Another fun question...

[Apreston]

We dont have much of an exciting story...but we do call him "Titan the Great"
I first wanted to name Titan; Tritan after King Tritan from the little mermaid...but Andrew said no...so we settled on Titan. But when he is being bad and getting into trouble we call him Brutus...it fits as he runs around the yard like a wild child with fire in his but!!

[ZooCrew]

Oooh, this is a fun thread.

Keiko is a made up name (or so I thought).  I liked the name Kai, but thought it was too short.  So I played around with a few different versions. Keilo, Keito, Cairo (for some reason, everything ended in "o".......lol).  I finally settled on Keiko.  I found out shortly later that it was the name of the orca in Free Willy.      It is a japanese name, although pronouced differently.  How we say it, it rhymes with psycho, which evidently is what my roommate called her when she was a pup.  In japanese it means "adored one".  But while living in California I found out from a surfer dude that it means "strong current", although i don't know how it is spelled in Hawaiian.

Gunther was supposed to be either a Diesel or a Guiness.  Hubby was against the idea of getting another dog, especially one so large.  That is why I started looking at brindles after he mentioned he liked the "striped" ones.    To make him feel more included and more accepting, I let him pick out the name from a list of about 12 names I picked out.  He vetoed Diesel and Guiness right away.    Gunther was actually one of my least favorites on the list.  But it so totally suits him. And it's a good German name for a great German dog.   

Posey came with that name and it suits her so we left it.

Nigel came with the name Luke, which to me is no dog name (apologies to anyone with a dog named Luke  ).  I couldn't decide on anything.  I wanted a name that would remind us of living in Ca, since that is where we were living when we got him and moved a few days later.  I considered Diego, and that was his name for a few days.  But a friend made a good point of saying that if you say the name quickly, it sounds like the racial slur for Italians (dego).    And I know hubby would end up calling him that so I had to come up with something else.  I thought he should have something then that went with Posey.  I had it narrowed down to Nigel or Niles and decided on Nigel.  I thought Nigel and Posey went well together and sound like high society english doggies....... ....lol.

The other animals would take too long so I'll leave it at that.......... lol.

[Rajas Mom]

I already went sort of off topic in another thread, and named some of my reasons, but...

Shadow was our first dog as an apartment living couple.  My husband really wanted a dog, and I was against it (not in an apartment with our crazy schedules).  I ended up getting obsessed with it though and we found our nice little 14 pound dog at the local animal shelter.  Once we had her we didn't really know what to do with her and just sort of stared at her in awe.  She was "no name" for several days, but after having her follow us around room to room we settled on the cliche of Shadow as she was all black.

Bo was a "mistake" (but we love him), all careful plans of getting a lab were thrown out the window.  My husband has never had a "big" dog and is a Big Hank Williams, Jr./Country song.  There is a country song that says something like, "and a dog named Bocephus laying in the front yard."  Hence the name.  Ironically, it means "wild and crazy" and he is that. 

Raja came with her name.  My husband tried to get me to name her after a Hank Williams, Jr. song to go with Bo (a name that sounded very similar to Raja - Kailja), but it's a nice name it it works.  It fits her.  In fact, my far away neighbors are so used to her barking they have it down pat.  I was shocked one day (as I was calling her to come in due to her barking) to hear a far-away shout, "Go home Raja!"

Charlie - Our cat.  She was another rescue, named Tippy.  It was a cute enough name, but just not her (she is a tortie/calico).  My husband named her Charlie after Charlie Weiss, the current Notre Dame football coach.  That was after I vetoed Lou.

[KiraNGunnersmom]

Kira came to us already named.  Her name on her papers is Kira's diamond in the rough.  We later found out that she was named after the kennel owner's wife.  She was supposed to be her dog but she passed away and the old man supplied her to the pet shop that she was bought at by the guy who gave her to us.

Gunner's name was the hardest to decide on.  My husband and his warped sense of humor wanted to name him Stiffler, as in American pie Stiffler...... NOT!  Could you see me in the vet's office being called Stiffler's mom !  We listed a ton of names and finally all agreed on Gunner.

