# How did you pick your puppy's name?



## Hachiak (Apr 15, 2011)

So I thought it would be fun to share how we came to name our puppy.

In Hachi's case it is not an extremely interesting story, however... My husband and I went to Blockbuster to get a movie and came upon "Hachi", that one with Richard Gere. It is the real story of an Akita who waited for 10 years after his owner's death at the train station, he would go back everyday at 5pm hoping his owner would be there. Dogs are so loyal, so faithful, ... I cried, needless to say :blush:. So I said whenever we got a dog his name would be Hachi!

Alright, now your turn!


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## KLCecil (Jul 1, 2010)

We do themes in our house hold, recently it is after World Of Warcraft. Jaina is named after the mage Jaina Proudmoore. Her registered name is Cataclysm von Dagg after the new expansion release.....LOL I know big NERDS!


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## WarrantsWifey (Dec 18, 2010)

One word, Beer. My hubby loved the name. <3


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## Jessiewessie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

Well my family and I were deciding which name to give our new pup. I have always dreamed of having a female GSD named Ginger. But my sister, the person she is, said no she didn't like so we kept thinking of names. Then my mom came up with the name Molly. We all liked it and so thats how her name cam to be. We almost got her brother, and my dad said if we did we could have named the girl Hannah and the boy Montana so we would have Hannah Montana.

Tanner's name came with him. We adopted him at the shelter and it stuck. Fits him perfectly.


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## warpwr (Jan 13, 2011)

Another new Molly here. Actually _Good Golly Miss Molly_ for the 50's song. _Maybelline_ is our other dog and another 50's song.

_Sheba_ and _Kazar_ came to us with their names.
My boys named _Shadow_ after the dog Shadow in the movie Homeward Bound.

_Essie_ was short for Esprit de Corps.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

KLCecil said:


> We do themes in our house hold, recently it is after World Of Warcraft. Jaina is named after the mage Jaina Proudmoore. Her registered name is Cataclysm von Dagg after the new expansion release.....LOL I know big NERDS!


LOL! I understood everything you just wrote, that must make me a big nerd too. (My kids are so proud)


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## AvaLaRue (Apr 4, 2010)

We do Star Wars themes. I know..I know...I'm a nerd too!! My shihtzu's are Chewy (Chewbacca) and Toby (T'Oby wan Kinobi) and Ava (Aayla Secura). I didn't like Aayla so we went with Ava.


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## Syaoransbear (Sep 25, 2008)

I'm a bit of a gamer, and Chrono(KR-OH-NO) is named after the classic SNES game Chrono Trigger:










The main character's name is Crono, but I kind of liked it better with an H like in the game title. All of my future dogs will likely be named after video games too.


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## vat (Jul 23, 2010)

Fun read! Well Max took about 2 days after he was home to name. Every name I liked my hubby did not and I did not like his. Also we had just lost Rio and we both loved that name, he wanted something easy to say like that as well. How Rio got his name is cool so I will share that later.

Anyway I had finally had it with calling puppy and said today he WILL get a name. So I finally told him the only human name I would accept would be Max (I like unique names) He said Maximum? Then I said yes Maximum Velocity because of the way he shoots off the deck, lol. So that is how he became Max.

Callan came with her name.


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## vat (Jul 23, 2010)

I said I would share how Rio had gotten his name. After we went to pick out our pup we talked about names. Our breeder had told us that the father Tripps was registered as Jacks or Better (ya know the poker game). My hubby thought that was pretty neat so kept trying to think of anything poker related. He kept coming up with Texas holdem and I believe there is the river in that game. From the river we came up with Rio, I still love that name!


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## lbrennan2 (Feb 21, 2011)

My daughter said we got to pick the names of the other two dogs (Chloe and Libby) when I suggested we name him Charlie. 
So for some reason all our suggestion were tossed to the side and she named him Spencer... no rhyme, no reason.. just because she liked it.. at 15, you don't question their whys! 
Lisa


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## gsdraven (Jul 8, 2009)

I hated Raven's name when I got her (not posting it so as to not offend!) so I asked friends for some help since I'm not very good at coming up with names. A friend at work suggested something wine related since I like wine but Merlot or Cabernet seemed stupid. One of my favorite brands at the time was Ravenswood. I mentioned Raven to another friend who loved it even though I was still debating so it stuck.

Kaiser came with his name but it was spelled Kisar. I liked so I fixed the spelling and kept it.


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## MrsMiaW (Sep 25, 2010)

When we brought Thor home, we were having trouble picking a name. We went through countless names that night. As we are taking him in and out, to "go potty" a huge thunderstorm passed through. So here we are with our 8 wk old puppy, standing outside in pouring rain, with thunder and lightening and he is not bothered by any of it. So my husband suggested Thor and we all agreed naming him after the God of Thunder was perfect.

Kona, our hound mix, is named after 2 of my husband's mountain bikes.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

I knew I wanted a black male GSD so I had 3 names picked out for him before I even got him. 

It was between Havok (after Davey Havok from AFI :wub, Slayer or Sinister. 

