Celebrity pet names

As you all may know by now, I love to read about celebrities. It's my vice! It has NO affect on my life, whatsoever, but I enjoy reading the outrageous things celebrities do and say.

I thought it might be fun to take a look at what some celebrities have named their pets. We hear about the crazy things they name their children (Apple, Zuma, Peanut, anyone?) but we don't often hear about their pet names. Do they go as crazy there as they do with children?! Here are a few to think about...

Jennifer Hudson has three pomeranians. They are called Oscar, Grammy, and Dreamgirl. I guess that's fairly appropriate. She won the Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls!

Mariah Carey has a Jack Russell called Jackson P. Muttley. Pretty cute name!

Adam Sandler has an English Bulldog named Matzoball. His last dog, who died in 2006, was Meatball.

Selma Blair has a one-eyed rescued Jack Russell, called Wink. (I love to hear about celebrities who have rescued dogs! And dogs with "issues"!)

Sandra Bullock also has rescue and special needs dogs. They have Poppy, a three legged dog and Ruby, a dog born with only two legs.

The list could go on and on! It seems that pet names aren't quite as weird as baby names in the world of celebrities though. Or maybe, it's just more acceptable to name your pet something "weird"!

Joss Stone has Dusty Springfield.
Kelly Osbourne has Piglet and Boris.
Minnie Driver has Bubba (a more common pet name!)
Sienna Miller has Porgy and Bess.
Tom Cruise has Joseph. (an odd choice for a pet name I think...)
Halle Berry has Bumper and Petey.

I LOVE names. I always have - when I was a girl, I'd play school, and my favorite part was making up the names of my make-believe students. (First, middle, and last names for all!) I've had quite a menagerie of pets too. Beau-Beau was a French poodle (I didn't name him though - he was my childhood pet!), Melvin was a stray tom cat who attached himself to me. I called him Melvin because he wouldn't let anyone touch him like Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets (Melvin.) Lissy - aptly named after a mischievious little girl in a book I'd read. And now we have Henry, Oscar, and Ben. All fitting somehow! (I think I pre-destined Oscar to be a grouch though!)

What's the craziest pet name you've heard? Or have you named your pet something weird? (photo of Sandra Bullock from People.com)

Comments

[Laurel]

I don't think it's that weird, but we name all of our cats after towns in Iowa (both my husband and I grew up there!) We've had Chelsea, Casey, William, and Bluegrass, Currently, we have Jewell and Grafton. My daughter plans to adopt a cat someday and name him Okiboji (there are lots of cool Native American names used for Iowa towns...) Anyway, it's sort of fun to have a criteria to guide us when we pick out a name for a new cat.

[turtlecookie]

I don't know that any of our pet names have been all that weird. Growing up we had a cat named Tomcat, who was indeed a tomcat. His successor was T.J. -- Tomcat, Jr. Not very creative -- he just happened to be a black kitten and Tomcat was black cat. The dogs were Rascal (and what a Rascal he was!) and Shadow, a little black dog no bigger than a cat.

As an adult, I had Tiffany and Cacique. Tiffany was originally Puff when I got her (she had been a stray taken in by a friend who then couldn't keep her.) My brother "accidentally" called her Tiffany and she responded so the name stuck. It fit, too -- she was an elegant lady.
Cacique (pronounced the 3-syllable Spanish way, not the 2-syllable French way) was named after my husband's second favorite rum, a rum from Venezuela. (The name of his first favorite rum didn't fit.)

My current cats were originally going to be music names -- Satchmo and Jazz. Satchmo didn't seem to fit, so my said we could name them after computer drives -- Zip and Jazz. The spellings are not right for the computer drives, and I still think of Jazz more from the music side. The name Zip totally fits our boy kitty, though.

Jason and Malcolm named the dog (Rica).

Naming is a fun but not always easy process. I'm surprised there aren't more weird names on the celebrity list. Adam Sandler's names don't surprise me given that he is comedian. Fun topic, Tammy.

turtlecookie

[Laurel Hunt]

I had quite a time naming my puppy Alex, a Welsh Springer spaniel. As it is hard to find a rescue Welshie, I reserved a puppy in an upcoming litter. I began to mull over girl names and had narrowed down the list, when the whole litter turned out to be boys! As the weeks went by and it came time to pick up the pup, I still had not decided on a name. Finally, I had a burst of inspiration. The pup's father's name is Cecil, and that reminded me that the composer of the 1847 English hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Creatures Great and Small.." was named Cecil F. Alexander. So I named the pup Alex in honor of this favorite hymn. I later discovered that Cecil the composer was a woman, probably short for Cecily, but oh well...
I also collect vintage photos of dogs, which sometimes have the dog's name written on the photo. For some time I've been keeping a list of vintage dog names. My favorite unusual name is what appears to be a lovely collie with the unfortunate name of "Worthless."
Laurel, celebrating the love of dogs at BarkWagLove, http://laurelhuntbooks.com

[Tammy]

thanks for sharing everyone! I love knowing HOW people chose their pet's names. (Or children's names, for that matter!)

Satchmo is a big name for a kitty, turtlecookie! I like it though - maybe it will fit a future pet for you!

I had a lot of trouble coming up with a name for my Luna cat. She started life as Clara. I loved the name, but it totally didn't fit the crazy, rambunctious girl. It morphed from Clara to Claire de Lune, to Luna - which totally fit her. She got called Looney much of the time!

We also had trouble finding a name for our Miss Girl. She was rescued and was called Bailey at the time. It totally didn't fit her (and we knew a couple of human Baileys, too.) We tried a number of names with her - Joon (to go with her brother's new name of Ben, which did stick), Plié (because she stood like a dancer)... she wouldn't respond to anything. She became Miss Girl, Miss G, G-kitty, etc. It worked. :)

[Dana]

We've heard our share of interesting names over the years. We have friends that own 3 labradors. Each one is named after different rivers in England. I've also seen many pets with the names of a state or country. I like the names that are traditionally reserved for people. I don't know why exactly but I like them...some of our favorites at the hospital are Wilma, Bruce, Nigel, Edith, and Walter.