People who name their pets after literary figures, C/D?

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I know A LOT of people who do this.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 25 April 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Mine are called Duke and Gonzo. Go figure.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Sunday, 25 April 2004 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I once had a dog named Durkheim. Just so I could tell him "no". It was fun.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 25 April 2004 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

One of my cats is named Benchley after Robert Benchley.

― Michael White (Hereward), Sunday, 25 April 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

How do people know he isn't named after Peter?

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

People who do this are usually very lonely or very self-deludedly smug. Either way, they deserve sympathy, so CLASSIC.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

one of my cats is named Q-Tip, where does this leave me?

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

my cat is named Wednesday after the girl in the Addams Family.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Sam, do you stick him in your ears to get the wax out? Are cats good for that? (Note you are no longer supposed to do this with q-tips now, you use them instead for um)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

What is the girl's name in the Addams Family and why don't you just name her now?

― jazz odysseus, Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to have a hedgehog named Morrissey. The name was classic.

― Sym (shmuel), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.cattdaddy.com/nilks/qtip.jpg

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:45 (twenty-two years ago)

my snake is called pynthon

― m. (mitchlnw), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:47 (twenty-two years ago)

just foolin', i don't have a snake

― m. (mitchlnw), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:48 (twenty-two years ago)

i also have a lizard named Chingy. I think I belong on a different thread.

― Ask For Samantha (thatgirl), Sunday, 25 April 2004 19:52 (twenty-two years ago)

TS: people who name their pets after literary figures vs. people who name their kids after literary figures?

― Prude (Prude), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I've always found it pathetically pretentious. People who do this are the type of people who wear dolphin earrings and pleated khakis and played clarinet in the high school band.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I resent that. Oh wait.

All my pets have been named after random people names, relatives or in one case an iconic movie character (this is what you do when you have a black fish when you are eight in 1979 and therefore call it Darth Vader, of course).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

One of my cats is named after a character in a Wes Anderson movie (Pagoda), so what do I know?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I named my first cat Chester after a character from Bunnicula

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 25 April 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

TS: people who name their pets after literary figures vs. people who name their kids after literary figures?
-- Prude (...), April 26th, 2004.

vs. people who name their kids after pets, i.e., Rex, Scout, King, Benno, and I suppose, Fluffy

― Skottie, Monday, 26 April 2004 00:40 (twenty-two years ago)

my friend named her dog proust but everyone else in the household called him rosco and thats what stuck.

― jesk, Monday, 26 April 2004 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

My flatmate named his cat Edison Carter Turnipseed, the first two names after the guy from Max Headroom. The last bit, well thats a long and probably dull and perplexing story.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 26 April 2004 01:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Our cat Rose is named after Rose Melberg, and pug Calvin is named after Calvin Johnson. We sort of have a K naming convention going on.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Monday, 26 April 2004 03:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a dog called Odie. We're getting a cat and I want to call it Dave.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 26 April 2004 04:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i named my cat after another cat

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 April 2004 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

My mum's corgi is named Elizabeth Windsor, after the Queen.

My family are well aware of the propensity of over-educated University types naming their pets ridiculous things. There was a prof at Yale who named his cat Spinoza. (I'm not sure if this is better or worse than naming a cat Blixa.)

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 26 April 2004 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I named my fish and my electronic dog after german literary figures. I would never own a pet by choice but the fish was forced on me by a student of german whom i lived with.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Monday, 26 April 2004 07:49 (twenty-two years ago)

My goldfish is called Sergei Gilfillan after a minor character in an obscure 70s SF novel by Alexei Panshin. I don't think it's pretentious, it's just a nice name and suits the fish well.

If someone does this kind of thing because they think it demonstrates cultural awareness (cf 'I Love 'Cellos' bumper stickers) it's probably dud.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

having a cat called derrida is probably never gonna rock the parti.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I knew someone who had cats called Haydn and Chopin, and someone of this parish had a dog called Cressida as a child. The winner has to be our neighbour's late Great Dane who was KC registered as Jagger's Gimme Shelter (Jagger was its name-o).

