To think people name their dogs the name they'd have liked if they'd had more DC?

[TheHouseOnBellSt]

I keep seeing it among people at the school gates.....or just people I know. "Oh we've called the new Puppy Ella."

"The new dog is called Lola/Max/Poppy..."

It's odd and annoying as I've now met two families who;se dogs share names with my kids! My kids names are not in the above selection

I think naming a pet is an opportunity to branch out and use names that you'd just not be able to use on a human. Having said that most of our cats came with names already, and two were of the human variety, although I suspect very common for cats (Poppy and Sasha). The only cat we named was really by accident and not a name I would dream of giving a child because it would be cruel (it wasn't terribly appropriate for the rather beautiful cat either - Slug!)

Surely animals have always been given human names as well as traditional animal ones?

This is what I thought. Thinking back to when I was a child, I can think of friends pets with the following names:

Max, Oscar, Fred, Freddie, Maximus, Bart, Star, Patch, Chunky, Toffee, Fudge, Hansy, Sirius, Burt, Ruben, Ted, Teddy, Bear, Chilli, Pepper, Hardy, Harry, Henry, Sam, Blue, Hercules, Chip, Larry, Parry, Robin, Toby,

Poppy, Petal, Primrose, Peggy, Meggy, Maggy, Wagins, Minimouse, Holly, Rose, Rosie, Lilac, Ruby, Lady, Sweetie, Cocoa, Robyn, Tilly, Milly

So quite a few that are technically "human" names, yet they were mostly named by children.

The only bad named one I know of is someone who had a dog and named it Ruben, then had a DS and called him Ruben! They still had the dog and still called it Ruben too. Utter madness

Dd1 is named after one of our cats

Oh my god are people actually joking about being annoyed that people dare to call their animals names that may be needed for children?

My spaniel's called Jarvis and though I love the name, I'd have never had the nerve to inflict it on a child. So this is second best.

I've always thought Colin would be a fab name for a dog (but I have never considered calling a child Colin, it is a truly awful name).

When I was pregnant with DD my DH said he liked the name Poppy, I wouldn't name my child it but the flowers have sentimental meaning to me so I said if we one day get a dog we'd name her Poppy.
I could have 50 babies and not one of them would ever be called Poppy, but I would name my dog Poppy. So you are being a tiny bit unreasonable.

I think this is irrelevant to me, as I just accidentally call my children by the dog's name anyway (especially when exasperated)! I then do that thing my nan used to do where I run through all the family names until I get to the correct one. I'm only 38, lord knows what I'll be like in my dotage.

Only two of mine have "human" names. My old girl, but she actually got her name from a song, and one of my young girls was named by someone else. All the others have names that relate to their registered pedigree names in some way.

Nooo I had no desire for a child called Bob

My dogs called Molly because my oh refused to shout dolly (after dolly mixture) in the park.

I though Molly was old fashioned enough for it not to be a girls name anymore..plus my dog looks like a mop.. Molly the mop sounded cute.

Turns out it's getting quite popular as a human name.. What can you do? I though Molly was a dog name makes me laugh when you hear kids being named after typical pets names..

I have a gerbil called Gary, his friend Barry has recently gone to gerbil heaven.

No these are not names I'd have ever considered for my children .

RIP Barry

Growing up, we had dogs called things like Tim, Sam and John
Sadly for my brothers, my parents used up the conventional names for the animals and gave the whacky ones to the humans

Thanks Mitzy

I would've like more children and my dogs have people names. No way would I name children these names though...they are similar to Colin, Dave, Keith, Muriel...not very popular for children at the moment!

I met a beagle at the vets called Evie this week the op did cross my mind!

Wotsitpup is called ginger. The kids named him. I wanted to call him jimmy. I think the op has a point

All our animals were rescues or second hand, so came with their names. We have Robbie, Cara, and Rory with human names, then Honey, Tink and Ginger with pet type names. In the past we've had Fudge, Zecca, Sam, Candy, Tally, Harvey, Fern, Sooty and Elvis. So a strange mix of names.

We have another rescue dog about to arrive, who doesn't have a name and we're really struggling. I prefer the human names, is it's a tie between Meg, Molly and Jess at the moment. If I'd had children I may have chosen Meg for a name. (opinions welcome! She's a small scruffy furry JRT type with brown patches on white).

Two of the most amusing names for dogs I've known were Deefa and Yer (it's yer dog, you take it out..) but I wouldn't choose them. Why do the funny names always suit male dogs more?

I don't think it's embarrassing for people to have names that are sometimes used for dogs, although it might be a bit embarrassing if they had names that are traditionally only for dogs, like Rover or Fido!

My brother's name was more popular for dogs than people when we were young (it's much more fashionable for people now). The second most popular response to his name, after "what's that short for?" was "we used to have a dog called that." He got more annoyed but the "what's it short for?" than the dog comments but then he has always really liked dogs!

DS2's name is fashionable for dogs and people and he doesn't seem to mind at all. I can't imagine a dog being called DS1's full name although some dogs are called by a short form if it that he never uses.

My sister's dog is called Alan.
A friend's is called shit head (shed for short).

My last dog was called Charmander. (Named by an 8 year old at the height of the Pokemon craze). I'd defy anyone to call their kid that. Current dog is called Beezer. Ditto. I happen to have a name that is commonly used for dogs (not Fido) and when I was a kid my vile English teacher who lived in our village called his labrador my name. Once or twice I was out walking my dog and would hear him calling my name down the country lanes... One of my sons now also has a name commonly used for male dogs. He just thinks it's funny when we're out on a walk and meet yet another (censored).