If you have an animal with one body but 2 heads...

[Mysterian]

...do you give each of the heads a name of their own, or do you call the whole shebang by one overall name?

Asking for a friend.

I personally would give a name per head but am aware of multi-headed mono-named animals such as Cerberus.
YANBU - Name per head.
YABU - Name per shebang.

Hmm. It depends on whether they share a consciousness or whether each head has its own brain/personality I think 🤔

Ohh I'd say two names. We'd never give Siamese humans one name.
Did they pay twice the amount?

Name per head I think. Actually I’m in two minds about it…

There used to be a 2 headed snake at San Diego zoo, it was called Thelma and Louise

Two heads =2 brains so I'd give 2 names. Good question! 🤣

Conjoined!

Depending on what the animal is probably the option you haven't put - both. You need a collective name for when the whole shebang needs to be referred to e.g. Cerberus is upstairs, and individual names for when individual heads need identifying e.g. Cerba's been very bitey today, but Cerbie's been good as gold.

Sorry @ChagSameachDoreen. I've just Googled and I apologise for any offence caused.

With humans it's obviously one per head so I didn't think of mentioning it, but when it's an animal? A dogs might understand being called a name, but a two headed snake? Seems silly calling it/them Claire and Wendy.

I guess by those standards it’s a bit daft giving pets like snakes/fish etc any name though. Because the snake doesn’t know it’s Claire or Wendy or Claire & Wendy. I’d probably say a name per head.

But naming is the most exciting bit, single headed animals not just cats should have at least three different names, so double headed definitely six.

However is this Friday musing or do we require a picture?

However is this Friday musing or do we require a picture?

This is scientific research.

I agree that it’s a name per brain as it feels to me (perhaps wrongly to others) that the brain is the personality and control of the person, not the body.

Geez, the hydra would need new names every time it got into a battle.

If I saw a two-headed snake, I wouldn’t be hanging around long enough to give it/them a fucking name…..

It probably wouldn’t be a particularly good slitherer. Two heads would make it very front heavy

But Fluffy from Harry Potter is just Fluffy for the whole shebang and it would have been weird if Hagrid would have had to reel off 3 names to refer to him.

I bet Medusa never bothered naming her 'hair'.

I reckon she did. Hissy, Fang, Coiled…

This whole thing was certainly more of an issue in ancient Greek times.

One beast, one name.

I was thinking about Fluffy too. To be fair Fluffy should have had three heads. Wonder whatever happened to him. Not to apply normal health & safety to the world’s least safe school, but ‘giant dog in the school cupboard for a year’ seems like blatant child endangerment as well as serious animal cruelty. And a mega ridiculously convoluted way to hide the philosophers’ stone.

If it was a 2 headed snake I would be calling it "Fuck" and "Off".

😂

I knew it!

It was your scientific gravitas wot gave you away OP.
... but am aware of multi-headed mono-named animals ...

Can we have a pic of you in a sharp lab coat, severe bun & big specs please?
Instead of a diagram?