This is the right place for topics like this.

I’m just wondering if there’s a specific reason you guys named/name changed your pets name to their current one.

Mmm, how much time have you got? :p

My first rabbit was named “Jersey” during the short trip home from the pet store. Her colours reminded me exactly of Jersey Caramels, a soft candy we have here. The candies are named after Jersey cows.
A year later, I adopted a 2yr old rabbit in the hopes that he and Jersey would become friends. His name (by former owners) was Sir Hopsalot, shortened to Hoppy. This was rather cute but probably pretty common for a rabbit! And I did want to have something in theme with Jerseys name. So he was renamed Rumball. ie. like the sweets, Rum balls. It suited his colour and shape also!

The rabbits that came after these 2 were only supposed to be fosters, but I failed badly at that. lol
I took in a tiny rabbit estimated to be about 4weeks old. I introduced him to the BB community and lots of names were suggested but I landed on TimTim. I supposed because of Tiny Tim? I’ve never been sure why it ended up being TimTim and not just Tim. Maybe he’s just extra. :p

Then came Jelly. He was around 10weeks old. He was picked up with his brother and someone else I knew held onto the brother. Her daughter named him Jellybean, but when this rabbit came to me, they called the brother Jellybean also. So to avoid confusion, I shortened his name to Jelly. They ended up shortening the brothers name to JB. Unfortunately, Jelly developed some health problems early in life and was put to sleep before he even reached 2yrs of age.

I also took in a little female rabbit with siamese markings. Her former name was Tabitha. I immediately associated it with the child witch, Tabitha, from the TV show “Bewitched”. It was actually a favourite show of mine as a kid. I don’t mind the name, it just didn’t seem to fit her. So I went back to food themes and settled on Maple ie. maple syrup.  She was small and sweet looking & it just seemed so right for her.

One week after she’d been in my home, she had babies.

It explained a lot about why she had been acting the way she had. Literally the day after, she became a more settled and sweet bun.

Only one baby survived the birthing process. It seemed natural that this baby should be called Syrup ! And it was….for about 3 days. But being the only baby, it got all the mothers milk and quickly became a plumb little grey bundle. She just looked like a baby hippo and before long I started calling her Potamus (HipHopPotamus). It stuck.
The plan was for mum and baby to go to a new home together, once the baby reached 8 weeks old. That never happened..

Prior to Maples arrival, I took on some 8-10wk old lop bunnies. 10 of them.. 2 were adopted to new homes right away and over the coming months, most of the other found new homes also. But there were only so many people interested and suitable, and baby bunnies were easy to come by. As the rabbits got that bit older, losing the cute baby factor, the interest started to peter out. All but 1 did get adopted and after the remaining boy was with me for 18months, he’d already become my rabbit! So I made it official and decided to bond him with the mother/daughter, Maple & Potamus. I never named any of the lops, they were all given names by someone else. I figured if I didn’t name them, I would be less attached (yeah, right..) Anyway, the remaining bun had been given the name Ainsley. A perfectly respectable people name. But it didn’t really fit this bunny. He was sort of a goofy, happy-go-lucky bun. I’d often say “you silly goose” and Goose seemed the natural name to suit him. I made it Gooseman, imagining it to be his superhero name. He’d look pretty adorable if he wore a little orange cape and eye mask.

I lost my 1st rabbit Jersey in 2013. It seems strange for it to have been that long ago! After she died, I bought a big white bunny home that a friend had been fostering. Initially, I did this to give my friend some respite and it was a good distraction for me. However, the now single Rumball showed some interest in this new girl and I decided to see if they’d bond readily. They did and she became a permanent resident. When she was 1st rescued, my friend dubbed her Big Mumma and she was known as this for a while. Eventually she was named Alice. I’m not sure why this was chosen but it probably helped to have that name on her adoption profile. Once I officially adopted her, I kept her name but decided to take the Irish version, Ailís, instead. Funnily enough, it was a long time later that I learnt there was supposedly a beautiful, Irish witch in medieval times named Ailís. So I ended up with a witches name after all!

I had a canary named Piet (can be translated to “Pete” or the sound birds make). I was a 7-8 year old and my whole life all canaries I ever met were named Piet (the only canaries I had met up until that point were the multiple canaries of my grand parents. Every time Piet died a new Piet was bought.:’) ). So, obviously, the only name that canary could have was Piet, ha. He lived only a week, though, we found him outside.

