Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pet Names, Redux

I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning
alphabetizing all the pet names I received from my
pet-names post. Not entirely sure why I did this;
perhaps it's a longing for 5th grade language arts.
Or maybe it's just an O.C. thing. Anyway.
I've just completed my completely non-scientific
analysis, and here are my results:

Number of human names given to pets: 57.
What does this mean? Do we yearn for
(more) children?

Number of names ending in "y", "i", "ie": 32.
We love those cutesy-ootsey names,
don't we?

Number of hyphenated names: 8.
Hmmm.

Number of pets named after famous persons: 7.
(We do aggrandize these critters.)

Number of pet names that are nouns: 26.
Number of pet names that are adjectives: 7.
Number of pet names that are verbs: 7.
Number of pet names that are exclamations: 1.
("Boo"! --who took her own life at the age of
22 or 23 by throwing herself under the wheels
of a car.)
Fun with parts of speech!

Number of generic pet names: 2 --
Blackcat, Greycat.

Most original names:
Ethyl, so-named after being found at a gas station;
Prader, named after an eating disorder;
tiny-o the tiny terrorist (I don't know why).

Most unusual source of a name:
Ruby Reilly, named for the subject of pornographic letters
found under the floorboards of a house.

There were 2 Alices, 2 Georges, 3 Molly's,
3 Tiggers.

And, finally, most poetic pet name:
"We let my little brother name our black and white
kitten. He said she looked just like Melting Snow on Rocks,
and that’s what he named her." --

Thanks to all who contributed to this list!
Blogging is fun!

Alex
Alice
Alice (aka Deedles, Dee, The Dee Kitten)
Baby-Girl
Bantu
Baxter
Beethoven
Bill
BillyJoeBobDon
Blackcat
Bobbi-Jean
Bogo
boo
bright eyes
Brother Love
Bucket
Charlie
Charlotte
chase
Ching (as in I Ching)
Claire
Clyde
Cracklin’ Rosie
Danke
Dinah
Dixie
Ethyl (who was found at a gas station)
Elvis
Fanny
Fergie-the-Tripod
Flip (aka Flink)
Fluffy
Freda
George
George
Glynnis
Grey Cat
Hickety (for here, kitty)
Jack
Jennifer
Jersey
Jessie
Johnny
Johnson and Evinrude
Junior
Kiwi
Kotter
Leo
Lilli
little bit
Loose fur
Lucille
Lucy
Madeline
Marble Cake
Marta
Max Headroom
M.E (for mouse eater)
Melting Snow on Rocks
Mickey Mouse
mimi
Ming
miss kitty
Molly
Molly
Molly Flopover
Muffin
Nim
Oona-Balloona
Pan
Pandora
Pantages
Paris the Genius Cat
Party
Paw Boy
pepper
pheobe marie euphegenia
Phloem
Pickle
Pinky
Pooh-doh
Pookie-Ratt
Porter
Prader (named for the disease, Prader-Willy, that requires
a lock on the fridge for uncontrolled eating, as the cat did)
prick
Princess Cleo
Puddin
Puppy (a kitten)
Rachel
Rajicat
Ratsky
Ricky (his sister was Lucy)
RingChing
Rita
Rothko
Ruby Reilly
Sally
Sarah
Shadow
Sheba
Shilo
slake
Smokey
Snoochie
Sophie
Spike
SueSue
Sweet Caroline
tails
Tammany
The Evil Orlando
Tigger
Tigger
Tigger-Lou
Ting
tiny-o the tiny terrorist
Tiny Tim
Tip (aka Notorious T.I.P., Tip O’Neill, They Call Me Mistuh Tip)
Tom Kitten
TomTom
toes
Twitchy
tux
uffer
Vicki
Wildman ("because he was")
Winkle
Winnie
Xylophone (aka Xylene)
Wishabelle
zena sarafina
Zora

4 comments:

  1. Truly, I LOVE this! What research! What dedication!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was glad to see a Spike on the list. We still miss ours.

    I'll come clean, now. In addition to the venerable Spike, we had a Jones (named after the cat in the movie "Alien," even though they looked nothing alike) and Pip, who was named because my first husband didn't want any names that ended in a "y" sound. After we named her Pip officially, we called her Kitty forever.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had a "Spike", too.....and he earned that name! He was fierce, but I sure liked him!

    ReplyDelete
  4. uh oh--too late to add toby riley and boscoe?
    and i think -ey names are easier to call. HERE, TOBY!!!!!

    you can really draw out the eeeeeee when you're yelling.

    ReplyDelete