# Why did you name your dog(s) their name?



## AE316 (Oct 24, 2017)

What's your story behind it?

I named my girl Rose because I'm a huge Tupac Shakur fan and really enjoyed his poem "The Rose That Grew From Concrete". Also roses are my fave flowers and similar to the meaning behind the poem roses aren't perfect due to their thorns resembling how life is beautiful too with it's imperfections.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Hans
Rolf
German names. That’s why. Rolf was R litter.


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## jarn (Jul 18, 2007)

All our boys are named after kings of antiquity - 

Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian king)
Xerxes (Persian king)
Agis (Spartan king, specifically in our Agis's case, the one that started the Agian dynasty)

I mean, were they all awful people? Yes. I always remember reading about Nebuchadnezzar in the bible and liked the name. I wanted to name Xerxes 'Bukhtrashah' which is Persian for Nebuchadnezzar - as an homage to Nebbers, of course (would've called him 'Buk' for short...Toby flat out refused). When we got Agis we knew we wanted to moved to Sparta. While we were still getting him, we'd decided on 'Anaxandridas' but I kept calling him 'Xanax' by mistake, so - it took about 10 minutes to change his name to Agis.


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## Buckelke (Sep 4, 2019)

Lucky, a large MALE German Shepherd had been named Coco by his previous owner. We decided he needed a male name and we felt Lucky to have found such a nice fella on Chinese New Year. Ellie would have been Elwood if she'd been a male to go with Jake but Ellie turned out to be good for her. The last shelter she was in had her as Cheyenne. Buck came with the name from the shelter and it suited him so we kept it. Elke was Chloe at the shelter but Elke seemed to fit her better, a good German name for a good German girl. Duke we tried names on in the car coming from the shelter and Duke was the first one we agreed on. Doofus would have been better, Sterling was his shelter name. I just could not picture me out in the yard calling, "Sterling".


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## Zeppy (Aug 1, 2021)

Zeppelin because …. Led. My dad loves Zeppelin and I grew up listening to it with him. Whole lotta black dog love!


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## Bearshandler (Aug 29, 2019)

Bear was a name my friend came up with. Cion is an alternate spelling of scion and has a few meanings. One is a descendant of a great family, another is a guardian, and another is a graft of a plant you use to grow a new one.


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

First GSD - owner called her 'Lassie', which I couldn't stand Changed it to Lili Marlene, because Lili sounded a bit like Lassie, and I loved the old WWII song of that name.

Tasha - don't really know, just kind of popped into my head!

Ranger - again, a name change from 'Ralph' which was Quebecois slang for a marijuana joint.  Full name: Ranger Aragorn, after the Lord of the Rings character.

Star of Hope - another LOTR reference - One of Aragorn's many names was 'Estel', which is Elvish for 'Star of Hope'.

Eska - named by her breeder, as it was the 'E' litter. It comes from the Celtic word for 'river' which is probably why there's a brand of bottled water of the same name! 🤣


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Cava:










Because bubbly. 🥰 And she needed a C name.


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## drparker151 (Apr 10, 2020)

We picked names that the first letter matched the breeder’s litter letter. 

Jazmine for our girl, Jaz for short. We liked the sound.

Reacher for our new pup, we spent months one this one, I’ve read all the books and we picked before Amazon released their show.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

Hubby is retired military. His last post was with 3rd army, "Patton's Own". So that is how we named our big-boy Patton. And I thought it was a bit ironic that we named a German Shepherd after an American WWII General. My husband retired as a Warrant Officer so that is why our gal-dog is Chief.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

The first name someone throws out that one of us doesn't immediately make fun of of know a terrible person with that name ....is it


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## NadDog24 (May 14, 2020)

Chief: my dad missed my brother’s birthday to go pick up Chief and told him he could name the dog.
Nadja: her name is a German girls name meaning ‘hope’ and we were hoping that she would help fill the hole left in our hearts left by Otto (schnauzer).
Mia: I named her after one of my best friends who moved away the day we brought home and I liked the sound of it.


