Hi Duana,

Had a couple of babies, been there, done that. Two healthy boys, Alexander Vladimir and Walter William. Never got to use any of my awesome girls names. Odette, Analise, Andi, Ursula and Karmen.

Now that we are done with kids, we are getting a dog. A female dog. And my family will not let me use any of these names. They want to name it Aero. Which is okay but... Got anything else I can throw their way? I'll use Lainey's girl name if she gives it up!! :)

Thanks!!

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But then what would Lainey name a girl dog if she gets one? (I checked, she’s ‘said’ the name on the site. Happy hunting!)

“Been there, done that” re: the babies is amazing, especially since, you know, once they’re named, you can’t really change them. I’m not saying we should, exactly, I’m saying it would be exciting. What if we all could change our names after a period of time?

First of all, I’m going on record as saying that your family is wrong. You should use some of the names that you didn’t have for a girl, specifically Ursula. One of the things about dog names (that I’m not the first to say) is that you will say them a lot.  Because that whole ‘come when you call’ thing doesn’t work out, especially at first.  Ask Jacek about this, specifically.

So having a vowel at the end is great. Having a name for your dog that won’t be the same as the other dogs in the park is great. Ursula lands here on two levels.  “Urrrrsulaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!” is a great name. 

Sadly for you, your family’s name holds up here. “Aero! Aero! Aero!” One way to dissuade them is to tell them that, from where I sit linguistically and geographical-accent wise, there’s no difference in pronunciation from “Arrow”. So if that’s not what they want, they might want something different.

The big debate here is ‘people name or not’ and I vote yes. We bring these animals into our homes to be part of our families, and I think there’s a greater connection to them when they have names like ours, as opposed to calling them ‘Caramel’. All of you with pets named things like ‘Chesterfield’ can come and yell at me now, but come on, who are the most famous dogs of all time? Lassie. Odie. Thurber the amazing bulldog on Party of Five. Who are the forgettable dogs? All the ones called things like ‘Comet’.

So. Maybe adjust in tone to names you almost wouldn’t give your child. Blanche? Gertie. Mamie. Muriel. Prudie. Hildy. Anything here that sounds like you and your kids will delight in yelling it over and over again? 

Note: Please send your name emails, once only, to [email protected] - duplicates or those sent to Lainey ‘just in case’ will be deleted.