Emiloo

2003-04-14

Bonus: The Name Game

(This is my second entry today. Click the "last" link for the other one)

Here are pet names I like, some of them I have already selected for my imaginary pets that I will one day own.

Fiona--for the greyhound that I will adopt (if it's a girl).

Tater--for the pug I will have. I will. If the pug is a girl, Tater will just have to do.

Dolly--this is a cute name, but the other dog I want is a chihuahua, and I have seen very few chihuahuas who could pass for a Dolly. So perhaps I will save this one for a cat.

Obviously, I have put too much thought into this.

My husband likes for pets to have first and last names. He once knew a man with a dog named Pete Johnson, and the owner would always call the dog by his first and last names. Hee.

My family has always been a bit weird about animal names. The dog we had when I was little was named Magnolia. Well, pour me a mint julep and fetch me my fan. I always told my friends that her name was Maggie. We had a golden retriever named Chappy, which was short for Tchoupitoulas, which is the name of a bridge in New Orleans. When my parents drove over this bridge, they thought this was a fun word. When Chappy passed away, a little stray kitten wandered up to my parents' house, and they took him in. The kitten's name? Toulas, in honor of Chappy. What?

My aunt Jennifer has had the most pretentious names for her dogs, and not in a fun way. I think it's fun to give dogs goofy, stuffy British names, but not in seriousness, you know? For fun. Anyway, here are the names of her dogs that I can remember: Athena, Hercules, Byron, and Winnifred. Then again, her kids are named Nathaniel, Alexander (and don't call him Alex), and Hamilton. Whatever. No, the Alexander Hamilton part was not intentional. She says.

My parents are not big fans of trendy names, and my mother didn't want any of us to have 13 other kids with the same name at school. She named me Emily. She thought it was quite traditional. And I can only remember one or two other Emily's, all through elementary, middle and high school. However, about 8 years ago, the Emily boom took hold, and it's been the number-one girls' name for about 5 or 6 years in a row now. Dammit! Don't name your kids Emily. Even if you like a name, wouldn't the fact that one out of every 20 girls will have it dissuade you from choosing it for your kid?

Seth has this sort of superior attitude about his name because it's not quite as generic. Well, guess what? It made the top 100 names list last year! Ha. Welcome to Trendyville, Seth. Meet Dakota, Montana, Cheyenne, Jackson, Taylor, Tyler, Hunter, Austin, Madison, Madysson, MacKenna, Mackenzie, Bailey, and Brianne. Hee! I am such a snob.

I have kids' names picked out in the event that I ever have kids, but I am hesitant to tell them to anyone. I don't want them to become trendy. Back up off my names! I used to love the name Grace for a middle name, but it's all of a sudden all the rage, so now I'm paranoid. Why am I so worried about this? I don't know. Perhaps because I am (a) a little bit crazy and (b) a lot bored.

emiloo at 3:54 p.m.