To choose a baby name that has been used for a family pet?

[PatoPotato]

So we're looking at baby names at the moment and my DH won't let me choose a name that his family has used for pets. The issue is that his family and mine have used two names I really love on pets, Charles (Charlie) and Luna.

WIBU to use a name that have been names of dogs of my in laws or my db?

DD is due to be named after my old cat as her middle name (due next week). I loved the name for a long time and I would be using it as her first name but DH has another name he prefers so we're going with that.

My DS shares his name with SILs dog. DS has the proper name and is known by one shortened form. The dog has a different short version. The original name was my Grandads so no, DS was not named after the dog!

My eldest DD shares her name with a donkey I once had as a pet!

My son’s name is the same as our former cat. As we don’t have the cat any more and the name is a typically human name as opposed to a pet name i honestly have no issue with it. It’s my favourite name and therefore it would seem silly not to use it. I didn’t even really connect the two when I named him as silly as that may sound. It would be slightly different if we still had the cat I presume

People dislike names for a variety of reason, so yes YABU to want to use names your DH dislikes

I didn’t realise until a few years after ds2 was born that I’d inadvertently sort of named them after childhood pets. I had two labradors when I was growing up. My ds1 started to almost exclusively be known by the shortened version of his name when he started high school and when I talk about the boys I usually say DS1 name first and then Ds2. I was talking to a friend one day and she asked if Ds2 and ds1, in that order, we going to a certain event. The minute she said their names a lightbulb went on in my head! My childhood dogs were Casper and Holly. My boys are Jasper (ds2) and Olly (ds1 - Oliver)!

Never thought I would have children. So called SDog favourite ever girls name, a classic I have loved all my life.
I now have 2 x DD and DH wouldn't let me name either of them the dog name. I do love the dog very much, but I do feel a bit cheated that neither DD has that name 😕

DDog!

Our daughter is named after our dead cat!

If DD had been a boy she would have shared a name with SILs cat.

No biggie.

Also, Bindi Irwin, daughter of the awesome Steve Irwin, was named after his favourite crocodile, and their pet dog, little trivia fit you there 😂

Ben friend used her dogs name. The dog had been dead a few years. I thought it a bit strange at 1st, but I've never seen a child look so much like his name than he did. He just couldn't have been any other name.
Suppose it's no diffrent than nameing your dc after a relative

My dp's friend wanted to call his ds Alfie.
He never mentioned this to us. A few weeks before he was born we got a dog called Alfie. That took the name off the table.
Not my dogs name but sil had her heart set on a little girls name every since she was a little girl. She was devastated when I started dating her brother because my dd had that name. She knew if we had worked out she couldn't use the name. It's not a very conman name so having 2 even step cousins with the same name could be pecived as odd. She must have been thinking in the back off her head "I want my db to happy and she seems really nice but I hope they don't work out"

We did though, and she went on to have 2 dd's and didn't use my dd's name.

My cousin has the same name as another aunt's beloved cat. I can't say either was ever confused. (It is a classic human name - cousin isn't called Fluffy.)

I would not. At some point the child will find out that they have been named after a pet, and I can't see any way that would be good for them.

DS was nameless for nearly 2 weeks. We started to worry about him never having a name and chose one in a bit of a rush, not thinking it was the same name as SIL’s cat! She was horrified and said it would be so confusing . Cat and child are never in the same room as the cat is a real wimp and runs away from the child

@MsMightyTitanAndHerTroubadours as a kid I also wanted to call my daughter Eve/Evie (Evelyn), it wasn't anywhere near as popular back then!

I gave my oldest daughter the same name as my first beloved dog, because it is and always has been my favorite name. Don't think anyone but me remembered the dog though!

Unless the pet is currently alive and residing in your house then I’d definitely do it. I wish I had sometimes!
Meghan and Harry used Archie and I’m sure I read she previously had a pet with that name. If it’s ok for them...!

My childhood dog's name has just gone on my boys' names list! Thanks for the tip OP!😊

So yes I think it's fine, current pets that live with you would be a problem but I think old ones is no issue.

I’m having this dilemma too; the only name I quite like is the name of a dead family dog. I know it shouldn’t matter but I can’t quite get comfortable with it.

I wanted the name Teddy for all 3 of my pregnancies but DH said no.

He finally said we could have it before we fell pregnant with no3 but his mum got a dog and called him Teddy.

I would've still used it. Glad i didn't since that Ted Bundy thing came out!

Funny enough, we named him Felix in the end. Don't know anyone with an animal called Felix, but there is one in my DS class.

We called our sweet DDog a name we loved, which was a long version of my FIL’s dog at the time’s name, for example, “Arabella” vs “Bella”. and we then chose our DD’s name some time later, which is also a longer name which could be shortened to FIL’s other dog’s name, for example “Liliana” and “Lily”. They are all great “people” names, none of them overly doggy names, but we did realise the close proximity of our choices a few years later!

bridgetreilly

I’ve just informed DD she is named after the hamster

She says “hope it was cute”

If there are any long term implications for her mental wellbeing I’ll be sure to let everyone know

Yabu to want to choose a name that your DH is unhappy with, whatever his reasons.