[Fluff] Does your country have dog naming "rules"?

[moej]

In France, it's S year. All pedigree dogs, cats, sheep, cows, and goats born this year need to have a name starting with S (except for horses, apparently it's L year). Also K, Q, W, X, Y, and Z are never used, because it's too difficult to find names.

My dog's not a pedigree, so he goes by Mistral, but he was born an H year. My mum's (pedigree) dog was born a J year, so officially he was Jellybean, but we called him Roly Poly!

What's it like in your country?

 

[greatfulforjesus]

@moej I've never heard of rules about naming animals like that.

Non that I know of exist in Canada.

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@greatfulforjesus Our breeder in Canada names all of the pups from a litter with the same letter when they register them (my dog is from a Z litter) but we didn’t find out her name until we had her for 6 months when they sent us her papers (Zanka vom blah blah) , so it’s just her registered name. We call her Revelstoke.

 

[kileycallaway]

@imagebeastmarkbeast My suburban neighborhood has the street names set up like that. I'm in an L sector and after 4 years, I can only tell you a few street names with certainty. I'm not the person to ask for directions around here.

 

[pushkin]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Must be from Revelstoke?

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@pushkin No. We just like to ski and Revy sounded cuter than most other hill names.

 

[desmyath7]

@imagebeastmarkbeast When I was looking for a puppy, one breeder I came across names Each litter around a theme. The litter they had when I was looking was named after gemstones like sapphire and amethyst.

 

[james5086]

@greatfulforjesus Yep they exist! I didn't know it applied to dogs, but pedigreed cows and horses yes. This year is H for cows, so the animal would have a name and a number followed by a letter.

 

[benoz]

@moej That rule was invented to make it easier to find a dog from a specific year. It was before computers.

My dog is from a R year, and she has a R name on her papers, but most of the time I just call her Puppy.

I didn't know horses were on another letter, weird.

 

[unapprec]

@moej Different registries have different rules, and different groups have different conventions. In Border Collies:

• Working Border Collies usually have boring and short registered names like Nell, Bob, Moss, Spot, etc. For clarity, you might refer to a dog as "Susan's Bob" since "Bob" alone would be confusing. It's a tradition, not a rule. I got my dog from a Border Collie rescue that renames all of their dogs with short, dignified, and traditional names.
• Kennel Clubs like the AKC usually require a registered name to be unique, so show Border Collies have names like "Avatar Catch Me If U Can Bayshore." There's generally a different "call name" -- that dog might answer to Larry.
• Sport Border Collie breeders do whatever they want, although they still need to follow the rules of the registry they choose. If you meet a Border Collie named Snap!, Zoom, Kinky, or Jizz, good chance the owner does sports. Those are all real dogs.

 

[elvent]

@unapprec That last one...

 

[tippymoondawg]

@unapprec

Kennel Clubs like the AKC usually require a registered name to be unique, so show Border Collies have names like "Avatar Catch Me If U Can Bayshore." There's generally a different "call name" -- that dog might answer to Larry.

Within a breed, names can be reused 36 times, each one followed by a number. After the 37th, the name is retired.

And so I could have registered Alfie as "Alfie" since there hadn't been 35 collies registered with that name. The AKC does apply a roman numeral suffix to tell them apart and so (IIRC the number of Alfie's at that point) he would have been Alfie IXX.

I've seen those kind of super simple/short names with either Border Collies, with PAL registration (rescue dogs with no known pedigree) or puppy mill/BYB breeding stock. Puppy millers tend to not care much about names and I've seen names like "Queenie XXV" or "Buddy XIV" or "Baby Girl IIV" on pet pedigrees.

Alfie's breeder has an ongoing rock/pop song theme and so Alfie was actually registered as " You Can Call Me Al"

 

[inhisservice3320]

@tippymoondawg Super short AKC registered names for BC's does not indicate puppy mill/BYB. My boy is from a very good breeder (dad is open trial winner, mom has trialed nursery and would have been trialing open this year but COVID, full health testing, etc), and his AKC registered name will be Lift with some random numbers after it. That's just how AKC open registration works - they use the registered name of the original registry, and he'll be registered as Lift with the ABCA. His parents are not AKC registered.

