Giving a rescue a new name

[Snooks1971]

We are in the throes of adopting a beautiful girl, Bulldog cross, 5 years old. She’s ours whatever; hook, line and sinker.
Rescue mentioned today would we think of changing her name? This hadn’t even occurred to us - her name is her name after all. They thought they would mention it because then they can start calling her by her ‘new’ name and obvs her chip would have the new chosen name.
Her name is fine btw but not one we would have chosen so now we are torn! Rescue said that most new owners don’t change names but a minority do so she mentioned it. Any advice please?

What I’m asking is changing a 5 year old dog’s name feasible?

If she's a rescue dog, can you be sure she's had that name all her life? Our beautiful rescue was picked up as a stray, so although she was about 6 when we met her (4 years ago), she'd been allocated a name by the rescue centre so had only had that one for a few months.....she didn't respond to it (and we weren't keen on it), so we changed it and she responded straight away and her recall is excellent!

A dog doesn’t know it’s name. It knows when you are calling it or commanding it. We have had 3 rescue animals and temporarily fostered another 2 whose name we never knew. Pick a word and say it with the “name tone of voice”. They all adapt. Some in an hour, some in a week. But it’s moreabout tone of voice and body language than anything else tbh.

I know it’s not the same but we changed our adult rescue cats names. We deliberately picked something that sounded a little like their old names. TBH if you pair it with treats I think most dogs would pretty soon recognises their new name!
Good luck with your new addition.

Thank you all! I can imagine that if we didn’t already know her name then she would get used to her new name! Her name is Skylar on her chip but the Rescue call her Sky. She doesn’t massively respond to either tbh! She’s more interested in snuggling in the grass and having tummy tickles

Oh bless. She sounds sweet. Needs a name to match!

Here she is ❤️

We changed ours from Alba to Alice, not a big difference but my god she wasn't an Alba!

I felt guilty, but a friend said similar to pp, that it's tone of voice and chunks of chicken that'll get them used to their new name.

We've had her three years, she also responds to:
Floopy
Fuzzy woof
Fluffy woof
Sniffs
Sniffy
Sniffaletta
Lady Woofsalot
Bunny
Lapin

This is her smiling. We are obsessed 💕

Gorgeous girl! Look at that smile!
LOOK AT THAT BELLY

She looks like she’s smiling in the one when she’s on her back. Bless her. Wishing you all the best with her.

X post with the smile!!!!

Here's ours:

A dog will learn a new name easily. They don't have an emotional attachment to it like we do. I kept my first rescues name and hated it's wished I'd changed it.

Definitely not an Alba!

Ah thank you lovely dog people. We had 2 rescue dogs about 14 years ago, one had a terrible name, but we loved him

Call her whatever you like as long as we get cute photos 😍

@elQuintoConyo I think I have fallen in love with your wiry tonguey spindly legged lady

I've just adopted an 8yr old, her name was Lily, my GD's name is Lilly, every time I told Lily to get in her bed, or put that down, little 18 month old Lilly got upset, she's too young to understand I meant the dog not her, so Lily is now Misty ....

Misty picked it up faster than I remembered to stop calling her Lily, for a while she was "LilyErMisty"

I'm sure your new pooch will be fine with a name change :-)

P.s. the rescue I foster for predominately takes strays from the pound, more than likely their previous name unknown so they all get a new name and all seem to pick it up very quickly

We were asked the same question by family members. My view was that she had lost her home and her family. I did not want her to lose her name as well.

We've had a few rescue dogs and always change their names. I like to think it symbolises a new beginning for them in their forever home.

Here's our newest arrival (youngest one yet and made of mischief!)

Lovely dog!

To the lady who's dog was the same name as her granddaughter....my brother was going to call his daughter Daisy until he was reminded that was the name of my other brother's dog. It could be chaos if at family gatherings he called out ''Daisy, come for your dinner!'' and a spaniel and a small child turned up....

We got our 4 year old rescue shih tzu a year ago this month and changed her name.

She picked it up really quickly and suits her new name much more than the one the rescue charity told us was her name.

(When we updated her chip we found our her original name was completely different anyway).

They learn a new name quickly, it's fine to change the name

We had two rescue Staffies, one after the other, both 8 when they came to us. The first was a stray off the streets and had his name (Porridge) allocated in rescue and if it hadn't been a nice name we would have changed it. The second had been called Butch all his life, we hated the name but he responded to it and it was really all he had, so we kept it.