The Naming Of The Animals

Ogden Nash had a poem about Adam and Eve naming all the animals God created. Adam was (according to Nash--I'm not bashin' here!) a typical man: "Dog." "Cow." "Pig."

Eve, on the other hand, made everything more difficult. Why? Just because: "No cats or bats or rats. No sir!"
Eve had to have hippopotamus, and orangutan, and rhinoceros.

I find I am more like Eve. The kidlets got a guinea pig last summer. They call her "Nutty" because she is cute and sweet and brown. I, of course, suggested her "full" name: Hazelnut Frangelico. Pretentious? Moi?

My two dearly departed doggies were also over-monikered. When we brought the first one home, we lived with him for a while to see what name might fit. It soon became apparent that everything we called him started with a "B:" Buddy, Buster, Big Boy, Boo Boo. He was a tiny little guy, small enough to fit in my hand, and a purebred Lhasa Apso. His name ended up being "B. Baxter Bentley" where the "B." stood for all the other names we called him. He recognized "Bentley."

Two years later, we got a second pup, another tiny Lhasa, female this time. Her name became "Hadley v. Baxendale" after the case I had to stand up and explain (in Paper Chase fashion) in my first year contracts class. She accumulated numerous nicknames, which ended up strung together behind the "v."

No--it's silly. You don't really want to know.

Really. It's really silly.

Okay, if you insist:

Hadley Virginia Ice Cream Mudpack Ding Dong Helicopter Kumquat Toothpaste Swordfish Trombone Oxymoron Junebug Double Chocolate von Baxendale.

I told you it was silly.

So, as I come closer and closer to actually needing another dog, I'm giving the subject of names some thought. I don't want to be too pretentious--okay, I don't want to be more pretentious than I already am. The Bunny wants to get a white dog and name it "Snowball" which is just too pedestrian for my taste.

So, where do I turn for a really good source for dog names? I've dropped out of law, so legal jokes, cases, phrases, etc. are no good. I did have a friend in law school who named her dog "Reinquist." She had to discipline him with a stinging dissenting opinion.

Maybe literature, since I still love that. But I have a hard time thinking what book/author/reference would possibly be my favorite. "Bronte" maybe? "Thackery?" "Jasper Fforde?"

The hunt continues.