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## Leah00 (12 mo ago)

There is actually a cute story behind our Bear’s name. Last year there was a black bear spotted in a neighboring town (where I work). It was pretty exciting because we don’t normally have bears this close to us. It was on the local news. I’m an animal nut so every weekend for a couple of months my husband would pile us all in the car (we have 3 kids) and we’d go “bear hunting” and try to find the bear. I had been trying to talk my husband into getting a puppy and I said “Wouldn’t it be cute if we had a little German shepherd pup named Bear?” And he said “Ok, let’s make a deal. If we find the bear I’ll let you get a shepherd puppy and name him Bear but if we don’t find it then I never want to hear another word about it.” 

……We never found the bear. 😂


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## Rabidwolfie (Apr 9, 2021)




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## Ringhram (Sep 4, 2021)

My husband and I actually had a bit of a fuss over Thena's name. I wanted to name her Shasta, but my husband flat out refused to "name our dog after a cheap can of soda."  Instead, he insisted on Athena because he likes the old '80's song by The Who. Athena sounded like a decent GSD name, so I ultimately agreed. The day we brought her home, the name morphed into Thena. We only address her as "Athena" when she is in trouble.


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## Bknmaizey (Sep 16, 2019)

Maizey for Michigan Maize and Blue
Melody for my favorite Dr Who character which is actually a pretty cool story twist (spoiler so I won’t share more than that!)

Names start with M for my paternal grandparents who were both Ms

Both have the same middle name (yes, middle name) except Maizey’s was Mei (from méihuā for plum blossoms which are known to blossom in harsh winters and she was born in November) and Melody is May (which is her birth month). May and Mei both are after my mom whose middle name is Mae. My mom never let us have dogs growing up so I thought for some reason it would be a good idea to name them after her.


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## Hopps (Dec 5, 2021)

I got Fern from the shelter. The shelter gave her the name. When it was adoption time, all the shelter employees were petting and hugging her good bye. Some of them teared up and told us she is such a good dog and she deserves to go home with a family. I know they probably pick random names or something but I wanted Fern to have a small piece of these people. They were so kind to her. The best part is lots of people get confused because apparently it’s a difficult name to understand over the phone.
I called Costco about Fern’s meds. He asked what the dog’s name was. I said “Fern”. he stayed quiet and asked to repeat it. “Her name is Fern… like the plant”. He responded with “You named your dog Like a Plant?!”


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

the short answer:


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## Zenapupper (Apr 1, 2021)

Our GSD girl is Zena…it means feminine…friendly and gentle. And it fits her personality.

Our husky boy is Zorro…Spanish for fox like or cunning. And he is an escape artist and is always upto some mischief.


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## Sonny1984 (Oct 25, 2021)

Sonny after Sonny Liston. I thought the name Sonny sounded friendly and I think if you turned a german shepherd into a boxer, they’d have a style like Sonny Liston, whatever that means lol. I have a smoke colored cat and named him Smokin Joe after Joe Frazier.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Well, my first GSD, was Frodo after Frodo in the Lord of the Rings (this was before the movie came out), Frodo was brave and everything I thought a GSD should be. 

Arwen was my first bitch, and she was named after Arwen in the Lord of the Rings -- not a lot of female roles in that, but Arwen really grew into her name.

I named the young male I bought to be bred to Arwen, Dubya after George "W" Bush. 

I knew I wanted to keep two females from that first litter. I named the girls Babs and Jenna after Dubya's twin daughters. But Arwen's full name was Arwen Evenstar with some numerals after it. So Jenna became Jenna Evenstar (no numerals necessary). Jenna and the boys were born, and the vet came and palpated Arwen and thought there was nothing puppish left in there. I thought we were done. It had been nearly 24 hours and I went to get a few hours' sleep. I woke up and ran to check the babies, and I counted them, and counted again, and picked up the wettish one and it was a girl, and I was so happy. So her full name was Babs Sweet Surprise. I lost Babsy a few years ago at almost 14. She and Jenna who was days away from 13 when she passed gave me everything anyone could want. They were spectacular. 

In Arwen's second litter, I ended up with Heidi, Whitney, and Tori. I had named the three boys after (Bernie) Kosar, Mack, and Byner. The girls were after female artists: (Janis)Joplin, Whitney (Houston), Tori (Amos), Jewel, and Milla (Jurvovich). I knew at 3 weeks I was keeping Joplin and named her Heidi. I don't know why I chose Heidi. There are so many Heidi's out there, but she certainly was a Heidi. What a great girl. I ended up keeping Whitney, and Tori went to my brother, but I got her back from him. I left them Whitney and Tori. 