My boyfriend at the time hated the name Slayer and he didn't like the short version of Havok (Havy). I ruled Havok out and then it was between Slayer and Sinister. 

One day I was listening to a song from the band Boys Like Girls called Hero/Heroine. The lyrics are "I'll keep a sinister smile and a hole in my heart" and "Your love is the sweetest sin". I loved it and decided that Sinister would be his name.

I absolutely LOVE his name.

I am getting a GSD pup next year and I plan on naming her Malice, I really like it and I can shorten it to just Alice too (Alice after the main character in the Resident Evil movies :wub.


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## brembo (Jun 30, 2009)

I have never named my dogs, being all rescues they come with one. Next dog will be either Whiskeyjack (male) or Dunsparrow (female). Bonus points if ya can figure out what books inspired these names.


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## catz (Dec 10, 2010)

Rio got her name as my partner wanted to call her Rain but it didnt seem to suit her, we debated for a while then he suggested Rio which stuck. My friends call her Rio Diablo now when shes naughty lol.. We are getting an English Bull terrier in July from Alpenstock Bullies in July (so exited since I've wanted one my whole life hehe) and I've already decided to call him Sikes after Oliver's Bill Sikes.. Bulls eye didnt seem origional enough.


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## Rowan (Feb 10, 2011)

I have a tradition (that comes from showing a different animal) that when it comes to naming an animal I put a wish in it. For Rowan I wanted him to be stong but also lovely. So I named him after the Rowan tree, because it's a strong tree but it also has some of the prettiest flowers.

For his registared name my breeder wanted it to start with a Z and be from the bible. Zuriel is from the bible and means "God is my rock."


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## kmarti32 (Mar 28, 2011)

The kids and I told my DH that if he let us get a dog he could name him (and we would pick up all the poop). We figured since he is not as much as a dog lover as we are he might bond easier to him if he got to name him. Well, we were right! My DH named him Diesel (people used to say my DH looks like Vin Diesel). He absolutely loves Diesel and Diesel loves him too (he even picks up his poop too...sometimes). They are Pals for life!


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## BestK9GSD (Oct 26, 2010)

My husband and I were tossing around names and he started saying gun manufacturers...Ruger, Remington, etc.....and finally, he mentioned "Kimber" - I had never heard of that gun, nor had I ever heard anyone with that name....so, we started referring to our future male puppy that we were waiting weeks for as Kimber and it stuck and that's all she wrote. 

The problem now is that everyone thinks "He's" a "She"....even a friend of mine, who's a teacher (getting to hear every name possible), said that she has 2 "Kimber's" in her class and they are both girls....arrrggghhhh! 

But he knows his name and we're keeping it - it will be sort of like the story/song "A boy named Sue" .


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## CLARKE-DUNCAN (Apr 8, 2011)

A few days before we went to pick up Nero we had a discussion on what we were going to call him we had a few names I wanted Jack the Fiancee wanted Toby, Neither of us liked the names chosen by each of us! Then the fiancee suggested Nero. So Nero it was! Glad we made that descion as it matches his charecter perfetcly not the Roman emperor part! Nero also means stern! Just like Nero!....


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## holland (Jan 11, 2009)

Anja came to me already named-and I never considered changed her name just never gave it a thought really she was two and over time I realized her name is a combination of my aunts' name and the first 2 letters of my fathers name-I over think things-Rorie I needed an A name and I could come up with lots of B names but didn't like any A names -where I trained one of my favourite dogs was Orry and fooling around with names I like the name Rorie and thought I could call her Aurora and shortened it to Rorie


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## Chowgal (Dec 21, 2009)

My chow, Tippsy, got her name because my uncle wanted to name her something unique. And she's red and had black tips on her ears and tail, so she because "Tippsey", only I didn't like it spelled with the "e" in there, so I took it out when she was given to me. 

Jasper, my chow/lab mix, got named after the character Jasper from the Twilight books(I highly dislike the movies). But (for those of you who haven't read the books, or seen the movies) the character has the ability to control emotions, and is a true southern gentleman. And Jazz has always had the ability to make me happy, no matter how bad my day was or what's happening, and we're in the south, so I figured it was fitting. 

Now, Dixie, my GSD mix is named after Lindsey Haun's character "Dixie" in the movie Broken Bridges(with Toby Keith). The character in the movie thinks she's a bad @$$ and is a rebel, and I thought that fit Dixie perfectly!  But I named her this after her first name(Sheba) didn't stick, and I didn't like her second name(Chessie(Chestnut), too close to my own nickname, Jessi).


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## Hillary_Plog (Apr 3, 2011)

My boy, XX Dos Equis Von Huerta Hof, is from the "X" litter so Robin (breeder) thought it would be fun to name him XX which is Dos Equis in Spanish. We call him Dos Equis...


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## GSDolch (May 15, 2006)

My children picked Bailey's name. They were so excited to have a dog I couldnt tell them No, and Buddy came with his name and we were gonna change it but the kids wanted to keep that one to, so we did.

However, future animals, they are SOL on, I get to name them. Im the one that cares for them! 

Usually name names tend to follow gods/goddess and spiritual type names. Or Fantasy.


