I've Lost My Marbles

Polar Bear (Ragdoll)

Marbles (Ragdoll x Siamese)

So, I haven't actually lost my marbles -- I've just named my blog after my cats, 'Marbles' and 'Polar Bear'.  This is why my fiancé has apparently banned me from naming our dog when we eventually get one.  We'll see about that.

Naming our future anticipated dog (which we've agreed is probably going to be a beagle) is a topic that my fiancé and I completely disagree on.

Personally, I prefer to have pet names for my pets rather than people names for my pets.  Aside from the fact that my cats are called Marbles and Polar Bear, the first time we discovered that we have extremely opposite opinions/preferences on pet names is when he showed me a picture (below) of a Tibetan Mastiff dog...

... and asked me what I would name it.  My immediate answer, without a split second of hesitation, was 'Bumble Bee'.  Yes, Bumble Bee.

Okay, so, maybe I had lost my marbles by that stage.

However, I'd much prefer to name my pets Bumble Bee, Marbles or Polar Bear, as opposed to such names as, Jeff, Barry or Keith (being examples of my fiancé's choices) because, at least, with names like Bumble Bee, Marbles and Polar Bear, you know when you say their names in conversation or calling them, you're definitely referring to pets and not people and thus avoiding any chance of confusion.  Unlike my fiancé's choices as follows:

Keith - I have an Uncle Keith
Jeff - I have a family friend named Jeff
Barry - I have another relative (somehow he's related to me) named Barry

Admittedly, I barely ever see Jeff or Barry.  However, my Uncle Keith (one of my late mother's brothers), has a fairly significant presence in my life, despite the fact that we live in different countries at the moment.  I would honestly be very embarrassed to have to admit to my Uncle Keith that I named a dog after him.  I know, the dog wouldn't be named after him, but it would still bear his name!  Oh, the embarrassment!  But, also, what if we're talking about, for example, how Keith (our dog) shat in the middle of the lawn the other day then rubbed his own nose in it, and my Uncle Keith, or another relative who also knows my Uncle Keith, happens to hear the conversation and thinks we're talking about Uncle Keith?!  Again, the embarrassment to have to explain!

Also, I find using people names for pets is just plain old boring!  Some friends of my called their cat 'Turtle' because she has tortoiseshell colouring.  And, as you can imagine, I totally agree with their choice of name -- it's awesome!

As a child, I used to love stuffed animals, rather than dolls.  All my stuffed animals had a name and none of them were people names.  Even when I was 18 years old, I was going through a major tragedy in my life and, as a sympathy thing, a friend gave me a big blue stuffed dog with purple triangle patches on it.  True to my love of stuff animal friends, I felt compelled to name him immediately.  It only took a few seconds of looking at him and the name 'Trumpet' came to mind.  And, that was that -- I had a new stuffed dog called Trumpet.

Admittedly, when I named my ragdoll cat 'Polar Bear', I wasn't actually the one who gave him that name.  When I went to choose a kitten from the litter at the breeder's house (yes, I'm one of those awful people who paid a breeder instead of rescuing one from a shelter -- so, shoot me), I'd been playing with him for a little while.  Then, as I was leaving, the breeder's young children went to go play with him and started calling him.  I couldn't quite hear what they were calling him so I asked them what they were calling him.  Their reply was, 'Polar Bear'.  For the few weeks between meeting Polar Bear and picking him up when he was ready to leave his mum, I couldn't think of anything better to name him -- it suited him so well!  And, that's exactly the kind of name I'd choose, so, it was perfect!  He really did look like a little polar bear cub with a fluffy tail and pointy ears -- so cute!

There are of course some other fairly common pet names, which don't leave anything to the imagination.  For example, Fluffy, White Socks, Snowy, Tripod, et cetera.  Not my cup of tea, to be honest.

So, back to naming our future pet dog.  How on earth will we be able to agree on a name?  Perhaps, when we finally get to meet our new dog for the first time, my fiancé will ask me that same question, 'What would you call him/her?', see what my loopy mind comes up with on the spot, then we'll take it from there.  This could potentially lead to us having an unnamed dog for a few days or weeks until one of us folds.  However, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it :)

What names do you give your pets?  I'd be curious to know what other people call their pets.  Which do you prefer:  my preferred 'pet' names or my fiancé's preferred 'people' names?