When Babs had her litter, I loved the name Milla so much that I named one Milla, and the other girl I kept I named Ninja. I am not sure about Milla growing into her name, but Ninja was certainly a fighter. LOL. 

Jenna's second litter gave me the girls, Bear and Dolly and Beansy. Bear was named for my niece Analisa's favorite stuffed animal that has been globe-trotting with her for the last 14 years, it was a polar bear, called, Bear. And her sister Elena had a doll, called Doll, So I named them Bear and Dolly. My other sister's daughter was too new to have a favorite anything, but my sister called her "Butter bean." I hated butter beans growing up, and there is this gigantic boxer who only fights 4 round fights, and they call him Butter bean. I couldn't do that to a pretty GSD puppy, so I called her Beansy, and my friend got her at a year old, and named her Lola. Bear and Dolly and Lola are now 12 years old this month. Dolly was rehomed to a lady with some teenaged daughters. Lola is with my friend, but I have Bear. 

From Jenna's third litter, I still have Karma (it was the K-litter), and Cujo2 -- Cujo was given back to me, he was either Kojak, Kondru, Karloff, or Kosar -- not sure which. His person named him Baily. I got him back at 18 months old. The old fellow had to move in with his sister and she said the small dogs could come, but not the big dog that sheds. Cujo2 was the spitting image of my parents' dog out of my first litter, who was named Cujo. So Cujo2 he became. He and Karma are 9. 

Lots of other dogs, am not going to do all of them. Just the current ones from here. Odessa I did not name, she had her name when I got her. The boy I kept out of her was Mufasa, he was a coat, and that was why he got the Lion King name.

Ramona was from my R-litter out of Karma/Mufasa, 1 male, lots for females. The boy was easy, Rumpole of the Bailey. But he was spoken for, and I was only going to keep a girl. I think there was a Rosa, Ruby, Rita, Rowena, Reba, Ramona, and Rhoda. Go tell Aunt Rhoda, LOL. I met the owner of I think Rhoda on Facebook. And Ruby's owner I have met pups out of her. I have Ramona. 

Kojak's real name is Eli, but he's been Kojak since I got him as a pup, a call name, named for the big bald homicide Lt. Telly Savales played so well. Who loves ya baby?

Tinuviel is a Bear/Kojak pup. The last of Bear's puppies. She is 4 now. The name came out of the Lord of the Rings. I call her Tiny Tinnie, Bear's Cub, or just Tiny. 

Uzi was out of Karma/Kojak's litter. The girls were named U2, UGo(girl), UFO, Ursela, and Uzi. I ended up with Ursela, but I liked the name Uzi better, so I changed her name to Uzi. She is in with Columbo (big puppy named for another 70's homicide cop serial -- Just one more thing..) So Columbo has his Uzi.

Kaiah was a stud fee puppy, whose mom was a Karma/Mufasa pup. Kaiah was named for the movie Willow's main character Willow's wife. The funny thing is unbeknownst to either of us, the owner of the litter placed another female with his daughter and they named her Willow. Which couldn't have been for that movie, but still. We got Willow and Kaiah from the same litter without choreographing that at all.

Vera, another Karma/Kojak pup, named after the Alice show's young ditzy waitress Vera.


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## Sabre's Mom (Jul 27, 2018)

Both my husband and I have names that start with S, so we decided our dogs should have S names as well. 
When we got our first GSD, just before St. Patrick's day, we named her Shannon. 
Then came Sammi. The name just fit her.
Our third was from an L litter, and I struggled to figure out a name for her. She is registered as L'Sabre, call name Sabre.
And then came Recon. R litter pup, our first male dog, and my husband reminiscing about his days in the Marine Corp.


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## bchevs (Oct 15, 2020)

We had a couple names in mind for Nova, but I wasn't 100% sold on Nova yet. We picked her up and were nearly home and were still debating the names and a nova (the car) turned out in front of us and we followed it through town. That sealed the deal hahaha.


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## Emilia C (Dec 5, 2021)

We names our black gsd Luna, Luna in Russian means moon also In ancient Roman mythology, Luna was the moon goddess. Luna is the centre of our universe we love her so much.


