Do you prefer human names or non-gendered object/food/made up names for pets?

h.h.lovecraft

h.h.lovecraft

Junior Guinea Pig
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I think it depends on the guinea pig/pet most of all. If I look back at all of my family's piggies through the years, it seems relatively even in terms of human name/non human names, although I wasn't always the one to come up with the name.

Bubbles
Daisy
Contessa
Willow
Olive (like the food because she was round and black)
Moe
Tinsel
Cupid
Henry
Ms. Pearl
Myrtle
Clementine

And my current two, Hexenhammer (Hexi) and Witchfinder (Witchy)

We also had two birds named Houdini and Cricket.

I like wacky names and sometimes I wish humans were allowed to have weirder names than what is socially acceptable now which is probably why I gravitate to more non typical names 😆 I also like human names if it fits the piggy/animal. I can see how some might feel more connected to their animal if it has a more typical human name. It seems like some people find it less dignified to give a pet a random/made up name, but I certainly don't agree with that.
 
I quite like really very human names for dogs, like Steve or Gary or Sandra, I just think it’s funny but I’ve had a mixture too.
Dogs: Rizzla, Ben, Sandy, Tigger, Roo, Pebbles.
Hamsters: Leah, Pearl, Spice
Piggies: Dounut, Marmalade, Tiger, Gemma, Chewie, BB-8, Rey
And William the horse, his ‘proper’ name was Mr Wilks.
 
I've had a mix of both.

Cat - Hazel
Dogs - Denver, Shadow, Belle
Hamster - Harry
Piggies - Jack, Rocco, Jake, Comet, Blitzen, Bann, Camowen

I've actually used Comet as a nickname for a videogame character a couple of times, not because of Comet himself but because it works well for that kinda thing. And originally I was naming the toys I'd sew with "proper" human names, but I've switched that out a few times too.
 
I like human names for pets. For piggies I’ve had
Connie
Eliza
Eleanor
Erin
Ena
Enoch
Erika
Emma
Ellen

Current piggies
Edward
Elizabeth
Ella
Esme

Past cats
Tiny (my parents chose the name as I was only young)
Dexter

Current cats
Harrison
Austin
Morris

Various budgies, gerbils and hamsters all human names but one
 
I’ve had a mix. Although one of my piggies with a human name, Ben, people couldn’t quite understand that a piggy could be called Ben, and so kept hearing his name as something different. One vet he was registered with thought his name was ‘Bear’, so the poor lad spent a day at the vets being called the wrong name 🤣. He must have been so confused. He passed last year, but I think he very much looked like a Ben.
 

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Dogs all had human names:
Sophie, Georgie, Barney, Dennis, Eric, Frankie and Eddie

Piggies had a mixture:
Monty, Biscuit, Blackie, Sunny, Stripes, Wilbur, Pippin, Percy and Pepper

Cat was Bugsy.
 
We've had a mix of human and non-human names for pets over the years. I do have kids and we basically name the pigs by committee (our last addition went nameless for a whole day because no one could agree on a name.) I kind of like theme naming... for awhile our pigs have been sci fi or horror references (right now we have Leela from Futurama and Tomie from the Junji Ito manga of the same name.) In the past we had Frenzy (Transformers) and Hadley (the name of the colony in Aliens was Hadley's Hope and my kids took the name from that.) We also had one food name (Sundae) and a Linney from Wonder Pets, which was one of my kid's favorite TV shows when they were about four.

I used to have hedgehogs years ago and gave them all spiky plant names... we had Hawthorne, Bramble, and Thistle. Other names on my list were Primrose and Briar, but after we got Thistle as an adult rescue who hated all people and lived twice as long as the other, friendlier hedgehogs, my husband decided he didn't want any more hedgehogs! LOL!

My kids are fully responsible for the hamster names. Most are still named from games or TV shows... we've had Aigis (Persona 3), Eevee (Pokemon), Gwyn (Dark Souls game), Carmen (Persona), Sumire (Persona), and Tiabeanie (Disenchantment TV show.)