Then I had 2 hamsters: Knabbel and Knabbelien. You can translate Knabbel to “nibble” and Knabbelien is also “nibble” but made more feminine. Again I was around 7-8 so my vocabulary consisted only of painfully obvious and lame names. They had babies. Oh, so many babies. But the only one we named was Schreeuwlelijk, which translates roughly to “screams a lot” (schreeuw = scream and lelijk = ugly). He uh, screamed a lot. xD

Then I got my first bunny Daisy at 12 years old. I just really liked the name, there was not a specific reason behind naming her. Her sister was Misty, chosen my my sister. She was white with a grey hue, so it fitted. When Misty passed we got another bunny named Nicky. She was ridiculously tiny when we got her so I jokingly nicknamed her “Pikkie” (pronounced Picky, translates to “tiny dick”. In Dutch you can use it to describe a very young adult male). The name stuck and we only ever called her Nicky at the vet.

Now I have bunnies Muffin and Monster. Muffin is easy going, friendly, a little clumsy and was pretty overweight when I got her so I thought that name would suit her well. Monster is grey with black snoot/paws/ears and has red pupils (when you watch him in real life as well), making him look a bit demonish. And I thought it it’s cool that I can now say that I have a monster in my house, haha.

The first bunny I got with my boyfriend was a gorgeous black otter lion-lop. I love Harry Potter, so wanted to call him Sirius (Black). I can’t even remember if other names were debated. My boyfriend agreed because Sirius is a star as well.
I always knew when we got him a friend, she would be called Luna. Then after Sirius died, we got another tiny black bun. I wanted to call him Newt (Scamander) but my boyfriend wasn’t having it so we called him Atlas, which is another star.
Then tiny Nimbus… he looks like a cloud, so Nimbus was the obvious choice, plus it still ties in with the Harry Potter theme (Nimbus 2000).

I like that Luna’s a moon, Atlas is a star, and Nimbus is a cloud

I’ve had a lot of pets and way too many names to go through so I will just go with my current 3.

My bun at the shelter was named “Babs”. There were 2 Babs at the shelter while she was there. I really love original names so this was not going to work. Plus, she was owned by people who “surrendered due to no time”, so clearly not great people. So new home, new name. I chose the name “Elara” because I really wanted something moon related as I’m one of those people who really love the moon. Elara is the name of one of the moons of Jupiter. In Greek Mythology, Elara was the name of Zeus’s mistress. And I just really think it’s a beautiful name.

My cat, Kyle, was supposed to be a foster. His name was “Reece”. The foster part lasted 3 weeks until I just had to convince my husband to let me adopt him. My husband had been calling him “Kyle Reese” all along after a character in the Terminator movie. So that was part of the deal. That we would call him “Kyle”. Agreed.

My pony, Fable, I adopted recently. She came with the name Fay. Not a fan of that name as it reminds me of a grouchy old lady I used to work with as a teenager. And I just don’t think it suits a pony either. I didn’t want to change it too much so it became Fable. We call her “Fae” for short but changed the spelling so it’s not spelled like that lady’s but like another word for Fairy.

I’ve only had two pets so this is gonna be pretty short
I called one of the two rabbits I got back in November bobby, just because she looked like my friends cat, just in rabbit form (I know so stupid?) and I called the other one originally peekaboo because on the drive when I was first bringing them home, she would always hide behind bobby because she was clearly scared. That then got shortened to just boo, only after did I find out how many people call their rabbits boo
But, because me and my family are originally serbian and I do speak serbian at home, we would just call them Belka (little white one) and Crnka (little black one). My friends obviously don’t speak serbian so in front of them or anyone else I’d call the bunnies by their “official” names. I think they got confused always switching between two names?

Although candles are one of my favorite objects in the world (not to collect; I love the whole process of unwrapping a new one, lighting it, and watching it, and then having a container when it’s done!), Wick is not named after a candle wick.

Wick is named after John Wick, the hitman from the Keanu Reeve’s movie franchise. With pet names, I try to be systematic. I try to choose one that’s short and “strong” in sound, so it is more easily recognizable by the animal. Wick seemed to be a great fit, and he has very much grown into the name….. What a devious fiend he is.