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## Baileyshuman (Apr 26, 2021)

bailey was named after bailey in “a dogs purpose” - i love that dog 🙈


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## pfeller (Sep 10, 2019)

*Buddy *- Because 3+ yrs ago, we got him as an early xmas 'gift' from Mother in law, fav xmas movie is Elf. 
*Greyson *- rescued at 11m age, didn't feel right changing the name that late of age
*Lexi *- _shrug_ it just felt right
*Shadow *- he was my shadow and it felt right
*Chance *- (Shadows brother) (same person from above) Mom in law bought him as 8 wk old pup, a month later called us screaming she couldn't handle it anymore. She named him Howie, but we did not like it, so when we rescued him from her, we felt he got a second chance for good life and named him Second Chance (of course we just call him Chance).


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## Dustinb80 (10 mo ago)

I named mine Gunner bc I was a gun truck gunner on both my deployments to Iraq. When I got him I was still struggling with adapting back into the civilian world. He was my sounding board and still is. Unfortunately he's not long for this world. His DM is getting worse, his time is almost up. What's going to happen in the near future with him is going to severely suck.


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## ChickiefromTN (Jun 16, 2020)

Bailey - we needed a "b" name. My husband liked it. I've always had a dozen nicknames for her because Bailey has always been meh.

Coal - named after great, great, great, etc grandad Lump vom Ostenbergerland. "Lump" of coal, eyes like a coalminer when they take their goggles off, energy like coal, etc.

Dagny - we needed a "d" name so she's named after the main character in my favorite book Atlas Shrugged.

My 6 month old - we called him Macaroni as a baby then registered him as Ragnar because he needed a more manly name. That name's not working and he still gets called puppy 95% of the time. Now transitioning to maybe Rip as a call name.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

Dustinb80 said:


> View attachment 585781
> 
> 
> I named mine Gunner bc I was a gun truck gunner on both my deployments to Iraq. When I got him I was still struggling with adapting back into the civilian world. He was my sounding board and still is. Unfortunately he's not long for this world. His DM is getting worse, his time is almost up. What's going to happen in the near future with him is going to severely suck.


Spoil the **** out of him and do right by him before you have to.
And thank you for your service.


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## Dustinb80 (10 mo ago)

WNGD said:


> Spoil the **** out of him and do right by him before you have to.
> And thank you for your service.


I always have lol. And will continue to do so. Hims a good buddy


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

I got Willow at 3 years old and she already had the name. Figured I should keep it. 

I tried (and failed) with a GSD puppy a few years previous and named her Raven because she was so dark. Have since learned that most puppies start out dark and can lighten up significantly, so won't be using that name for a GSD again (unless I'm sure it'll stay black!). The folks I gave her to ended up renaming her Grace.


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## Honey Maid (Dec 25, 2020)

Ringhram said:


> My husband and I actually had a bit of a fuss over Thena's name. I wanted to name her Shasta, but my husband flat out refused to "name our dog after a cheap can of soda."  Instead, he insisted on Athena because he likes the old '80's song by The Who. Athena sounded like a decent GSD name, so I ultimately agreed. The day we brought her home, the name morphed into Thena. We only address her as "Athena" when she is in trouble.


But, But, "Shasta" is a good name, it's not just a can of soda, the soda was named after the mountain: Cascades Volcano Observatory, History - Naming the Cascade Range Volcanoes - Mount Shasta, California.


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## Jorski (Jan 11, 2019)

*Max:*
While thinking of German sounding names....we came up with Max inspired by two things. First, the breed's founder, Max von Stephanitz and perhaps more importantly, the name of the Grinch's dog.🙂


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## Honey Maid (Dec 25, 2020)

Since we are getting 'older', we had a previous GSD named Oscar, so, it was just easier to use Oskar, we loved our last GSD, and like the name, as in Oskar Schindler, Oskar was the breeders "S" litter.

When we'd acquired our previous, Oscar, when he was 9 months old, his name had been "Luke", we didn't like that at all, and I'd already picked out Oscar as his name, so that was a no brainer. 

When we acquired our BC Sierra, she was two, her name was "Salang", Korean for 'love'. Salang didn't roll off the tongue very well, so we opted for "Sierra", which was the name of our previous BC/QH. It was an easy transition. 
For some reason almost all our female dogs names have started with "S", Sheila, Sierra, Sadie, Sydney. Only our Dobie female had a name that didn't start with "S", her name was Isabell, after the color of her coat. 

Our English Mastiffs name had been Clive, that didn't tickle my fancy, so I modified it to Clyde, fit him much better. 