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## JustMeLeslie (Sep 15, 2010)

Well we named Jamie Lee after hubby's fav. actress-Jamie Lee Curtis. We don't care if she is doing Activa commercials now.LOL We still love her.  
We are bunch of big dorks so then we said if we name her Jamie Lee that we would get a male and name him Curtis. So we might have a Curtis one day, but since I don't want anymore male dogs for a while I don't know if that is gonna happen. Plus we wanted a female equivalent to Jerry Lee(the dog from the K-9 movies) so it all just worked out with her name. 

We named Samson after Samson and Delilah(my heart dog that passed away in 2007)

Lola-she didn't have a name at the Humane Society where we got her so I don't know either LuLu or Lola popped into my head. We couldn't decide so when we took her for her wellness exam the day we got her I asked the vet and techs which name they all liked and everyone said Lola so there we go.


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## CarrieJ (Feb 22, 2011)

Alice is named after Alice Kramden of the old Jackie Gleason TV show.

We watched her at 12 weeks charging around the house bouncing and barking at the Michael Vick cat, carrying her tug around, hiding her nyla-bones outside (in the last of the flowers I let die)....everything with a mission and purpose and said...That's a lot of dog! She'll be the first German Shepherd on the moon.

So it stuck...we still tell her four years later, "POW! To the moon Alice!"


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## GSDkid (Apr 19, 2011)

I came home from work one day, already expecting that there is not much excitement in my life now that I've moved out to a new house with just me and the wife. I was waiting on a pregnancy test of positive way too long so just looked up a breeder online and drove 2 hours to pick Abby up. I said to heck with a child, I want a dog now. I know, kind of reckless and desperate.

During the 2 hour drive, my wife didn't want to name the puppy yet but I wanted to before hand. She tried not listening to me but I threw a whole list of names to her. When we finally got to see the 2 female pups left, my wife said "Abby", unexpectedly, and one of the girls looked and stopped. So we got her and the name stuck with her really well.


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## krystyne73 (Oct 13, 2010)

Meika is named after the cute German girl on EuroTrip ( my sons obvious choice)
Macy was named after the store, but we usually call Macy-Macy 

The others came with those names


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

Well Riley came to use named Railey. We ditched the 'a' and it works better. Zena came to us as Zenia. Didnt like the 'ee ya' so we ditched the 'i' and she became Zena Warrior Princess. lol. Well Shelby was orginally Juliet. She didnt know her name. If you said it she looked at you like you were stupid and "i'm not answering to that dip dork" so i changed it to Shelby because i LOVE the Shelby GT500 Nick Cage has a love affair with (lol) in Gone In 60 Seconds. i ADORE that car. That was my dream car even before i saw the movie. So Juliet became Shelby. I told my husband next female shepherd we got would be named Shasta because i love Shasta soda. Especially Shasta Cream Soda so Shasta was being called Fern when i brought her home. My next GSD i'm planning on a male and i'll either call him Jake or Tobias. Dunno why. just like em.


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## DDTBEMe (Apr 13, 2011)

Taser came to me with his name. It suits him because he is stunning!


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## Jessiewessie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

KZoppa said:


> Well Riley came to use named Railey. We ditched the 'a' and it works better. Zena came to us as Zenia. Didnt like the 'ee ya' so we ditched the 'i' and she became Zena Warrior Princess. lol. Well Shelby was orginally Juliet. She didnt know her name. If you said it she looked at you like you were stupid and "i'm not answering to that dip dork" so i changed it to Shelby because i LOVE the Shelby GT500 Nick Cage has a love affair with (lol) in Gone In 60 Seconds. i ADORE that car. That was my dream car even before i saw the movie. So Juliet became Shelby. I told my husband next female shepherd we got would be named Shasta because i love Shasta soda. Especially Shasta Cream Soda so Shasta was being called Fern when i brought her home. My next GSD i'm planning on a male and i'll either call him Jake or Tobias. Dunno why. just like em.


Two of my favorite actors are named Tobias but nicknamed Toby and the other is named Jake.


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## CainGSD (Nov 15, 2003)

I like my dog's registered to be reflected in their call names. When I was told that Cain's litter would be a "C" I searched for weeks. I wanted a strong male name and finally settled on Cain. Of course, everyone always heard the name as "King" LOL so much for planning.

Dazzle was obviously a "D" litter. I wanted something feminine but that could be shortened to a short quick name as well. A friend of mine suggested "Daz" which I liked but a fellow club member had a great dog called Jazz so I was torn. I settled on Dazzle and she has endless nicknames. Her breeder fell immediately in love with her name. She had a great story to share from her first schutzhund trial where the judge told her to dazzle her and her dog ended up going high in trial. Dazzle is also called Daz, Dazzy, Dazzeroo and Dazzy doo......

Doc actually belongs to my DH. He is in training to be his service dog. DH has a habit of calling any medical doctors that he likes "Doc" so it was a natural fit since Doc was also a "D" pup.


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## MicheleMarie (Mar 29, 2011)

ever since i saw the movie "half-baked" when i was 17 i wanted to name my next shepherd Samson hahahaha.