My first bunny on my own, I ended up naming Baby.  Don’t think it was a conscious decision, just caught myself calling her that and it stuck.  Same with my first dog on my own, he ended up being named Buddy because that’s what I kept calling him.  Then I felt compelled to keep the pattern of starting with a B, ending with a Y, and two syllables   So the next pet was a white bunny with bluish-greenish eyes, reminding me of a winter wind:  Breezy!  Next was a buff colored kitten and I was big into Buffy (the vampire slayer) at the time, so then it made total sense to name her Buffy!  My next bonded pair I left their names because they were two years old when they came to live with me.  Next bunny I named was a black and white bunny which the rescue had named Edna–yeesh– whom they knew nothing about, so I renamed her Betty:  after Betty Boop (the black and white) and Betty White.  Then my newer dog came into my life as a puppy, though the rescue group named him Puddin’…which I changed to Brody in respect to my Scottish heritage and his appearance of terrier nature (though he is really supposedly a chihuahua poodle mix).  My most recent bunny the rescue group had named Thumper (he too they knew nothing about), which I found beyond unimaginative.  So when I got to know him, I named him Benny after Benny Hill (though others think of Bennie and the Jets by Elton John) because he’s a silly little guy! The end (as of now)

Olly was called Olly when he came here, so I didn’t change his name, I didn’t think it was right, I had a bunny when I was 7, my Uncle’s rabbit had babies and I used to look after one because it was ill, but when she could leave her Mum he asked if I wanted to take her home with me, for some reason I wanted to call her Roberta then I called her Bobbie for short then Bob, I was told it was a bit odd to call her Bob, when I was showing her to my grandparents my grandmother said. “Look at Bob’s tail.” Then I said I had a name for her, Bobtail, I have kept snakes, all female called Sherry Terry and Kerry, a friend asked me to name his pet spiders, I called one Fang which was a boy and another one female called Tara, then he got another spider and asked me to name it, I asked him what these big spiders felt like, he said it tickles, so I called it Tickles.

My bunny Allen’s name doesn’t come from anything too significant. I had to drive out to the country to get him and once we were on the way back home for his first time, I was trying to think of a name that suited him. Since we were out in the country it seemed a good idea to give him kind of a Texas-y name (where we live). Allen, TX (north of Dallas, I think?) came to mind and looking at him, it just seemed right!

Jersey how wonderful to read the story behind all your buns names, and know more about the history of how you ended up with them. I get them confused in my head sometimes.

Since I currently have 4 pets I’ll just stick to their names rather than going back through previous pets.

We have a female Eclectus parrot called Dory. Her origin story is unknown. No idea of her age or previous life. She was found at my work place just over three years ago as a lost pet. I caught her and brought her home to look after her while searching for the owners. No one ever claimed her. I refused to name her for several months because I didn’t want to become very attached. So we called her “the bird” or “the parrot”, or “devil bird” etc. Then hubby told me he’d picked a name which he’d been using for a few days when I wasn’t around, lol. He’d picked Dory, after the movie Finding Dory which had been released about a month after I brought her home. Needless to say it stuck.

Then we have the bunnies. Apollo and Luna. I adopted them from a rescue almost 2 years ago. They were an adult bonded pair already at the rescue and had the names Rosie and Tony. Rosie was a nice enough name but wasn’t right and Tony did not suit my boy at all. I put it to the forum to help me find names, I was interested in stars/planets etc or mythological names. It was Jerseygirl who mentioned that their gotcha day (30th July) was the anniversary of the lunar landing of the Apollo 15 mission back in 1951. As a result, they became Apollo and Luna. I dropped the r from Lunar because Luna seemed more feminine somehow.

Last but not least is our 10 month old Somali cat, Jasiri. She is my first cat as an adult, and ever since the release of The Lion King movie in 1994 I have wanted to name a cat Simba. Originally the plan was to a get a male in the tawny colour which the name Simba would fit perfectly. But we ended up with a blue girl instead. I wanted to stick with something unique, and possibly related to the Lion King Universe. There’s a spin-off show now called The Lion Guard, and in the show is a spunky, courageous, female hyena character called Jasiri. As I found out, the name Jasiri is Swahili for bold and courageous. A personality that matches our little somali girl very well, it also helps that her colours resemble that of the character from the show. The name commonly gets confused looks from people when I mention it, but I love it

She was found at my work place just over three years ago as a lost pet.