I did lobby HARD for my mom's most recent poodle to be called Oscar but the fuckers named him Willie, which I find un-for-tu-nate.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I have never been able to muster any respect for Charles Shaar Murray since I found out he had two cats called, respectively, Rhythm and Blues.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Does Jules Holland have cats called Boogie and Woogie? I hope so.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:43 (twenty-two years ago)

i know someone whose coworker, a devout christian given to moralizing speeches against homosexuality, named her daughter "anais" because she had heard of this author and thought the name sounded classy. my friend hadn't the heart to tell her her daughter was named after an author of smut.

samantha, your cat looks surprisingly like a man holding up two middle fingers

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:49 (twenty-two years ago)

giving pets exotic foreign names is classic, btw, literary figures or no

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd rather people gave their pets strange literary names than straightforward people's names. I once inherited two cats called Harriet and Hettie. What the hell can you do with that? It sounds like you think they're people if you give them people's names.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 26 April 2004 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I decided my cat was named Mishkin(a) when I was eleven (and hadn't read 'the idiot' yet), but it's not like she gets called anything other than Miu anyway.

― cis (cis), Monday, 26 April 2004 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

TS Eliot to thread...

― Super-Kate (kate), Monday, 26 April 2004 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

We have three cats; one is Pagoda after the character in the Royal Tenenbaums, one is Pickles after the character in The Fire Cat, and the other, somewhat embarassingly, is Padraic after the character in the Bright Eyes song where his baby brother gets drowned in the bathtub. Just always thought that was a cool name. And the tarantula is Rosemary after "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)". And she's got pink hair on her back!

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

My first dog is named Grover, named after Grover.

My second, we were going to name Aunt Clara, but decided not to (I forget why.)

Anyway, I think pet names should be goofy and cartoonish, not literary.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Naming your pet after a literary figure = maybe not "classic," but certainly nothing wrong with it. My high school English teacher had a cat named Grendel, who bit people (appropriately enough).

Naming your children after literary figures = inarguable dud. I know some folks who named their daughter after a Nabokov character (no, not Lolita). Good fucking Christ is that pretentious.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Dale the Titled of ilxor fame once had a pet goldfish named Chewbacca.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a colleague who has two cats named "Steve" and "Dave". Now, while that sounds boring....how many other cats have you heard of named "Steve" and "Dave" (as opposed to "Mr.Peebles" or "Snufflekins")?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

My friend Kevin has a cat named Bitch Chicken.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

hahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I decided my cat was named Mishkin(a) when I was eleven (and hadn't read 'the idiot' yet), but it's not like she gets called anything other than Miu anyway.

Which brings up the point that you can be as prententious or as unimaginative as you like and a cat's not really gonna give a damn. The important stuff is the food bowl, the box, and the lap.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I know some folks who named their daughter after a Nabokov character (no, not Lolita).

Please tell me she was called "Quilty."

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah, I change my vote to a reserved "classic," because I just remember how cute a name Pushkin would be for a fluffy, fluffy cat.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

i am going to name my next pet "the cat without qualities"

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:42 (twenty-two years ago)

i have a cat i named grendel. he was a messed up street cat who bit people. he doesnt bite anymore now that he has teh love

― kephm, Monday, 26 April 2004 14:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm, I have a friend with a cat named Grendel as well.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 26 April 2004 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm....maybe Grendel isn't that original a name for a cat after all.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 26 April 2004 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I grew up in a house where the cats were named after characters from mythology & Shakespeare: Bastet, Artemis, 'Dite, Ariel, Miranda. My cats are named after nonsense "S" words: Stacks, Sniff, and Strokes.

― sexyDancer, Monday, 26 April 2004 15:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Naming your cats after jazz musicians=probably dud, as my one cat is named Mingus (the other one is Lulu, after Louise Brooks)

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Monday, 26 April 2004 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Lester, RIP, 25 lbs. black behemoth was named after Lester Young.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 26 April 2004 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

naming black pets after black people, C/D?

― hstencil, Monday, 26 April 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The cool thing is to name literary figures after your pets.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 26 April 2004 18:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i have a cat named beckett, after samuel beckett, but I didn't name him, my friend did before she ditched him for me to rescue. he is a bit curmudgeonly.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 26 April 2004 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh, I forgot my friends' cats! One has a cat which I thought was named Nietzsche, but was actually named Neechy after a guy she dated. The other was named Freedy, after Freedy Johnston.

I also know someone with pugs named Roswell and SETI.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 04:13 (twenty-two years ago)

taking after henry james i think my cat will be given a personal pronoun as a name and nothing more.

the point about cats not caring what we name them is critical; which is why i balk when people try to justify certain naming schemes by the "disposition" of their cats. "well, you know, she really *is* a lot like gertie farish."

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 06:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sorry, but what ELSE are you supposed to call you pet? Either you go with a literary figure or someone from popular culture, or you end up with generic pet names like Rex or Tigger or Polly.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

A friend of mine named his dog "Bollocks" simply because he hated his next-door-neighbours and thought it would be amusing to stand out in the garden yelling the word "bollocks" at them.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 07:56 (twenty-two years ago)

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