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## RogueRed26 (Jul 15, 2010)

Not only do I love the state I live in, I wanted a name with meaning. Texas is a female state and means friend. I want my dog to be my friend, so that's how I git the name Texas. Lone star since it represents the one star on the Texas flag and she has a single white star on her chest. Ranger means protector of the forrest, and my name means forest, so it was a perfect fit. Texas lone star ranger.


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## k950ECHO (Oct 15, 2009)

Doing a Theme... 
Papers say what I hope and dream of.

Call name... alphabet, E, F next is G


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## VomBlack (May 23, 2009)

I gotta say my inner nerd is really liking the video game themed names. 

I'm also a big fan of mythology and history, which is where Odin's name came into play. I wanted a nice, strong name with an interesting story tied to it.. and Odin is a very interesting diety for me. I had almost named him Omen because he was born on Friday the 13th, but Odin flowed easier for me.


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## JPrice (Feb 19, 2011)

I named Mona after a character in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle...


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## JeffM (Dec 19, 2005)

When we went to look at the pack, Thor was very active and playing with his litter mates. We wanted a strong, unique name for him and it just popped in our head.

Riggs (Thor's brother) came to us at 13 months and already had the name.


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

we have always been partial to mythology names (and SciFi) so our oldest GSD is Lord Rayden (Raiden is Japanese God of lightning). Singe, aka Brsingr, is from the Inheritance Series (movie Eragon). Brsingr is the 3rd book title and is the dragon word for fire. Add in that he is a dark sable, and what better name than Singe?


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## landspeed (Apr 21, 2011)

Sam came from the german shepherd in i am legend... that was an awesome dog, so I had to go with that name.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

Earlheim Helmar vomVollkommen aka Loki.
Earlheim i made up, Helmar a friend named him,
vomVollkommen is the kennel name. Loki, a friend named him.


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## Texas_Eva (Apr 10, 2011)

My breeder doesn't have any standards with naming. So my girlfriend and I picked Eva, me for the German roots of it, and she liked it because of Wall-E the movie. As for now I'm thinking:

Eva Von Zeder Eiche Armer

Ceder Oaks is the Breeder, and that is Ceder Oak in German, and Armer is my last name. What do you guy's think?


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## Miss Molly May (Feb 19, 2010)

Miss Molly May Aka Moo Moo

Miss; she acts like a little lady
Molly; name after a beautiful and scenic river that flows near our camp(little Molly river)
May; our favorite month


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## Freddy (Apr 23, 2009)

My wife and I honeymooned in Australia and Fiji. In Fiji we stayed on a private island, Matagi (pronounced ma-tang-ee). We took that and came up with Tango. His registered name is Jury. Just did not like that.


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## Powie (Mar 29, 2011)

Powie inherited his name from my youngest son. We called him Powie because he was a Power Ranger fanatic as a kid. He's now a machine gunner in the USMC so Powie was kind of fitting....


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## kelso (Jan 22, 2007)

None of our dogs are pups anymore but when they were:

Meeka... was named after the Lion King "Meeko"

Kelso.... from "That 70's Show"  

Allie...formerly known as "Lily" Fortunately Emoore changed her name to Allie, much more bad [email protected]@ uppy:uppy: heheh. Love Allie's name, so we continued to call her that. It fits her well. I call her Al, or Sal.


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## EdBud (Jul 16, 2010)

Gretchen Suzette Von Aufhausen: 1st- named after one of _my_ old family friend's doxie, 2nd- because my Daughter likes 'Suzie' and 3rd- 'of the outdoors' because when we brought her home, she wined at the porch door 'till we let her out and then promptly fell over and fell asleep in the grass. She was born/whelped on a farm in Iowa where the Moms and Pups had an outdoor paddock. She didn't know what 'inside' was until she came home with us. :shocked:


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## The Packman (Jan 31, 2011)

Elly May...was named after some pretty girl from the mountains of Tennessee.


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## afriel10 (Apr 1, 2011)

my dog got his name rambo beacause his father was so big, strong http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/images/smilies/hug.gif , and also had a sensitive side jus like rambo  my next dog will be stallone :Lhttp://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif


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## Sammy79 (Mar 6, 2011)

I needed my GSD Ace after the movie "Ace of Hearts"


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Our dogs are all literary or historically named...Nerds of a slightly different shade here  Previous cats were Jay Gatsby and Tiger Lily. We were also conforming to Litter Letters. (With the Exception of Aiko who came with his name...)

*Argos*- dog from the Odyssey. Pretty touching passage actually. 


> As they were talking, a dog that had been lying asleep raised his head and pricked up his ears. This was Argos, whom Odysseus had bred before setting out for Troy, but he had never had any enjoyment from him. In the old days he used to be taken out by the young men when they went hunting wild goats, or deer, or hares, but now that his master was gone he was lying neglected on the heaps of mule and cow dung that lay in front of the stable doors till the men should come and draw it away to manure the great close; and he was full of fleas. As soon as he saw Odysseus standing there, he dropped his ears and wagged his tail, but he could not get close up to his master.
> 
> When Odysseus saw the dog on the other side of the yard, dashed a tear from his eyes without Eumaeus seeing it, and said:
> 
> ...


