Mums offended by my dog?

[SpareChangeDownTheSofa]

I have a friendly, cuddly dog, he's a cross breed but one that most kids want to happily stroke (most adults too). Since he is a rescue he is always on a leash to prevent running off when not in a dog park area (so people approach him to meet him).

He has quite a common name that is being used for boys these days but is also a very common 'dog' name. Alfie.

The other day I was walking him and a mum and son came over, all ''aww he's so cute! can I stroke him?'' It was all good, then the kid asked me his name and I said ''Alfie'' and the mum got this sour look on her face and huffed, ''That's my son's name'' and ushered her son away in a mood.

Now its happened before that kids have had the same name as him and the parents laugh or the kids are quite happy but I was so at this woman's reaction. Would you be annoyed if someone had a pet with the same name as your kid??

DD has a gerbil called Tony Soprano.

The neighbour across the road from us growing up had a beagle with the same name as me. My name is a very human one not a dog one lol.

Didn’t care in the slightest. She was there first –mmm now wondering if I was named after a dog–

Dammit strikeout fail

Our family pets have always had human names. Vicky, Judy, Louis and Bobby the dogs. My husband's family give their cats human names: Martha, Jacob, Thomas, Maisie, Millie, Liam and Alfie. It's only Martha that's been an issue as I would have liked that name for DD but to has too much of a link to cats for DH.

We have a pony called Gavin! We have a funny video clip of my daughter show jumping and me shouting "get of Gavin" at the pony and in the video you can hear someone saying "hearing someone say that is like your worse nightmare isn't Gav?" To his mate 😂

We named our puppy after a Mumsnet thread
I looked at the baby name topic last year and read a few out to DH, as soon as he heard 'Fletcher' that was it. I wanted Eddie (after Iron Maiden's Eddie) but DH insisted we had Fletcher. We've yet to meet another dog with that name but we do know a couple of humans with the surname and they're not bothered at all.

If we get another dog it will be called Cooper.

I saw the title of this thread & knew it was going to be Alfie!! We have an Alfie (child) & often meet Alfie dogs, he's 5 & loves it!! I'd never get huffy about it, how ridiculous!

We often meet dogs called 'son of Mavis'. It's usually quite funny.

My first house had a front door that opened directly on to the pavement. One day, not long after I'd moved in, I opened the front door just as a neighbour from a few doors down was passing. Her dog was off the lead and ran straight into my house. So she yelled it's name loudly to get it to come back.

I jumped and must have looked really startled and she was very embarrassed to find the dog and I shared a name!!

Only way to keep safe is clearly to christen your children Rover and Tiddles.

My dog has the same name as my old landlord's son... they lived very close to the house I was renting too. One day I was waving a visitor off with ddog beside me, and ll's son ran by, having, left something in the house. Of course, ddog (at that time a young, idiotic spaniel) thought this was a wonderful game, leaped up and started chasing him, straight towards the main road!

He had no idea this had happened and therefore looked vaguely terrified to suddenly find himself being pursued by a dishevelled woman shrieking 'Henry, Henry, STOP STOP!' I must say

Had totally forgotten about that before this thread!

My dads girlfriend has a cat with the same name as me. Never bothered me.

Admittedly though i really dislike the name Alfie, its a bit old fashioned, i'd prefer it for a dog than a child.

I do have 13 pets, and 4 of them have "people" names.
Dexter, a snake named after the serial killer from the TV show Dexter.
Dwarf hamsters named Aleksandr and Sergei after the TV meerkats, and Tanya, a syrian hamster named after the mouse from fivel goes west (American tale)

Most of the Disney films with animal characters have human names, it's pretty normal.

"SuperBeagle
Mrs, I'm more of a "name then something no one names their kid nowadays"

Reginald
Edgar
Margaret
Joan
Nigel
Phyllis
Albert
Beryl
Helen"
My son's name is one of the first ones in this list and I know there's another in my town, a few years younger, because my mum was v shocked to hear 'MY' son's name being used in Lidl! It is v rare despite this coincidence, double and some single figures when I check the nat stat baby names lists since his birth!

Years ago I worked in a job where I had to set up new accounts and ask for a password for future use. Once a man gave me an unusual girls name, I said "oo is that your dogs name, that's the name of my dog", he laughed for ages before saying "no, that's my wife, but you've made my day", lol

When I was pregnant with dd1 I very emphatically told dh that I would not consider any former pet names (e.g. previously having had cats named Chloe and Charlie)

Somehow ended up breaking my own rule and she shares a first name with a long departed pet guinea pig of mine. I haven't told her yet though!

My dog was 10 months old when we got him, so had a name already - it is a diminutive of my DB's name. DB thought we'd named the dog after him - he didn't seem to mind.

My pets have always had human names. So do two of my cacti but the rest of the spiky tribe have made-up names.

But surely it stands to reason that if you call your child or your dog the trendy name du jour then so will hundreds of others?

(Says me who gave a pet a name you rarely heard then once he was named I met dozens of men who shared it! Though it seems that name boomed circa 1950 and has never re-surged since.)

Omg, that's such a dumb thing to get mad about!

I bet she knows a bunch of Alfie dogs

Around my neighbourhood there's about 20 Jaspers and Oscars each...Both assorted dogs and little boys under 5. No one cares. It's actually pretty funny to guess which Oscar/Jasper is being yelled at and why.

I wonder if the late and great Prince suffered with this

If I had a pound for every dog with my name, I'd be rich.

I have a dog obsessed relative who told me she had a dog called Gemma when I named my baby girl. I just assumed it was her relating everything to dogs as usual.

My whippet was called Willow way before it became a popular girls name :)

My name is a pretty popular name for dogs and cats! I'd be amazed if my son encountered a dog with the same name as him but we'd both think it was great!

Hmmmmm. My dog is called Charlie. I thought half the dogs on the planet were called Charlie...the local primary school cohort however, out-do that statistic in Years 3 and 4 alone.

Our first cat was Boris and current cat is Boris. He is blond with blue eyes!