Hi Duana,
I wonder if you'd consider helping me name my new beagle? Lainey's kick-assedness aside (which I 100% admire and wish I was more like), I think I've always been partial to her because of the beagles. I think beagle owners really get one another.
I am single in my 40s, and while I adore my nephews and nieces, I don't have kids and have come to appreciate that I don't. I do have nieces and nephews, who I adore, but my beagle is my kid. She's 6 years old this year and is a red and white beagle named Saffron (as in "I'm just mad about...", and also the spice). It was really just her and me against the world for a long time, but now I think I might be ready for her to have a little sister. She's got that beagle separation anxiety issue and is super social, so I've felt like she'd be better off with a sibling for a long time now. So now we're going to be getting another baby beagle, who is kind of khaki and white. Neither of them are the classic tri-color and are a little more unique color-wise. I really like the idea of another spice name, but couldn't find one that fits. I like Sage, actually, but with dogs (and stubborn beagles especially), you really need a name that you can shout. Sage is too soft and is a closed mouth vowel sound, which is hard to shout at top volume. Not that it has ever mattered with my beagle... she never comes when I call her. But at least to any judgy observers, if I can shout the name pretty loud, I don't look like such a crappy dog parent who isn't paying attention. (Which isn't really fair to assume because beagles are super pains in the ass, they ignore you most of the time, and they do what they want...unless food is concerned.)
Both these beagles are from NC, so I also like the idea of finding a southern name to honor their southern roots. I thought of Talulah (Tally or Tallou for short). I almost went with "Scout" as a nod to one of my favorite southern novels, but it obviously sounds too much like "out" which is part of a command we use and won't work. I also love a longer name that you can shorten. A lot of people who know us love to shorten Saffron to Saffie, and she responds to either of those. She seems to understand that her formal name is kind of/sort of a "bad dog" situation and any other version is for everyday. Do you have any thoughts about naming a new baby beagle? I wonder how Lainey picked her beagle names. Saffron was weirdly easy. I knew it the moment I saw her, but the second one is so much harder. She comes home to us in about a month in the middle of May, so I have a little bit of time!
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So I have to admit this one gave me more anxiety than I expected. I have a dog, and I love my dog (Wheaten Poodle, if you must know), and while I don’t full-on mouth kiss her, I’d consider our family ‘dog people’ – at least, our nuclear family. My parents have other ideas.
But until I met Lainey, and more importantly, until I met Jacek, I didn’t know that there are dog people and, then again, there are Beagle People. Honestly, if you haven’t had the… opportunity, people are rabid about beagles. In a way that I… don’t really understand? Sometimes when Jacek and I are small-talking he’ll ask about every member of my household, followed by “…and how’s the beagle next door? What’s his name again?” I have seen Lainey’s beagles stopped in the middle of the park because people need to size up their, like, genetic origin, and they are the first time I learned about a ‘lemon’ beagle. You people are your own thing, no question. What do we call a khaki and white beagle, a ‘smoker’?
So since a lot of my beagle education comes from the three I’ve known, I agree with you 100% that you need a two-syllable name, and definitely one that allows you to have emphasis on the first syllable when you’re telling them to put down something they’re not supposed to have – you know, the way you’ve often said ‘SAFFron!” when you’re reprimanding her?
As such I agree Sage is gorgeous, but not perfect under the current circumstances – you want something with a bit more bite, no pun intended.
I felt like a bit of a hack in scanning through the character names from Absolutely Fabulous, but I’m happy to say that neither Patsy not Edina is quite right, so we can go further afield.
You could go with Clover – there’s a real hard syllable in both that I can imagine being barked the same way I’ve heard ‘ELvis!’ so many times, and that also made me think of Astrid, but maybe that’s a fairly common dog name? Similarly, I think there are a loooot of dogs named Scout so you might want to go beyond it. I do really like Tallulah and the double syllable thing with both dogs – or maybe you’d like something like Tabitha or Jemima. Juniper? “Junie” definitely works for a dog, but maybe you worry you’d never say the real name?
Birdie? Piper? I considered Pippa but it seems a bit too short, seeing as Saffron is so long and dignified – but also given her colouring, I would go with Hazel or even the somewhat obvious but still really good Olive? Olive the dog is pretty great, you must admit.
I’m so excited to find out what you choose – please let us know!
N.B – I just realized that this pup is probably already home and happily ensconced in her new name, but we still definitely want to know!