*Anka *is actually *Bianka-* Which we pulled from Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. She was a pretty princess as a pup...turns out she might have been a better Kate (total shrew). And yes I know Bianca is spelled with a C not a K in the play...I took creative license. Looked more German to me. 

*Cade*- is a slightly more complicated story. I originally wanted his name to be Caedfel/Cadfael. It was the name of a horse in a book I liked- incidentally it also meant Battle Prince in Welsh. In my head I pronounced it Cayd-fel. After some research, Turns out I butchered the Welsh. But I had already started in my head thinking of my new puppy as Cade. So then I did some backwards work and justified my new name to fit our theme. Turns out Cade is a 15th century English rebel as well as a character in Gone with the Wind. 

*Tag* is *D'Artagnan-* Clearly the well known character of the Musketeers. Means Leader. I think that's pretty good. He is the Leading Pain in my Rear.


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## arycrest (Feb 28, 2006)

*JR*, *Too*, *Bo*, *Kelly*, *Slider*, and *Faith* were already named when I got them & I didn't see any reason to change them!
*Yukon's* original name was Max but since he had been severly abused I changed it to something completely different. Since he was from Winnipeg, MB I decided to name him something with a Northern flavor.
*Tasha* was named by my sister and *Ringer* by a friend because his wife and I talked on the phone a lot.
*Andy* has always been one of my favorite names.
*Abbey* for Westminster Abbey (part of her registered name).
*Tex's* registered name was Texas Ranger XVI
*Echo* was named after Echo, UT ... just because I liked the name!
*Niki* was named after a friend who gave me JR, Ringer & Honey.
*Honey* got her name because she was so sweet.
*Mac* ... I love the name Max but since my sister had a Dane named Max I got one as close to Max as possible.
*Bruiser* was a big Bruiser when he was born but is average size now.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

I was thinking about naming him Willy or Russell ('cause he's a chocolate Pom), but on the drive home from the breeder's house, we passed under a sign that said "Osbourne." It reminded me of Ozzy Osbourne, and I thought Ozzy would be the cutest name. And he seemed to like it when I said it too.


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## DougGeneration (Apr 28, 2011)

Since I do lack creativity, especially with the dog naming category, I named them both after their colors and their breed. But thanks to your responses guys, I think that'll significantly improve!


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## twhvlr (Mar 22, 2011)

Mine is named Jethro. NCIS is our favorite TV show and we loved the episode where Abby proved the GSD innocent of a crime and thus saved his life. She named him Jethro after her boss and the main character-Leroy Jethro Gibbs.


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## Hagakure (Jul 26, 2011)

My dog was actually named weeks before we got him. We were arguing over the name of the future dog with my girlfriend. I wanted to call him "Jallu" which is a nickname for a traditional Finnish drink made by mixing cognac and a finnish clear spirit. I don't remember her suggestion for a name but we had the tv on the whole time and then it hit us: This was playing in the background.






So he became Dexter.


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## jennyp (Jun 18, 2011)

I named Brody after Chief Brody from Jaws. It's my favorite movie


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## tjzick (Sep 5, 2011)

im from new jersey, i miss it a bunch and i would like to train my pup to get me beer from the fridge. "ayyy tony, go grab me a heini." jus sounds natural lol.


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## k_sep (Jun 21, 2011)

I like the Harry Potter series and the character Luna Lovegood was one of my favorite characters, so my pup was stuck with the name!


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## JulieBays (Jun 26, 2011)

Sasha just seemed right. I am of Russian/Ukraine heritage and my son is 1/2 Greek. His name is Alexander. Well, in Russian, Sasha is the nickname for Alexander/Alexandra so I just named her after my son.


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## SitUbuSit (Aug 1, 2011)

LaRen616 said:


> I am getting a GSD pup next year and I plan on naming her Malice, I really like it and I can shorten it to just Alice too (Alice after the main character in the Resident Evil movies :wub.




Malice is a great name! I was hoping that you'd call her "Mal" for short, after the captain of the Serenity in Firefly... 

Oops, there I go again, living my life through your dogs.


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## gsd_newbie (Aug 23, 2011)

I was once proudly to own a gsd, 07 years ago while working a thousand miles from home and family. I cannot recall why I picked his name, but he were one of my best friend ever, his respect and loyalty to me simply amazing. So my boy is named Tony, in a loving memory to the ex.


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## SitUbuSit (Aug 1, 2011)

We'd love to do a Game of Thrones name, but there are still two books left in the series, and we don't want to name her after a character that's going to die an ignoble death.

We're going with Nala. The reason is embarrassingly uncreative. We were in Hawaii and saw a rambunctious Mastiff whose owner was struggling with recall. She kept screaming, "NALA, COME!" and I thought: 1) Boy, I wouldn't want to come to someone yelling at me like that, either, and; 2) Nala is a great name! 

So basically, we copied an angry stranger on the beach. We liked it because it sounds Hawaiian (it's not), and it's easy to say.