I did have dogs growing up which had pet names by the standard of the time but are now semi-common person names, Shiloh and Griffin. When we had them in the 80s and 90s they were really not that common for people, at least where we were living, but I now know at least a couple of human Shilohs and Griffins.
 
I usually like pet names to be funny, or if they are human names a bit pretentious or iconic. Though some piggies arrive with a name that suits them, and some just don't!
It did make me laugh when piggy daddy found out he had a human Tallulah and an Oliver sitting next to each other in his school class, to match our piggy pair... who ever would name a human child Tallulah?
 
Freela said:
We've had a mix of human and non-human names for pets over the years. I do have kids and we basically name the pigs by committee (our last addition went nameless for a whole day because no one could agree on a name.) I kind of like theme naming... for awhile our pigs have been sci fi or horror references (right now we have Leela from Futurama and Tomie from the Junji Ito manga of the same name.) In the past we had Frenzy (Transformers) and Hadley (the name of the colony in Aliens was Hadley's Hope and my kids took the name from that.) We also had one food name (Sundae) and a Linney from Wonder Pets, which was one of my kid's favorite TV shows when they were about four.

I used to have hedgehogs years ago and gave them all spiky plant names... we had Hawthorne, Bramble, and Thistle. Other names on my list were Primrose and Briar, but after we got Thistle as an adult rescue who hated all people and lived twice as long as the other, friendlier hedgehogs, my husband decided he didn't want any more hedgehogs! LOL!

My kids are fully responsible for the hamster names. Most are still named from games or TV shows... we've had Aigis (Persona 3), Eevee (Pokemon), Gwyn (Dark Souls game), Carmen (Persona), Sumire (Persona), and Tiabeanie (Disenchantment TV show.)

I did have dogs growing up which had pet names by the standard of the time but are now semi-common person names, Shiloh and Griffin. When we had them in the 80s and 90s they were really not that common for people, at least where we were living, but I now know at least a couple of human Shilohs and Griffins.
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I love how diverse your names are! I also like theme names, as long as the name still fits the personality of the animal in some form. Slightly related but I just finished reading my first Junji Ito Manga, Uzumaki. I really enjoyed it and I'm planning on reading Tomie this week! 😊
 
h.h.lovecraft said:
I love how diverse your names are! I also like theme names, as long as the name still fits the personality of the animal in some form. Slightly related but I just finished reading my first Junji Ito Manga, Uzumaki. I really enjoyed it and I'm planning on reading Tomie this week! 😊
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I really love Junji Ito's artwork! So much horrifying detail! :)
 
I tend to have a theme - all my piggies have Biblical names.
I find they ‘choose‘ their own names.
I had names in mind for Keziah and Jemimah when I went to pick them up but by the time we got back home they were Keziah and Jemimah
 
I have a mix:
Piggies- nugget, marshmallow, mal and caramel and at rb 🌈 princess, fluffy and flower
Dog- callie
Hamster- maple
Tortoise- pebble
Snake 🐍 - winter
Cats- Effie and at rb 🌈 : onslow (adopted with the name) and babybelle (adopted with the name baby we added belle)
 
You're right @Merab's Slave, my piggies "chose" their names. Son No 3 called Velvet Velvet cos that's what she felt like and it suited her and I named The Ever Beautiful Betsy because she's just so beautiful. Then when Velvet had 3 more (shop pregnancy), Christian just had to be Christian as he was several shades of grey, Meg just looked like a Meg and Dennis was just Dennis. Then when Patsy came to join us she was originally Pattie but that name didn't suit her and Patsy did. Then we had Lexi (who was originally Luna) and Thea (who was Tara) come to live in the garage. I felt that they weren't a Luna or a Tara so renamed them.
 