When we found the McNab mix, we had two young boys visiting, 11, and 12, I think they were. My husband and his friend had been telling tall tales to the boys about, "Shapawkwa". My husband and his friend were thinking of Chupacabra, but it came out pronounced more like the above. We were coming home from town, saw this little black dog at our gate, I jumped out and was able to get it to come to me. The boys named him Paco, derived from Shapawkwa.


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## brittanyS (Dec 11, 2018)

I wanted to name my dog Pax or Sevro out of the Red Rising book by Pierce Brown. Both characters are intelligent, brave, and fiercely loyal. Plus, Pax means peace which I thought was nice. Unfortunately my husband wasn’t on board and we landed on Beau.

Beau’s registered name is Lazarus which is a pretty cool name, but I couldn’t think of a good way to shorten it and I didn’t want to use a name that long for a dog.


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## peachygeorgia (Oct 5, 2021)

Charlie was named after the GSD in the children's movie "All Dogs Go to Heaven"
I've always adored that movie and thought he and the cartoon pup looked alike.

For about a week after I got him, his name was also Bellamy, after a favorite book character of mine, didn't quite fit though.

My little one, Maeve, was also named after a character from a book, an old Irish lady living in the potato famine.


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## Vainkat (Oct 8, 2021)

Charlie is our first dog as a family, my first GSD and hubbys first puppy (he grew up with K-9s as his dad was a cop). We are so lucky to have such a great pup! 

My son always wanted to name our dog a dinosaur name. Which I thought was pretty cool. However the hubs wanted something mean. He kept trying to name our sweet fawn coloured GSD girl “Reaper” 🤦🏻‍♀️.

My son then said, “hey the raptors from Jurassic Park are mean and girls.” We toyed with Delta for a hot second but she responded to *Charlie. *

I’m sure at some point we will get a Blue, Delta and Echo to complete the set. 🤣

Charlie’s personality is a perfect fit. She is loving, protective, mischievous, and smart. What can I say, we have a “Clever Girl.”


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

My W-litter had 2 girls and 3 boys, none of whom I kept. I named the girls Winnifred (Winnie) and Wilhelmina (Wilma), and the boys were Wojohoitz (Wojo), Wolfgang (Wolfie), and Watson. Wolfie is my sister's dog now, they named him Kai. Wojo was Maverick, the dog the neighbor's poisoned. I like that name, I think my next boy that I keep will be Wojohoitz -- I still watch/love the old Barney Miller episodes.


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## AE316 (Oct 24, 2017)

Rose is from the G-litter. I think it's Graceful Rose. I stick with only Rose because that's the name I chose before I got her regardless.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

Years ago a trainer told me to avoid names that started with X, S or Z because they were soft sounds that were hard to put authority behind. So...
Over the years I have had a Xena, Zandi, Zephyr, Samantha, Saboteur, Saba, Savannah, Sola, Serene, Xandra, Xanadu, Xatia, Xanthe, Zaharina, Zafirah, you get the point. I'm difficult.
Lexi came to me with her name, but we mostly called her Sexy. Lol
Saba was short for Sabbath. A take on her registered name. 
Sabi was actually Saboteur, and no you cannot use that name.
Buds call name was Demon when I got him. It has been brought to my attention over the years that dogs live up to their names, so no.
Shadow was not my first choice. I called her Lucy (still do, lol), Rogue, Rebel, Selene and some other things. J named her Shadow. He was watching her following me around the yard and I was singing "me and my shadow". He yelled out the window, "That's her name!".


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## jone (May 4, 2009)

Interesting what processes we go through in choosing names. I enjoyed reading everyone's. 

