Pet Names

Do your basenjis have nicknames? It seems that mine acquire them quite by accident, and they often changeMy first basenji girl Bow had quite a few tags that would jangle like a cat bell, and she was often called "that jangly little dog" by friends and eventually Bow Jangles.
Bow's trainer always has nicknames for dogs in the class, and she often called Bow Minxy which I rather liked as well.

Now that I have Shaka and Audrey (who came to me named Shacka and Cry Baby) are part of my household, nicknames keep coming up. Shaka is often called Prince Shaka, on his good days at least, or Shaka-Doodle.
Audrey's trainer has tendency to call her Bug, and I often call her that or Audrey Bug. When a friend in New York saw a picture of me holding Audrey he asked, "Is that a baby kangaroo?" One of my Australian wines is called Little Roo with a picture of a young kangaroo on its label which, the more I look at it, sort of looks like Audrey. So I have come to call Audrey Little Roo more often. We are only a little more than three months into our adventures together, and I am sure more names will emerge on our path together. There are times I have come close to calling them Roy and Helen, my parents names, since their relationship so often reminds me of them.
I have yet to call Audrey Lucy,but maybe because of the centennial of that other famous redhead mischief maker, I have lately I have noticed that after catching Audrey being naughty that I take a deep sigh and say, "Audrey, you got some 'splainin' to do!"

What's in a Name?

As BRAT's "Tag Lady," I am the one who issues a numbered identification tag to each and every basenji that comes into BRAT care. Because I have been keeping the records for about seven years, I am pretty familiar with the names of all our rescues.

As with names of human children -- John and Mary, for instance -- there are also perennial favorite names for dogs, too. Then too, some names are particularly suitable for Basenjis.

I spent a few minutes recently going through our ID tag database to find the most popular names for males and females, and had a little fun categorizing some of the others. I thought you might be interested in my findings.

Ladies first!

1st place:   Cleo, Cleopatra (26)

2nd place:  Belle, Bella (22)

3rd place:   Lucy  (21)

4th place:   Nayla/Nala and Zoe/Zoey (tied at 17)

5th place:   Chloe (16) 

6th place:   Ginger (15)

Abby (Abbie/Abby), was next at 13, and Isis, Kate (Katie, Katy), Roxy (Roxie) and Sophie all tied at 12 dogs.

And then, the boys...

1st place:   Ben and variations Benji, Benjamin, Benny (a whopping 44 dogs!)

2nd place:  Max, Maximum, Maxwell (29)

3rd place:   Sam/Sammy  (22)

4th place:   Jack/Jax (21)

5th place:   Buddy (19)

6th place:   Rocco/Rocky and Taz (tied at 16)

We have 13 dogs named Tucker, 13 dogs named Jake.  We have eleven each named Cody, Senji, Rusty, Anubis, Kenya, and Franc/Frankie/Franklin.  Cooper, Niles, Pharaoh number 10 each.

The names of other BRAT dogs broke down in some surprising and amusing ways.

FOOD AND BEVERAGES: We  have 33 dog names that are related to food or drink -- everything from Cinnamon and Beignet (a fried dough sprinkled with confectioners' sugar), to Cola, Java and Sprite, to Honey, Cookie, Triscuit, Jello, Whiskey, Chowder and Bento (a Japanese lunch or laquered lunchbox). I suspect that Basenji owners as fixated on their stomachs as our dogs are!

MUSIC:  There must be a lot of music fans among BRAT owners, as evidenced by such monikers as Elvis, Sting, Jerry Lee, Dylan, Jagger and BB King. Then there are the instruments Steinway and Banjo; and music styles, including Jazzie, Yodel and Roo or Barru.

FLOWERS: We must have some very sweet girls: Blossom, Daisy, jasmine, Lily and Freesia!

ANIMALS: Moose, Goose, Bunny, Rooster, Butterfly, Mouse -- and Fox, Tiger and Bear -- oh my!

BIRDS:  Raven, Robin, Ouzel (a waterbird) and Wren. No Vulture? Isn't that odd?

ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY: Titan, Apollo, Zeus, Hercules, Hathor, and Ra -- and previously mentioned Anubis and Isis, of course!

ASTRONOMY: This category runs the gamut, from Hale Bop and Comet to Hubble, Yeager and
Spock. We've got an Eclipse, a Gemini, a Sundance, and Jupiter, Astro and Luna. There are 23 names related to astronomy, cosmology or meteorology!

STATESMEN:  Somebody likes history, too!  Truman, Wilson, Madison, Franklin and Winston are
represented, as well as Plato, Solomon, Caesar and Alexander. 

GEMS:  Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but Amber, Emerald, Ruby and Pearl are also dearly loved!

CARS:  Naturally,  somebody would name their Basenji after a classy machine capable of great speed. We've got Bentley, Maverick, Mercedes, Austin, Neon and Lincoln.

And then there are some "one-offs" that deserve special mention: Atom, Prophet, electric, Kodak, Mahendra, Seiutu, June Bug and Tilt.

My favorite? Basenji Bob. It's simple, it's fitting, and it's easy to remember. And Bob, like most self-respecting Basenjis, probably ignores it, anyway!

-Chey Miller

You named your dog what?!

While filling out the paperwork for a new doggy daycare for my two b kids, I realized that I didn’t actually name either one of them. Really, I have never named any pet I’ve ever owned – save for 2 gerbils in the mid-1990’s, when I was a teenager, who were both named after gansta rappers. (R.I.P little Snoop and Dre) It seems that all my pets have come with names, and I was either too afraid to rename them (identity crisis!) or too afraid of what I would name them.

My cockatiel was named Kramer by its prior owner. He looked like a Kramer – Kramer from Seinfeld to be exact with his little crest of head feathers resembling that wild hair.

My first basenji boy was the baby of the litter so he was called Baby for a long time. By the time I adopted him, his owner decided that Baby was not a proper name for a little boy, so she morphed it into Kirby – which sounded close enough to Baby that he still came when called! Made sense to me, so its stuck.

My little BRAT girl was named Sana (pronounced like sauna) when we adopted her at 5 years old. After five years of being called Sana, she probably wasn’t going to like to become Duchess or Kanga or whatever terrible name I would have chosen, so we stuck with it. (Incidentally, I did change the spelling to Saana after the 20th time someone pronounced it Santa even after I spelled it for them. I mean what full grown tri-girl looks like a Santa?!) Regardless, after having her for over a year now, Saana is just a fine name and seems to fit her.

I’m not sure I will ever adopt a dog and change its name mid-stream, but I have heard successful stories of giving a pet a new name post-rescue. But I struggle enough with whether to change my own last name post-wedding. Sorry honey, I know its been 2 years – but its still under review. Its bad enough that our vet has to look up 2 last names to find our records – yes, my kids are Kirby Brown and Saana Smith. Now I know how my sister feels picking up her son from daycare and having to prove to every new teacher that he is, in fact, her son despite the last name. So based on the naming messes I’ve created in the past, perhaps I should just leave my future basenjis’ names up to those much more creative than I.

I guess because I have never personally chosen a name for my pets, I am always fascinated with other people’s choices. Some people put tremendous thought into their dog’s name by researching the breed origin or other historical or social events and come up with very creative, ingenious names. Others think ‘gee my dog is brown, how about “Brownie”?’ or some other equally as simplistic – yet fitting – names. And since I remember dogs’ names much better than I ever remember peoples’ names (our neighbors are only known as Smokey’s mom or Guinness’s dad), I love to hear how other dogs got their names. How did you choose yours?