My piggies are my family so they have human names. Benny, Clive, Lenny, Frankie, Ronnie and Stan
 
i've always loved the idea of giving my pets human names but it never worked out somehow...

turtles:
flippity
floppity (i was young lol)
grassy

hamsters:
daisy
dusty

guinea pigs:
snickers
oreo

but how does everyone choose names for their pets? for most of mine, either they came with names or someone else chose them and i got 2 robo hamsters a month ago and the poor things still dont have names because nothing seems to fit!:hmm:
 
I like human names for animals, my first dog was Zak, my current dogs are Doug and Bert.
However my daughter named the pigs - Spaghetti and Noodle then Mr Pig joined us.
I always think a human names for a dog is better because if you have to stand in a field and call them back I'd want to be calling something sensible😂
 
Our pigs came with names and the kids wouldn’t let us change them.

As a kid we didn’t have many pets but every year we would win goldfish at the fair (different times 😔) and mine was always called Charlie Brown, my brother had Snoopy and my Dad's was And 😂😂
 
Our first two piggies gained human names because the kids picked names of other kids they knew, but since then our piggies have just kept the names they've arrived with so there's been a mix. Currently George, Flora and Louise... I still somehow think to call a guinea pig Louise is really strange whereas the other two seem quite appropriate!

I've never really believed that they know their names - it's more the tone of voice - but recently I've questioned that as George and Louise both seem to 'reply' when I go to find them for something. They are very conversational! Flora - the piggy ninja - is stealthy and silent, but is the first to announce that the morning grass has arrived with piercing wheeks that they can hear next door!

Do piggies know their names...? What do you think?
 
Free Ranger said:
Our first two piggies gained human names because the kids picked names of other kids they knew, but since then our piggies have just kept the names they've arrived with so there's been a mix. Currently George, Flora and Louise... I still somehow think to call a guinea pig Louise is really strange whereas the other two seem quite appropriate!

I've never really believed that they know their names - it's more the tone of voice - but recently I've questioned that as George and Louise both seem to 'reply' when I go to find them for something. They are very conversational! Flora - the piggy ninja - is stealthy and silent, but is the first to announce that the morning grass has arrived with piercing wheeks that they can hear next door!

Do piggies know their names...? What do you think?
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I think guinea pigs can understand basic words if you repeat it to them enough. They may not understand the concept of a name quite like humans do, but perhaps rather something like George= human wants my attention. I'm basing this off the fact that my Hexi 100% knows the word spin, I talk to her in the same tone of voice and she will only spin when I say the specific word. To be fair, she will also spin whenever she wants a treat and I don't give her one, but that's a different thing 😂

I think it can be a tone of voice thing as well, especially for piggies who may not be as clever, but I definitely think the more clever piggies can associate a word with an action and they will remember it. I hadn't asked Hexi to spin in over a month (may have even been two months) and when I finally did, she did a spin without hesitation. I was pretty surprised at that.
 
I like non-human names. Past pet names of my choosing were:

Tatty
Ginge
Saga (named After the over 50s insurance company, because she was grey haired)

But the kids picked our guinea pig names and went human
 
I've always had mostly human names, but I usually don't choose German names:
Molly, Bernie, Bessy, Benji, Gini, Mindy, Chrissy, Kimi, Jerry, Freja, Lea, Ginger, Scotty, Georgie, Dusty, Dinih, Nui, Tessy, Billie, Vicky, Bonny, Chelsea, Nicky, Cassy, Quinny, Hailey

But there are also a few named after cartoon characters (or historical characters): Snoopy, Merlin, Odi

Then there were a few names inspired by flowers or food: Daisy, Sugar, Honey, Toffee, Muffin

I always try out a name to see if it fits before officially giving a name to a piggy.
And everypig that comes to live with me is given a new name - new life, new name. :D
 
I like human names for my pets - whatever they are. I’ve had a dog called Lucy, cats named Seoras, Thomas, Millie, Poppy, Will and currently have Tim, Ted and Bob. My pigs are named below. Even my mice had human names (many moons ago!)
 
I usually go for nature themed names, the main exception are my boars who usually get human names, although that's pretty new, my old herd were mostly named after food 😅 I still have a handful that are named after food, but with the amount I've had I'm starting to run out if names I like!

Not that it matters, most of mine have about 10 ridiculous nicknames they're called more often than their actual names 🤣
 
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