My 1st gsd came with the kennel name Gigi, I don't know why I didn't just keep that. But as a wee pup she would jump at the burning end of cigarettes trying to snap at the glowing red ember. We would warn smokers, "watch your cherry or the dog will grab it". Somehow Cherry turned into her name. (And there was that Starz song Cherry Baby at the time too. Because that's how old I am.) 
The next dog came named Tammy by the rescue org I got her through. I wanted a new name because Tammy didn't have the tough image I wanted for my Rottenweiler. Came up with Marita, but that immediately became Rita and then finally turned into Rita-Lu, which is also not very tough. In tender moments I still called her Tammy, it was like our special sweetheart name. 
We had a family meeting to vote on the next name, the kids got their choice and my black dog was named Coko. Affectionately referred to as Coko Bear. Don't ask why it was spelled like that, even they don't remember. 
I badly wanted to name the current dog Bindi or Tikka for the spot on her forehead. But my daughter hated both names. Bindi was out because of that crocodile dundee daughter with the name had a TV show on at the time which my kids didn't like. I wasn't liking my daughter's ideas, which were mostly Disney characters. I went down a long list of possibilities that I liked until the kids agreed on one. Jiva wasn't in my top 10 but I begrudgingly went with that sanskrit word that no one loved but no one hated. 🤪 Except I added Bindi as a middle name. Jiva Bindi, Aka Jiva the Diva. I still don't love the name but it sure suits her! Jiva means to breathe, to live, it refers to a being's energy. Energy is an accurate term for my dog with her ever ready powerful life force. 
The kids are grown, my next dog will be mine to name. 🤗


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## Ringhram (Sep 4, 2021)

Honey Maid said:


> But, But, "Shasta" is a good name, it's not just a can of soda, the soda was named after the mountain


Yes, it is a good name. I pointed out the beauty of the California mountain, the meaning of the name ("teacher"), and how it was only two syllables. No go. Hubbie was dead set on Athena. At least Athena is a good GSD name. He could have insisted on Budweiser or something comparable...


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## Springbrz (Aug 13, 2013)

Well we didn't really have a name we could agree on for a bit. We tried a few over a couple weeks. I liked Shelby and Zoe. Hubby kept coming back to his choice- Ziva. She was a tiny, tiny pup and we even toyed with Peanut. The vet said she didn't like Peanut for a Shepherd name and that she wouldn't stay a "peanut" for long. The vet was right.

We are big fans of the NCIS franchise shows. The character Ziva is beautiful, strong willed and pretty bad arse. My husbands paternal side of the family is Jewish. In Hebrew Ziva means radiance, brightness, brilliant, light of God.

We spent a couple weeks cycling through Zoe, Shelby and Ziva. She picked her name as she always responded to Ziva and not so much the others. However when she is trying my patience or being naughty she does get the full "Ziva Zoe Shelby Nut (her unofficial full name) call and she knows I mean business and fed up with her shenanigans.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Mine already had their names and I kept them.


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## Wunderwhy6 (Nov 29, 2020)

I discovered Scutzhund 7 years ago. Until last year, it has been a waiting game until I was in a position to raise a sport puppy. I enjoy linguistics, so when I learned what the word ‘Kairos’ meant (Ancient Greek for the opportune and decisive moment) I chose to call my future dog that.

She has a longer name that includes her ‘c’ name for her litter.


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## perrymel (Oct 28, 2021)

Gabriel - the arch angel, mighty warrior , protector of women and children  took me awhile to decide on just the right name. Also the name is German and Spanish.


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## Squidwardp (Oct 15, 2019)

Some of our dogs joined the family at between 11 mos.-1.5 years old, and already had names: Carly, a Newfoundland; Akela, a German Shepherd. We kept Akela's name because it seemed to fit her. Though spelled this way on her records, we suspected they meant "Akeelah," or something different. Akela was the male wolf in the Jungle Book; our Akela was female.

For our current girl, we chose a call name with the same first letter as the litter. Rose from my profile pic was an R letter. I wanted a one syllable call name, and just like the name Rose. 
Her registered name is Rajani Rose, or roughly, "Dark Rose." 

"Axel" the male was not named to correspond to Rose, nor in any reference to Axl Rose (spelled differently) of 1980s-1990s music fame. He came from a D litter, and his registered name reflects that. We liked the name "Axel," so he wound up with a two syllable call name.


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## Angieodell (9 mo ago)

I named my German Shepherd is Rufus Glenn after my uncles one have passed a few years ago and one is passing away with liver cancer, so I took both of there middle names and came up with his name.. he is a very sweet baby boy, he just turned 4 months old and he weighs about 50 lbs


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## Bramble (Oct 23, 2011)

Sir Guy was named after Sir Guy of Gisborne character from Robin Hood. Guy is a black GSD and the character was known for wearing black. As a plus I have never met another dog named Guy  Being a groomer means I already have a certain association with a lot of names.