[Leah...]

Oh boy... Awesome thread!

When I was like 6 or 7 we moved to NM. My mom was a single mom with two daughters, so the first thing she did was go to the pound to find our fierce protector. It was about a 2 hour drive from our apartment, so we made a loooong list of names. We wrote down everything we could ever think of (there were some weird ones too) then one by one we passed the list around the car and each of us could scratch out one name at a time. By the end of the car ride, we had it narrowed down to Alex or Bailey. When we picked out our puppy, Bailey fit him PERFECTLY. Alex became his middle name for when my mom was mad. I can still remember waking up in the middle of the night to my mom yelling "BAILEY ALEX YOU BETTER RUN!"

When I was 8 I saved up my $85 to get my own dog. I went to the pound and picked out my dog. His name was Zoe because when he was born in the shelter they just kinda picked up a puppy and gave them names. His adoptive mom kept the name (I have no clue why) so when she returned him to the shelter, they put his old card back up. Same name, with his 8 wk picture. He had learned his name REALLY well, probably because it was the only thing that had remained the same in his life. I picked a new name that, to an 8 year old, rhymed really well lol plus I thought he looked like the all-american dog. So he became "Uncle Sam" or Sammie. Because that rhymed with Zoe. I was 8.... LOL

Sky's name is, well... not that original. He is a light blue merle Aussie with no copper, and he has pale blue eyes. The day I got him was probably one of the best days of my life, and so I named him "Not A Cloud In The Sky". When he's rotten, I use his "real" name Skyler.

Rose's name was "Loretta" in the shelter, so my sister decided her "full name" had to be "Rosetta Loretta". Rose, for short.

When a friend found a rabbit sitting in the gutter, we were of course the "rabbit people" that had to be called. I picked her up, and she was wet and muddy, had ringworm, and diarrhea. Plus, she was mean to my beloved old rabbit Spanky, and the names went together... so her name became Stinky.

Before that, all my rabbits had names from the little Rascals. First was alfalfa (cuz of her fav. snack) then Darla, buckwheat, froggy, farina, froggy II, and Spanky.

[Newly Newfed]

The girls and I researched Sierra's name for a week straight.  We wanted something different, so we were looking up native American names, French names, all kinds of different names.  Me and each of the girls made up a list that we voted on during the 7 hour road trip to pick her up.  Jeff let us do the name choosing, but took part in he voting.  We all had different opinions, but when we voted on Sierra, it was the only name that had a unanimous yes vote.  So Sierra it was.

Magic is a Black Lab, so Black Magic.

Oscar, my fat cat, is named after Oscar the Grouch because he and his littermates were found in a trash dumpster when they were two weeks old.  And believe me, big ole grumpy butt lives up to his namesake.

Gina the cat was named after one of the characters in Bon Jovi's song "Living on a Prayer".  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Bon Jovi and my next male cat will be named Tommy after the other character in the song.  I just always wanted a pair of cats named Tommy and Gina.

Some of the deer -
Miracle - His name was originally Samson.  I liked that for a big strong buck.  He ran off at one month old and I was sure he would die.  I said to Jeff that if we ever got him back we were changing his name to Miracle.  Lo and behold, he came trotting up the driveway two days later looking for milk.  I can't beleive a one month old fawn knew how to get home to us.  He's been my favorite ever since.

Sean - Our big buck - he didn't have a name yet when I met Jeff and my stepson has a friend whose full name is Sean Buck.  So we named the deer after him.

Oh, and I have a 14 inch zebra tilapia fish that my friend's mom named Bubba.  He's a cool looking fish so his full name is now Bubba Beefcake  

last but not least, I have a 1-inch long frog named Godzilla.  Ya know, like naming a Great Dane "Tiny".

[Icerotti]

Puck came as Puck 

Rosie, my daughter named when she was 5. Rosie was wearing a collar with roses on--so Lexi called her Rosie. 

Farley just looked like a Farley- after searching for endless boys name. After someone asked if it was after the cartoon--I think its For better or worse .