I was much more creative with my childhood GSD, Williard Milton (Willie for short). We wanted to give him the most distinguished-sounding name possible. Williard, I think, was the name of a local hotel chain. Milton we got from Milton Bradley, which at the time seemed pretty darned distinguished.


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## Tammy GSD (Dec 26, 2010)

*How Sheva got her name*

First off, I was quite amused reading all of the gamer responses. Not a WOW player but a D&D player since the 1980's and I'm the owner of Gold Dragon Horde (Gold Dragon Horde). Great to see us in this realm, too!

Anyway, her name was SUPPOSED to be Sheba, as in "Queen of Sheba". However, the first few days of her being her she ate two antique chairs, the carpet, the wall, two table legs, three shoes, some socks and toy after toy after toy. We changed her name to Sheva after Shiva the Destroyer, the deity but changed the spelling for respect to God. 

Since she was purchased to get me out of the house, again (became phobic of opening the front door or being out of the house after being the victim of a violent crime), she literally saved my life (not life life but quality of life) so her full registered name is Sheva Reaping Destiny's Whirlwind since life can be quite tumultuous but because of that, she was destined to be mine.


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## cowgirlup_22 (May 11, 2011)

Such a neat thread  My 2yr old male Kenai got named after the boy who gets turned into a bear in the movie Brother Bear and most people think my kids are the ones that picked the name...nope..it was me  lol I think it fits him because he looks like a big ol' cuddly teddy bear..which he is.  Kiva my 6month old female didn't have a name for a few days after we got her simply because my hubby and I just couldn't agree on a name. He wanted to call her "Kita"..I said no..I wanted to call her "Diva"..he said no way..So a few hours after my kids had went to school I suddenly had a great idea  Since my husband really liked the name Kita and I really liked the name Diva I combined them and came up with Kiva  lol Hubby still wasn't impressed but it stuck  I also looked up what her name meant and here is what I found "as a girl's name is a variant of Akiva(Hebrew), and the meaning of Kiva is "protect, shelter". Pretty cool I think


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## tjzick (Sep 5, 2011)

gsd_newbie said:


> So my boy is named Tony, in a loving memory to the ex.


thats my lil guys name!


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## jetscarbie (Feb 29, 2008)

My youngest male is named Walter. We call him Walt. From the kid in the tv show LOST. His dad spent the whole tv show yelling "WALT" or "Where's my boy, Walt"....when we went to the breeder's house, she yelled out "Where's my boys at"? My husband and I busted out laughing...and knew what his name was going to be.

My BIL had the best dog name ever...."watch-it" It was always so cool when he called that name out.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

SitUbuSit said:


> Malice is a great name! I was hoping that you'd call her "Mal" for short, after the captain of the Serenity in Firefly...
> 
> Oops, there I go again, living my life through your dogs.


I've never seen that show/movie (?) before ​


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## DukeGSD (Aug 31, 2011)

Duke is named after John Wayne. Both my husband and I have always loved him. Once we saw a picture of our pup, we knew that Duke would be his name. His full name is His Excellency, Grand Duke of the Broken Fence. 

The other name we considered was Sturm Brightblade from the Dragonlance series...but well, we couldn't. Other considerations were based on ancient, notable samurai, Japanese dieties, and ancient Roman figures. I love history, especially feudal Japan.

Brownie was named by my son. We knew we would be getting a Golden Retriever mix. He wanted to name the dog even though we didn't have her yet and he would be going to his father's for half the Summer. His normal naming scheme for his toys is quite literal. Snake, Snakey, Bendy Snake, Spider, Spidey, Kitty, Cat, Dragon, etc etc. We had to rule out Dog and Doggy right away. He wanted to name Duke ******. You can see how that wouldn't have gone over so well. Well, he did follow it with we could get a black dog and name it Blackie. Since we had already shown up pictures of what she may look like, he chose Brownie. I'm glad we were able to find the proper coloring for his name. Don't know what we would have done otherwise...


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## ayoitzrimz (Apr 14, 2010)

Einstein is actually named as a reference to the Back to the Future movies I grew up on. Einstein was the name of Doc Brown's dog - the first time traveler  It's also fitting since my fiance and I are both in the science and medicine fields...


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## LukasGSD (May 18, 2011)

I think it was the day or week before I went to pick him up, I had been looking in several books and name sites but nothing stuck. I woke up one morning after having a random star wars dream and proclaimed first thing I know his name! It's Lukas! Ironically because his father was named Vador and I wanted something more original than just "Luke".

Jaxon had many many names before I decided on Jaxon. It was originally going to be Dodge - short for Dodger. Then Judge. Riot. Aaros. Since Jaxon vom True Haus was already taken I just put Bo in front of it.  Cause I wasn't changing the spelling.


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## SitUbuSit (Aug 1, 2011)

LaRen616 said:


> I've never seen that show/movie (?) before ​


It's a great show (Firefly) and movie (Serenity), but to get back to thread topic, I love both Sinister and Malice -- very creative. I've never met any dogs with those names.


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## SitUbuSit (Aug 1, 2011)

DukeGSD said:


> He wanted to name Duke ******. You can see how that wouldn't have gone over so well...