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## Willow81 (Aug 16, 2019)

Dogmeat was named after the companion dog from the Fallout video games. He was my companion in game for over 20 years so I decided it's time to make him a reality. 💙💛💙


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## Gregc (Aug 10, 2012)

Luca, after Luca Brasi, the hit man from Godfather 1.


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## CVandersteen (9 mo ago)

We've rescued five German Shepherds, three of which we renamed. The bonded pair that kept their names are Bruno and Bella...they had four litters together and when they couldn't have any more the owner didn't have the heart to fix them both, so gave them up for free to anyone who would look after their needs. At the time, we already had Frank, a very big boy whom we adopted as "Rocky" from a farm. We named him after my wife's deceased father, whom she misses very much. Frank developed kidney disease, and we sadly said goodbye to him a couple of years ago. Frank was the best dog: big, beautiful, gentle, scared of thunder, and despite his size, was the submissive in the pack; he deferred to my mutt Sadie (adopted from a shelter in Indiana) who was all of 55lbs. Before adopting Bella and Bruno, we rescued "Indiana" whose name we changed to Rosie. Rosie is an embattled, strong, ferocious, and loving girl. She was abused by her previous owner who bred her for puppies then left her tied up in the woods. Destined for a kill shelter, she was rescued from there and given a second chance. The previous owner also burned her right eye with a lighter (someone who recognized her from a picture related this to us), which left her looking a bit like a grizzly bear; so of course, she gets Rosie Bear or RB a lot. Our last adoption was a twelve month old sable from Toronto Humane Society named King Kong. My wife and I knew we didn't like the name, despite the fact that it described this big boy quite well. We decided on Vinnie/Vincent for no other reason than we thought he looked like a Vinnie.
Frank:








Rosie:








Bruno:








Bella:








and Vinnie:


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## Moxy (Aug 3, 2012)

Zoda - When we had talked about dog names, we had only talked about males because we were sure we would one day get a male GSD. Well, then we ended up with a female puppy. My husband had joked about naming a male "Zod," like from Superman. So, he jokingly named her "Zoda," which sounds like "soda." I wasn't going to name her "Kneel Before Zoda." So, since I liked the movie "Ghost," we officially named her "Zoda Mae Brown." Lol It's a ridiculous story, but that's how Zoda got her name.


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## dojoson41 (Oct 14, 2018)

lets see . Rosco-I liked Dukes of Hazzards. Alucard-Dracula spelled backwards(he was blk/silver). Binky because my little niece gave him her binky, Casca after a fiction series I read back in the 80s about the roman soldier and Jesus, the girls are named after towns/fountains of Italy-like Trevi and Tivali. and now Trollslayer-destroyed a large troll doll.


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## finn'smom (Oct 4, 2019)

I've had a Ruckus.. and well lesson learned, he lived up to that name almost everyday of his life lol he was my "Oh wow I can't leave you in this place" backyard bred GSD who latched onto my pantleg while I was at the house.

Then there was a Cato (all-knowing is the origin in Latin).. he was the Corso! Wise old man, even as a puppy  

Now there's a Finn, it came from Huckleberry Finn.. why? I have no idea, I saw him and it seemed right is all. I could have picked many diff names for him, stuck with something that wouldn't incite chaos lol


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## Aellinsar (Oct 27, 2021)

All of our animals over the past 27 years have been named after characters from the Wheel of Time series. My first GSD was Lan and then we got Moraine. We currently have Perrin.

(We've also had cats: Therin, Telamon, Olver, and Tigraine)


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## DougnLuna (Apr 3, 2021)

Fodder said:


> the short answer:
> View attachment 585767


You named your dog freight truck?😉🤣


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## DougnLuna (Apr 3, 2021)

She kept her original name- Luna. Most of the time i call her Loon. If i had to call her something else it would be Nuke. Because the amazing amount of energy she has.


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## DougnLuna (Apr 3, 2021)

Emilia C said:


> We names our black gsd Luna, Luna in Russian means moon also In ancient Roman mythology, Luna was the moon goddess. Luna is the centre of our universe we love her so much.


Also the most popular name of 2018. ( year my Luna was born)


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## cagal (Sep 3, 2013)

We had an outdoorsy theme for the first 3 dogs - Trapper, Ranger and Hunter. Django was a “D” litter and I love jazz so decided his name that way.