Wow! 3 years already? I remember you posting about her.

LPT I was going to agree how crazy that time went by. But I now realise it’s only been two years, not three. Lol. I’m not quite sure how I got so mixed up. Even so, two years is still quite a while

Clover has always been Clover, it’s the name she had when she claimed me, she answers to it, and I think it’s an adorable twee name for a very big bunny.
Dawn we got as a baby, and my daughter went through about 24 bazillion names in the time it took us to buy her and make the hour long ride home. When my daughter couldn’t decide, I asked her, “Well, how does she make you feel when you look at her and touch her?” My daughter said, “Like the dawn of a new day.” (She frequently waxes poetic, my daughter) And thus, Dawn. Which is kind of ironic, because as a Netherland Dwarf, her look and personality is anything but sunny….
Pyewacket, our skinny black cat, was named long before we even got her. When we were moving back to Florida, my daughter said all she wanted was a little black kitten to have to sleep in her bed and cuddle with her. She went through a half dozen names before settling on Pyewacket after reviewing one of our favorite movies, “Bell, Book, and Candle.” But she also struggled with Gigi from “Kiki’s Delivery service”, and Binks from “Hocus Pocus”.
Dotty, our other cat, is mostly white, with patches on gray all over. But her major feature is two large gray spots, one on each side of her hips. Her “Official” name is Sabala, which we think is ancient Assyrian for “Spotted one”, but it got quickly shortened to “Dotty”. She’s a little dotty in the head, so it fits.
Rusty the Bearded Dragon had a few a names before Rusty settled on him. THAT got morphed into into Russell, Zilla, and who knows what else.
And lastly, Jarvis. Jarvis is our rescue Quaker parrot. ALL of our pets are rescues, but Jarvis is special. He was bought as a very young parrot by a young couple, who got pregnant and who, instead of just teaching the new baby not to touch and baby safeing the cage, instead shoved him off in a corner and ignored him. Now, Quakers are communal parrots, and live in great big colonies in the wild. So they have to have attention and contact with their person/people. Instead, he was left in his closed cage for over 2 years. And when parrots are stressed, they pluck. And plucking, once they don’t have feathers anymore, starts in on the meat. So when he came to me, his armpits were masses of barely healed scar tissue. You could look through the holes in his skin and see tendons. It was pretty horrific.
And worse, they named him “A.J.” Ugh. Just….ugh. No personality, no character. My daughter and I being huge Marvel fans, took one look at him and his green/grey coloring, thought, “The Vision”, and named him Jarvis. It took him 4 days to learn his new name and respond to it, so we think he didn’t like “A.J.” either!

When we adopted Luna, she seemed to know her name and we liked it so we left, but I can tell it is a very popular bunny name!

The first dog we had, I really only remember the day of her death. My parents struggled for years to have children, so before my brother and I came along they got a dog and named her Leah. Which was the name they originally wanted to name a daughter. She passed when I was 3 years old. When I was 7, my brother and I finally managed to convince our parents to allow us to have a dog, and we of course insisted on naming her Leah #2. I know, creative for a 7 and 9 year old haha

When I got my horse, her original owner had named her Tabasco, like the hot sauce, which seems like an odd name for a female. But the name fits her so ridiculously well that I wouldn’t dream of changing it. When I used to event with her, I used the show name Spice It Up.

Heidi, my brittany spaniel, came to me as Dolly. She was the runt of her litter, so they called her dolly because she was so small and at that point very calm. She did not stay calm, and the name really didn’t suit her. So we picked an name that better suited her, and that was Heidi. Then my husband named Jessi, our boxer, after Jessi from toy story. He also named our husky mix Balto, after the disney movie, because he’s not creative and no longer allowed to name things haha

Nibbler, was almost Nibbles, and I thought that was probably too common for a rabbit name, so we changed it to Nibbler. And my husband thinks it’s funny because of Nibbler on the Futurama tv show.
In college, I would jokingly name everything George, and said that if I ever had a rabbit I would want it to be a dutch rabbit and to be named George. Well when I got that dutch rabbit, she turned out to be a female, so she became Georgie.