LOL. I'm imagining myself at the dog park yelling, "C'MON, ******!" (I am not White) and having all these dog owners turn around and look at me strangely.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

SitUbuSit said:


> It's a great show (Firefly) and movie (Serenity), but to get back to thread topic, I love both Sinister and Malice -- very creative. I've never met any dogs with those names.


Thank you.

Me neither, that's why I chose them. 
​


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## DukeGSD (Aug 31, 2011)

SitUbuSit said:


> LOL. I'm imagining myself at the dog park yelling, "C'MON, ******!" (I am not White) and having all these dog owners turn around and look at me strangely.



Exactly. I have a very literal 8 y/o. He calls things like he sees them and we have to explain that, every once and a while, it is inappropriate. 

To add to the names: Hopefully in a few days, we will be picking up 7 y/o Rondo. He was named based on the litter classification. Technically, it would be Rrondo as he is a retired military working dog. Crossing my fingers. It's between us and a breeder and they want a home where he won't be kenneled all the time and will be loved and spoiled (us! ).


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## Wolfgeist (Dec 4, 2010)

Hunter has always been my favourite male name, it was the name I wanted to give to my first German Shepherd for years. My next dog will be a black male named Chaos, because that is another of my favourite names.


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## BlackPuppy (Mar 29, 2007)

My dogs all came with names, and I couldn't think of anything better. 

The only exception is my female Ciana des Domanine du Hinojosa. The breeder let me pick out a "C" name for her. It's just an Italian name that means Joan.

I keep forgetting that I wanted a dog named "Indy". 

Sallah: Please, what does it always mean, this... this "Junior"? 
Henry: That's his name: Junior! Henry Jones, Junior. 
Sallah: I thought his name was Indiana. 
Henry: The dog's name was Indiana


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## Gracie's My Girl (May 27, 2011)

We named our dog thanks to a funny coincidence. On the way to meet the puppies for the first time...we tossed around the name Gracie. When we arrived, the breeder helped us to select a puppy. It turns out her granddaughter named this puppy Gracie! We decided it was meant to be.


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## ChancetheGSD (Dec 19, 2007)

Zoey was originally something else. I don't remember what, I think it was Chanel or something stupid like that. We originally found her on my grandparents farm, took her home, named her, ect. Found out who owned her a week later, they told us her name was Zoey and said we could keep her if we wanted her since they couldn't keep her. We figured Zoey fit her a lot better and so we kept that.

When it came to Eevee being named, I had 6 people standing around trying to name her. ;/ The majority voted Destiny or Faith/Fate but I was very uncomfortable with those names seeing that the idea was it was "destiny" or "fate" for me to get her, after Chance was killed the day before. I felt it was very insulting towards my boy. In the end, DK and Adam suggested Eevee, like the Pokemon, and so it stuck!

I'd also thought about Prudence, which thankfully I didn't go with because I later got a boyfriend who's niece has that name. xDD



LaRen616 said:


> It was between Havok (after Davey Havok from AFI :wub,


I have two Hermit Crabs named Havok (After Davey of course lol) and Jade (Puget).  Sexysexysexyboys!!


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## Dooney's Mom (May 10, 2011)

My first WGSD i named Skye when i was in high school... my family couldn't come up with a good name and i was lying on the table at lunch looking up at the Sky and the big white fluffly cloud- so Skye it was. Skye has been gone years on 09/23. I waited 4 1/2 years before getting another dog and I knew i was going to get a GSD. Hubby didn't want another white one (felt it was "replacing" Skye). Anyway- i LOVE Dooney and Bourke purses and I was delusional in thinking I wanted TWO GSD's and about 2 years ago decided my new dogs would be called Dooney and Bourke... So she was basically named before I ever decided it was time to get a new dog. I would say things like "when we get Dooney" and my husb would say "who the **** is Dooney" and I would have to remind him that WHEN we got a new dog that was her name. So at the breeders picking her out of the litter I was torn between 2 of them and said Who is my Dooney girl and she looked at me and cocked her head, then jumped on me-- she picked me  of course, i sometimes catch myself calling her Doo-Doo which makes me laugh like crazy and I do call her Doo all the time, but i think the name fits her. I was quite upset when the vet told me they had 2 other dogs named Dooney there- here i though i was being ALL unique! LOL


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## RileyMay (Aug 6, 2011)

*How Riley Got Her Name*

When I adopted Riley her kennel name was Josie. Josie didn't fit Riley's personality. I already had three names that I wanted to name Riley. They were Katie, Venus, and Riley. When I went to go get Riley, and saw her, out of the blue I said" Hey Riley May"! it fit her perfectly!! It just fits her personality!! She actually listened to Riley May better than she did Josie, so that's how Riley got her name!!


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## Klamari (Aug 6, 2010)

I've always liked more organic names, I guess. It needed to be 1-2 syllables, and I LOVE the water. So it was a toss-up between River and Rain. I liked River a little better actually (because of the movie Serenity ), but my family really didn't like it. They didn't particularly like Rain either, but evnetually I said to heck with them, it's MY dog, *I* like it. And then of course I had to be difficult and screw with the spelling, which = Rayne. Now I can't imagine calling her anything else.


