Pets with human names

Over the bank holiday weekend we were camping. We had the best time, kids that got on well, with the natural friendship that comes from seeing each other week in, week out since birth. Friends that know us so well that we can bicker with our partners, yell at children who’ve disappeared to a new friend’s tent without telling us, and eat their Cheerios when ours are all gone. And with whom we laugh.

First night there, and we were all woken at 2am by a male voice shouting for Amber. It started in the distance, and over the next 20 minutes got closer and closer. I wandered out into the moonlight (full moon), worried that someone had lost a child on a night time loo visit. It was spooky out there, so I headed back to my sleeping bag. Eventually he found Amber and we dozed off again.

“So,” I mused to my friend in the morning. “Do we think Amber was a child, or a dog?”

“Oh a child, definitely. Who has pets with human names? I’ve never understood that.”

“Yeah you’re right, it is a bit weird.” I replied. “Mind you my first pet was a black Labrador called Jason.”

Cue snorts, as Actually Daddy – Jason – picks that moment to wander back from the loo. We explain.

Pets with human names

“Oh,” he joins in. “And I once had a Yorkshire terrier named Maddie.” A look of incredulity as my friend contemplates our daughter.

“Oh yes! And after Jason, we got an Alsation called Lisa!” I recalled. “Not to mention my Mum’s dog Lily. Ooh and don’t forget Rupert, and Holly. Even Poppy’s a human name now!”

"petswith human names"A page from my teenage photo album says it all!

Turns out the man in the small hours was looking for his wife, who’d arrived (much) earlier than him with the kids and gone to sleep!

Have you ever had any pets with human names?

I’m linking this post to the Gallery at Sticky Fingers, where the theme today is pets. 

44 thoughts on “Pets with human names”

  1. I started off with very non human names.. A rabbit and guinea pig called happy and cuddles…
    Since then we’ve had a multitude of names, both human & non human..
    Midnight – rabbit
    Captain James – fish
    Action man – fish
    Thumper – rabbit
    Duke – dog
    Frank – dog

    We now have a dog called Delilah!

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  2. I love pets with ‘human’ names, far more interesting than boring dog names 😀 although, as someone who is frequently told that she has a ‘dog’s name’, I think the line is blurring now.

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  3. Growing up we had a Ben, Sam, Josh, Jodie, Arnold, and Gerald to name a few – yep all human names.

    Now we have Archie and Luna – yep human names again 🙂

    Great take on the theme! x

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  4. Jason the dog – i love it! :))

    I mostly had rabbits as pets and the names were pretty standard flopsy, thumper etc I did have one names piggy though (not sure why!)

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  5. Haa Haa – my cats that I have now don’t but my previous ones have been Oscar, Poppy, Alfie and Jasmine and we had a rabbit called Jessica!!
    Both sets of grandparents randomly have a dog called jake too!!

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  6. I always went for human names, but tried to pick obscure ones so my childhood hamsters were Hamlet and Othello and my cat was Bailey. With Alfie we didn’t get much of a choice as Meg chose the name. It does make me cringe a bit when we’re out walking him and I see people trying to work out whether we’re calling a child or the dog! I think Jason is a great name for a dog by the way 🙂

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  7. My cats are called Molly and Mitzy… and I wanted to call the baby Millie but the husband said THAT would sound RIDICULOUS. ( I petty much got my way though… lol) x Also – first pet was a goldfish called Sophie in homage to my best friend at the time… ha! x

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  8. My pets were called Tiggy and Poppy, so really they were very much ‘pet’ names, although we had a fish named Methuselah – sadly as with all fish despite his stunning longevity he died almost immediately after we’d named him….

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  9. When I was a child, my parents let my brother name our dog “Yip Yip”, definitely not a human name, but the name of a dog in his favourite book. Our first dog was named “Sheba”, after the Queen of Sheba, so a human name, the second dog “Cocoa”. I’ve never heard anyone named Cocoa but who knows.

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  10. Pets with human names freak me out a bit. Although I do have a cat called Morgan and did have a cat called Casper and have heard those names for kids before. If I heard of a dog or cat called Laura, that would be pretty freaky. How cute is little Poppy though?! Love King Charles Spaniels.

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  11. Now I would insist that my pet had a human name – Ive always thought Id have a rabbit called Alex and a guinea pig called George. Unfortunately as a child I chose the name Daffy for my fish – after the duck!?!

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  12. We had a rabbit called Reg, however, my neighbour wins…… She has 2 dogs called Phillip & Kevin!!!! This is so cool….

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  13. Everyone has human names for their pets don’t they?

    Admittedly we had some animal names – Huggy, Doozy and Mork – our dogs.
    But we also had Jake and Bob – more dogs.

    We had a guinea pig called Barnaby, a rabbit called Derek Norman, and fish, yes, fish called Nigel, Rory, Anthony, Barb(ara) and Amy. And the hubby had a tortoise called George.

    Not at all strange.

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  14. Some of our hens have human names: Henrietta, Edwina, Gladys, Amber, Crystal… but then the look like middle aged ladies 😉

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  15. We had Dorothy the cat when I was a child, then Britney the hamster when my husband and I first got together, and now we have Bruce and Bella the cats, so I guess I like human names for animals! Although I also had two rats called Fizzy and flump, and a hamster named Nibbles

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  16. This post and the comments has made me smile 🙂

    I once had a rabbit called Cottontail but I think that’s where the animal names ended as after that there was:
    Shelley – dog
    Sally – tortoise
    Tommy – cat
    Barney – dog
    Floyd – cat
    Maddy – cat
    Sid – cat
    Poppy – dog
    Derek – snake
    My kids are responsible for that last one and my eldest wants a rat called Malcolm but it’s not happening!

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  17. I think I’ve always had pets with human names and this is highlighted perfectly by our family cat being called ‘Dave’. It’s one of the reasons things like ‘working out your porn star name’ never works with me!

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  18. Whatever name they have at the shelter is the name they keep when we bring them home. Right now we have 2 animals with names that I would never give a child, 4 animals with names that could go either way, and one dog who goes by Clara. We used to have a Jerry (dog), Lily (dog), and a Martha (cat). We did change one of our animals names from the shelter against our usual family policy, because we just couldn’t stand to keep it. They named one of our cats UHaul because he was found in a UHaul truck. Although he does have a bit of a truck build, we renamed him Gunner for a soccer team. Poor cat. What a name.

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  19. We had a dog called Fred when I was little (but as he was a basset hound, I don’t think that really counts). Then when I was a bit older we had a dog called Timmy (blame Enid Blyton). And when I left home, I was adopted by a cat I christened Cecil.

    Clearly, I go for Old People Names for animals. I think I need a goldfish called Bertie.

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