Apologies if I just misunderstood you.

 

[tippymoondawg]

@inhisservice3320 Sorry I wasn't clear - I was commenting about each name needing to be unique.

I'm not saying that super short BC names were puppy mill type names but was commenting on the 3 situations (BCs, PAL registrations and puppy mills/BYBs) I've seen repeated short names, typically followed by a number. I should have been more clear that each of those is clearly separate and have no overlap.

I was basically referring to this rule:

The AKC permits thirty-seven (37) dogs of each breed to be assigned the same name.

This rule came about partly due to "Lassie" in (Rough/Smooth) Collies. From the beginnings of the AKC, many thousands of Collies have been registered just as "Lassie" and AKC found it unmanageable. And so the name "Lassie" has been retired for Collies and no Collie can be registered as Lassie. Lassie can be used as part of a longer name (one of my Zeffie's relatives was "Hilltops Sweet and Sassy Lassie") but not simply Lassie.

In many breeds names have been "used up" and retired. They don't have to be breed specific like "Lassie" in collies (or Pongo in Dalmatians, Lady in Cocker Spaniels, and so on). All popular pet names - King, Max, Princess, etc. - got used up.

Border collies are interesting since there's such a strong tradition of one word, no-nonsense names and they have their own registry. IIRC dogs who were originally registered with a different registry must keep their registered names. I know that's the way it works with FCI and CKC registries and think it's the same with the ABCA. Anyway, BCs have their own unique situation and there's a lot more repeats beyond 37. I wonder how many BCs with the names of "Meg", "Nop" or "Roy" have been registered.

Four years ago, I actually checked for the fun of it, if "Alfie" was available in Collies (IIRC only 18 had been registered so it was). I joked about just registering our Alfie as simply "Alfie". Unlike with Border Collies, in Rough/Smooth Collie land, the norm is for registered names to be complex, often relating to parentage/theme and to always include the kennel names (such as, from Alfie's pedigree: Bo-Dandy Rock Solid who sired Mandalay Rock and Roll). Since Alfie was going to be shown in the breed ring, having a simple registered name like "Alfie" would have be seen as weird, but worse, as a big insult to his breeders.

Anyway, sorry for being confusing. BTW, "Lift" is an awesome name for a BC.

 

[inhisservice3320]

@unapprec There are actually rules around ISDS naming, though I don't think the same is true for ABCA. No more than two syllables, must be at least three letters, as well as some other rules around prefixes and suffixes. https://www.isds.org.uk/breeding-registration/naming-of-dogs/

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@moej America has no relatable naming rules. Do you consider naming your dog laws to be a bit odd? I know in Sweden you can't name a human child something ridiculous.

 

[fijiman]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Germany also has naming rules for children; I don't know about dogs.

It does appear odd to a person used to the American culture to have naming laws about children and even weirder to have naming regulations for dogs ... don't quite get what the benefit would be for the naming rules for dogs that would be over the annoyance. For children, I can sort of understand as some people will if left to their own devices name their child a nonsensical or even offensive name (like Adolf in Germany)

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@fijiman Well, yes, Adolf would be blatant, but then there are names that are just stupid embarrassing for a child. Like take Elon Musk's new child. Poor thing might not understand how to spell their own name in Kindergarten. Or most names celebrities give their child. Apple, Blue, Cloud? I honestly feel bad for these children.

 

[edward1690]

@imagebeastmarkbeast i know!! and it’s not like there’s an adequate shortening for them either. take cardi b and offset’s child, Kulture. what’s she gonna do? go by kult? it’s horrible i feel so bad for them. don’t get me started on elon musk’s child. school is gonna be so hard for her rip

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@edward1690 I'M LAUGHING WAY TOO HARD AT THIS. KULT