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## jarn (Jul 18, 2007)

Xerxes was called Tofu when we adopted him from the shelter (I mean, I am mostly vegan and love tofu, but that is a terrible name for a dog) and we found his listing on the rescue that the people who surrendered him to the shelter got him from (on a 'happy tales' - yeah, those people had him for six months before they dumped him  ) and he was called RAT. RAT. This horrifies our oldest niece and I totally understand her reaction. RAT.


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## mewhoshops (Jul 25, 2021)

We started out with Ozzy but it never seemed to fit him and he didn’t respond to it when called by that name so one day I started calling him various names until his head shot up like he knew that was it. Duke. Not my first choice but he sure took to it.


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## Catgsd (Oct 15, 2021)

We couldn't agree on which of the names we each liked - Wilson, rocco, turner, chase (my grandsons choice) and Thor. So my husband, two sons and I each wrote down the names we liked and put them in a bowl for my grandson ( 3yrs old at the time) to pick one out. Thor was the name I chose as it was thundering the day we brought him home and the night we were deciding on his name.

My grandson picked out the name Thor from the bowl 😁


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## GSDchoice (Jul 26, 2016)

Well, my daughter loves this author, and she enjoyed his book with a hero who was a white wolfdog...
so our white GSD/husky was named Rumo!


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## GSDchoice (Jul 26, 2016)

Aellinsar said:


> All of our animals over the past 27 years have been named after characters from the Wheel of Time series. My first GSD was Lan and then we got Moraine. We currently have Perrin.
> 
> (We've also had cats: Therin, Telamon, Olver, and Tigraine)


You must have been pretty psyched about the Wheel of Time series on Amazon Prime then! We watched it...quite a few plot changes, but we enjoyed it.


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

GSDchoice said:


> You must have been pretty psyched about the Wheel of Time series on Amazon Prime then! We watched it...quite a few plot changes, but we enjoyed it.


Hubby originally read the books, then we got the audio books, then we watched the series. Interesting stories worth following on all those formats.


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## Aellinsar (Oct 27, 2021)

GSDchoice said:


> You must have been pretty psyched about the Wheel of Time series on Amazon Prime then! We watched it...quite a few plot changes, but we enjoyed it.


Yes! We were excited. I liked some of the changes, liked others less, but overall enjoyed it and am glad it's on the screen.


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## Rosebud99 (9 mo ago)

Sunsilver said:


> Ranger - again, a name change from 'Ralph' which was Quebecois slang for a marijuana joint.  Full name: Ranger Aragorn, after the Lord of the Rings character.


I named my first GSD Ranger, also after Aragorn.


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## Rosebud99 (9 mo ago)

Hopps said:


> I wanted Fern to have a small piece of these people. T


That is so sweet.


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## Rosebud99 (9 mo ago)

Bramble said:


> Being a groomer means I already have a certain association with a lot of names.


I can relate to that. I just retired from grooming after 15 years and a lot of names get tossed out of the mix because of it, lol!


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## sauergrape (9 mo ago)

Dustinb80 said:


> View attachment 585781
> 
> 
> I named mine Gunner bc I was a gun truck gunner on both my deployments to Iraq. When I got him I was still struggling with adapting back into the civilian world. He was my sounding board and still is. Unfortunately he's not long for this world. His DM is getting worse, his time is almost up. What's going to happen in the near future with him is going to severely suck.


Really sorry to hear that and I seriously feel for you both.
We lost our last Shepherd to DM and it was heartbreaking to watch.

To stay on topic.
Went with Mia.
I was told to pick and I just liked the name.


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## Jenny720 (Nov 21, 2014)

Max’s name was almost going to be a name from the Walking Dead series which I’m glad it wasn’t and went back to the original name Max the gsd in the Bionic woman episodes. A perfect name. Luna which I have love for the moon we were going back and forth between two names. Talking about this very subject and on my birthday we came across this boat the number is of number of house with a gsd type dog and name Luna on it. It was most certainly a sign to go forward.


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## NickyandBroxi (9 mo ago)

Max - Rotti x Akita






Was called Tyson by his previous owner who we rescued him from (he was badly treated) so we gave him a new life and a new name and never looked back...Max suits him just perfect.

Broxi - German Shepard






My partner has wanted a German Shepard called Broxi (Broxi Bear is the Glasgow Rangers mascot) since he was young, we said we would get one when we had our forever home, then this little guy became available. We went to see him at 10 weeks old and the rest as they say is history.


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