what's in a name
This is part of my continuing Soul Dog Journey. If you've missed out on previous posts, feel free to click 'Soul Dog Journey Project' on the banner to see all of my past posts. This week is all about names.
My husband and I have always tried to pick unique names for our pets, and we've taken turns naming them. Our first pet together was our cat, Chex, whose name I picked. (But please don't ask me how I picked his name - it just came to me.) Next was Anya. I adopted her from a rescue while my husband was stationed overseas so I thought it was only fair for him to name her. (Her name at the rescue was Aretha and my suggestion was Brandy.) Then came Arawn. Arawn was a gift for my husband, and since we got him as a puppy, I wanted to name him something meaningful. Since he's a Belgian Malinois and my husband I both enjoy mythology, I thought a Gallic god (worshipped long ago in what is now Belgium) would be appropriate. Omega was the last pet (not including the chickens and ducks) to come into our home. My husband wanted either Omega or Ares. I didn't think Ares really fit him....plus we already had two animals with 'A' names. So Omega it became, which started the joke that we named him Omega because he was the last dog we would ever own.
nicknames
Despite having perfectly acceptable names, all of our dogs have an abundance of nicknames that get used far more often than their actual names. Most of them don't have any meaning behind them, but I enjoyed listing out all of Omega's nicknames and thinking about when we use different ones. My favorite nickname for him is "Bunny," which does actually have a story behind it.
Omega has ridiculously long legs, and as a young dog, he struggled to grow into them. When he would get excited about something in the yard, instead of running like a normal dog, he would do this silly little hop-run across the yard. I started calling him Bunny, and the nickname (along with several variations) stuck.
Here are some of our most commonly used nicknames for Omega:
- Bunny
- Omega-Bun
- Omega-Mega
- Baby Bun
- Ding Dong
- Bear / Baby Bear (my husband is the only one who calls him this)
What are some of your favorite nicknames for your dog? I'd love to hear them in the comments below.
