressed - so we decided to add a second bird again, this time a male. We called him "Bo," and the pair quickly bonded and became best friends.

However, Lucky could talk very well - and often said his own name on a daily basis. "Bo" picked up every single word Lucky could speak, including "Lucky." If I called to Lucky, they both answered. Then tragically, Lucky fell seriously ill and died. "Bo" continued to say Lucky all of the time, and would not respond to "Bo," but would only answer to "Lucky." Thus, he became "Lucky" himself. It hurt to have to accept this was his name in his eyes, but I didn't want to confuse him, he knows himself as being Lucky.

Then I got my Pomeranian, who I named "Beau." Same sound, different spelling, and it worked out since the second Lucky rejected that name anyway!
 
#19 ·
Personally I don't like re-using names since each dog is so different personality-wise. It almost seems unfair; like we're projecting our expectation that they live up to the previous dog. Of course that's my opinion and there's always differing circumstances.
 
#20 ·
It was so devastating for me to lose my past GSD's. Even now when I say their names out loud I feel this pain in my heart, the sense of loss and the void they have left behind. So it would never, ever occur to me to reuse a name, unless I enjoyed inflicting non-stop emotional and mental pain on myself. The grief is just below the skin; each name of each dog is kind of sacred to me, and each name belongs to that shepherd alone, like the markers at their gravesites. Giving my new GSD (well, two years new) his own name helped me to move forward.
 
#22 ·
I couldn't agree with you more on this.

Its just a question i threw out there to see if people reuse names.

I wouldn't and couldn't do it myself as i've cherished every pet i've ever had the priviledge of taking care of.
 
#21 ·
I love all of my animals names: Chaos, Monster, Rogue, Sinister and Wicked.

I have a theme going and I have several more names to choose from that fit my theme that I really like so I doubt I will ever reuse a name.

In the future, when the time is right, when Rogue is trained how I want him to be and I am ready, I plan on getting another GSD, if it's a girl her name will be Malice and if it's a boy his name will be Grim.
 
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