'Dog names now same as top baby names'

[PaigeTurner]

Eep! Not sure what to think of this story - all my shortlist boys' names could be dogs' names!

In parks around the country, cries of "Charlie! Daisy! Come here at once!" are surprisingly not being directed at children, but instead at man's best friend.

Dog-owners have been giving their pets trendy middle-class baby names instead of more traditional doggy names such as Bonnie and Buster, a recent survey has revealed.

A poll of names given to 80,000 dogs in the past 12 months has revealed a trend for choosing pet names that are the same as the current most popular baby names.

The study, carried out by insurance giant www.protectyourbubble.com, showed that while in the 70s the most popular dog names were Lassie, Lady and Rex, today the top three pooch names are Alfie, Poppy and Mollie.

It seems that dog owners are either lacking in imagination or they really see their pets as part of their family.

Stephen Ebbett, of www.protectyourbubble.com, said: "It is getting to the point where naming a child will get harder and harder, as parents struggle not to give their little ones the same name as the family dog.

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We called our first dog after DH's brother as they were uncannily alike.

Our second dog is called Cat, thanks to DD's Audrey Hepburn adoration. As it happens, DS' girlfriend goes by Kat.

Makes for interesting family get togethers :o

I think that pets should be called things you would never quite have the gall to use on children. Our family dogs were Titus and Yoric. Our cats all came prenamed except for the one that adopted us that somehow ended up being called Slug. I'd e a bit worried if I met a family that called their child Slug.

my dad had a cat yrs ago called casper, or rather our family cat was called casper. im having a baby boy in october and this is my 6th baby, all of the children have names beginning with C ~ Connor, Casey, Callie, Cordelia and Caitlin and this one is being called CASPER :) my dad isnt impressed and reckons he's going to think of the cat everytime he looks at the baby!!!! I love the name tho!!! ( i dont remember the cat to well and dont really associate names with anything)

Oops - guilty as charged!

I named my cat Harry, and previously named 2 horses I had, Jessie and Cleo. We also had a family dog called Daisy when we were kids.

My 2 are Archie and Dennis, and my mum's dog is Toby. Archie was originally Arthur, but ugh, that just didn't fit! And Dennis (the Menace!) very nearly got called Randy, but we fixed that!

But my MIL's choccy lab is called CoCo - he was once known as Bournville...! :o

Our weim is called Amelie, she had already started to respond to it so we kept it. Lots of grumpy looks from mums of under 5 girls in the park :o

My B/SIL called their daughter Lucy (lovely name) after hesitating as that was already the name chosen by my PIL for their cocker spaniel. In the end they decided they loved the name, that they only visit the in-laws once or twice a year, and that Lucy will have her name a lot longer than the dog will.

So when they come to visit we use the names Lucy and Lucydog and everyone's happy!

Our three greyhounds were named when we got them. It makes life interesting as one is called Andy while DH is Andrew...

I've always used human names for pets but always choose weird ones that are unlikely to be used by friends or relatives naming their babies - e.g. my dog is called Horace.

A close relative has called her dog Lily and talks about her as if she's her baby . She even chimes in with 'I do that with Lily' when I'm talking about typical anxious parent behaviour such as constantly checking your baby is breathing.

Whilst I've always adored our pets and seen them as part of the family, I do stop short of seeing them as actual children.

Our dogs are called Molly (12 years old) and Bella (7 years old)

cat is bridge, we always name cats in relation to the place we get them, mostly found them...
but, shamelessly, hamsters, both sadly deceased were stewart, male, and george (georgia, as female).
didn't think of them as humans or our babies, just fancy the names, they never made the shortlist for ds, though

Our cats are Amber and Loki, and the fish are Sundance, Chief II, Elmo, Danny x4, and the 'others'.

Love the name Amber, but my dad insists on calling her Freddie Both respond to Big/Little Fur and Fleabag!

I always call my Pets, human names but in a really dry sense of humour way... I had a Cat called Alan and intend to get a Dog which i want to call Steve or David.

I have found the way forward.

I have often noticed that people use my daughter's name for their cat.

I have never found this to be a problem.

wouldliketoknow - A previous cat was named Pizza after being found in a box behind Pizza Hut. She was sadly run over and became pavement Pizza

maybe the problem is people are now using dogs names as human ones ?!

My collie was called Molly - at a time when as a human name it was very old fashioned - how was I to know it would soon become a popular human name again. In my life we have had a Sue, Sam (x2), and Molly - all human names.

We had the devils own job picking a name for our dog a year ago - lots of the names we came up with also belonged to the children of people we knew and we didn't want to offend anyone by calling our dog their child's name !

We had a dog called Lucy growing up. My mum has 2 dogs called Dill and Fizz (Fizz was already named when we got him). We've had cats called Truffles, Mozzie (short for Moriarty) and Rebel. We also had a pony called Isobella (already named so) and a horse we named Cloudy.

When I was 14 and got my own kitten I called her Molly, simply because it was my favourite name at the time and I was at the time still 10 years from having kids.

Currently DH and I have 3 cats called Meg (named after Little Women character) and Fred and George (named after the twins in Harry Potter). I dont think giving them people names shows a lack of imagination personally.

I know plenty of canine milly, molly, maisie etc - I definitely think of those more as dog names. Have met lurchers called Norman and Stanley (found in Accrington) - both of which were thoroughly appropriate. I know rescues have a hugely difficult task in coming up with new, appropriate and memorable hound names so human ones are bound to come in from time to time.

Our current lovely lurcher is called maisie, and DH is stubbornly refusing to let me call our bump Daisy... I'm sure it would save time in the long run...

I wout give a dog a name that I would give a child, but I expect a lot of people would give a child a name that I would give a dog.

So really it's their fault for giving their children animal names.