Lori Borman
Lately we’ve had a lot of confusion with people’s names and dog names.
Some grandparents have a new puppy named Amy. That is beautiful. But “Amy” might sound like “Emma” from afar.
The children with the new puppy have a cousin named Emma, an aunt named Emma in the wing next to their family, and all 11 grandparents have at least one friend named Emma. Emma is the number one most popular baby girl name.
When Amy screams quickly and looks just like Emma, she doesn’t know if the girl she’s dating, a puppy, or someone she’s never met before will come running.
Charlie and Max are among the most popular dog names.
We have or have both in the family. Max was a small dog with a bad hip that was rescued from a Chicago pound. Max often hangs out at the feet of the table and screams in black leather jackets and motorcycles.
Charlie in the family is my better half. He does not trample under the feet of men, nor prick his tail. Unless I do ribs.
Some of the grandparents have a little cousin named Milo on the other side of the family and there is also a dog named Milo in the family. The toddler Milo weighs about 25 kg and the German shepherd Milo weighs 85. You want to pick up one Milo and hug him, and when you see the other Milo charging at you, you want to pin yourself against the wall.
When I was a kid we had a dog named Smoky. That dog died and we got another dog and named him Smokey. Creative, right? When my brother left home, he brought a dog and called him Smoke. Then my brother thought it would be fun to list himself in the phone book as a cigar. Even though I was living on the opposite side of the country from my brother and his dog, I somehow managed to get a letter to Smoky.
Smoky accepts discounts on life insurance policies, auto insurance and magazine subscriptions.
Hard to explain, my husband’s family had a cat named Asa.
People often name pets and breeds after famous people, so again with overlap. A friend of mine had a dog named Winston, like Winston Churchill. A cigarette in a pocket would fit perfectly.
Maybe it’s time to branch out with dog names. Maybe name the dogs after the planets: Saturn, Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter. You won’t meet many people with those names; But that’s just me. Somewhere another family may have covered the entire solar system.
Perhaps we can draw on the table of elements: titanium, magnesium, lithium. But names that end in “-um” are never good baby names, and good baby names are critical when it comes to naming pets and children.
Who knows if people’s names inspired dog names or dog names inspired people’s names. It’s like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg or the baby or the puppy.
Lori Borgman is a columnist, author and speaker. her in [email protected]