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I went thru my puppy's pedigree to look for a strong call name. I do like his registered name, but it didn't flow well as a call name. His Great-Great Granddaddy is Karlo v Peko Haus, it just fit.

Onyx was named because of her coloring mostly, I knew another Onyx, a black Great Dane with a white diamond spot, I think it is a good call name.
Kacie was already named and I didn't change it. Clover was born on March 17 so I wanted a name to reflect that.
Stomper was named in honor of my Stepdads GSD, who passed a year before we got him.


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## Sapakus (Aug 10, 2010)

I could NOT figure out what to name him, so ICE decided to pick his own name...

I had just gotten him a week earlier, and didnt know what to call him.... for like the first week he was just about every name... Rancho.. Ice... Bolt... all kind of names!

So the following weekend I was out on the field for my game. I took Ice with me, so after when we dumped the ice water from cooler out, Ice ran towards it and just sat on top of it having the time of his life, so from then on, hes know as Ice.


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## liko and xavian's Mom (Sep 30, 2011)

I wanted different names for my boys. Something no one else would think of naming their GSD. I named Xavian, my oldest, in honor of my favorite Jamaican bartender. And Liko, my youngest was named in honor of my favorite Hawaiian bartender.


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## EdBud (Jul 16, 2010)

When we were looking at the pups I wasn't thinking names, but when we got her home my Wife let my Daughter know that since Mom got to chose the puppy (yea, right, she chose us), Dad gets to name her. My little girl balked, but was happy that we included her choice in the pup's _full_ name.

It may not be totally accurate German (I really have to do the research here) but her full name is Gretchen Suzette von Aufhousen. Gretchen from her being German and after another German dog I knew when I was a kid, Suzette because my Daughter wanted to name her 'Suzy' (?) and von Aufhousen because a guy I worked with at the time told me it meant 'of the outdoors'. 

The last bit was because when we brought her home she would whine at the side door until we let her out where she would promptly walk out six feet from the door, into the grass, plop down and fall fast asleep. She'd do this repeatedly until she would be down for the night. You see, she was born on a farm and lived outside in a paddock with Mom and her siblings. Consequently, she had no real idea what indoors was ;-).

Just recently I had the bright idea that if we get another GSD, possibly a boy, that he'd be named Bear. Gretchen's stuffed bears (yes, plural, she has a collection) are the only plushes she doesn't make a tiny hole in, at a seam, and proceed to 'de-fuzz'. So, if she'd be playing with another GSD pup and not 'de-fuzz' him, Bear sounds like a fit.


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## jm513 (Oct 9, 2011)

KLCecil said:


> We do themes in our house hold, recently it is after World Of Warcraft. Jaina is named after the mage Jaina Proudmoore. Her registered name is Cataclysm von Dagg after the new expansion release.....LOL I know big NERDS!


I was just reading through random stuff on the site and figured I'd check out this thread. I didn't get any further than the second post and had to laugh and respond:laugh: We also play WoW and I had all sorts of names picked out but my husband was like "oh no - you can't name him after a WoW character, we'll get so much crap for that!" so.....he is named Jedi. I somehow think that Thrall would have been less of a "Yes, we're nerds" sign - but ah well:laugh::laugh: Jedi works for him! Now, if he can just master the force, we'll be golden. We're working on it - but right now "stay" is still hard, so it'll be awhile:smirk:


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## Josh's mom (Oct 30, 2010)

For some reason all of our animals have had human names. Don't know why, just a preference.

Joshua means "God rescues/saves", we were hoping he'd be a K9 partner for my husband, though we were told recently he's not "neurotic enough" so not sure if that will happen. 

For Jenna we wanted a strong feminine name. She started as Blaze then became Glazen. Neither of them felt right, so we chose Jennavieve, or Jenna for short.


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## Charmander52 (Oct 21, 2011)

Our first dog, a lab, was Dakota, after South Dakota (I'm not sure why )
Second dog Kacie came with that name from the humane society.
I don't have a GSD yet, but hopefully soonish, and I really want to name him Charlie. Partly after the All Dogs Go To Heaven Charlie, and partly after the mathematician Charlie Eppes from Numb3rs. 
I don't think you are nerds AT ALL! I've also entertained the idea of naming dogs Aragorn, Arwen, Indy, Merry, Pippin, etc..... :wild:


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## jm513 (Oct 9, 2011)

Charmander52 said:


> Our first dog, a lab, was Dakota, after South Dakota (I'm not sure why )
> Second dog Kacie came with that name from the humane society.
> I don't have a GSD yet, but hopefully soonish, and I really want to name him Charlie. Partly after the All Dogs Go To Heaven Charlie, and partly after the mathematician Charlie Eppes from Numb3rs.
> I don't think you are nerds AT ALL! I've also entertained the idea of naming dogs Aragorn, Arwen, Indy, Merry, Pippin, etc..... :wild:


I have a cat named Baggins Mr. Bilbo Baggins is his registered name, but we call him Baggins. He's a ragdoll, so it works


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