Kristina writes:
Hello Swistle!
Though I am not expecting, I follow your blog religiously and am known to say things like “Well Swistle says…” when talking to friends about baby names. My boyfriend and I have been talking about future baby names and we don’t agree on almost anything. During a discussion, the name Annabelle came up and he actually liked it! This coming from a man who suggested Linda, and followed up with “What’s wrong with Linda?”*Annabelle was the name of my dog we had for 15 years from when I was 1 to 16. We called her Annie and I loved her. But, because we had her for so long, my family and many of my friends know we had a dog named Annabelle. Would it be too much to use for a baby? Have any of your readers named a Max or Charlie or Daisy after having a childhood pet of the same name?
Thank you for your thoughts!
Kristina*What IS the deal with Linda? It seems like it should work, has the LIN of many popular names and the -a ending of Emma and Amelia and Sophia, but no one uses it!
Let’s start with what the deal is with Linda. I’d say the primary deal is that it was in the Top 10 from 1940 until 1965 (it’s famous for being the name that finally booted the name Mary from its long-held #1 spot), so it’s a Mom Name or a Grandma Name now. It’s very likely to come back into style, but not yet; I’d look for it among your grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
A secondary issue is that although it ends in -a, what it really ends in is -da. The -da ending is not currently in style: Melinda, Miranda, Belinda, Ida, Wanda, Lucinda, Brenda, Amanda, Freda, Glenda, Hilda, Rhonda, Rhoda—all names to look for again in the future, but not popular right this minute. The only ones I can think of that would be fashionable for current babies are Matilda and Ada. Matilda is a bit of a style outlier: fashionable in part because it’s not fashionable; Ada is likely piggybacking on the popularity of Ava.
And although the name Linda has the Lin- sound, it has it at the beginning of the name, when the current fashion is more likely to have it at the end.
I think it would be fine to use a childhood pet’s name. Pets, I’ve noticed, often get the names that are just about to come into style: the ones that still seem a little too out-there to actually use for a baby, but in about ten or fifteen years will be THE hit names. (Plus, many people acquire animals before they have children, and use their favorite names without thinking ahead.) I named cats George and Oliver, names I thought were safe because I wouldn’t ever want to use them on a baby—until about fifteen years later, when I was agonizing to Paul about how we just COULDN’T use those names…could we? We decided no, not while the cats were still on this mortal coil. But it was mostly because Paul said his mother would never let us hear the end of it. “She’ll say, ‘The boy who was named after a cat, har har!,’ and she’ll keep saying it,” said Paul convincingly. If it hadn’t been for that, we might have gone ahead: the cats’ time with us was bound to be shortish at that point, and I didn’t think anyone else would give us any trouble about it.
But if we’d wanted to use the names of our childhood cats (well, the names of MY childhood cats: Paul’s cats were named Licorice and Butterscotch and you will NEVER GUESS what colors they were, oh wait you will guess instantly), we definitely would have gone ahead with that. For one thing, at this point I find I don’t really remember the names of my friends’ childhood pets; my guess is that most other people aren’t keeping that information on file either, or even remembering the names of our CURRENT pets. But if I imagine one of my friends using the name of a pet for a child, I can’t picture myself having much of a reaction to it: mild interest, followed by forgetting about it. If I used such a name, I’d be prepared for a brief startled reaction (“Like Annie!!”) and perhaps a brief conversation on the interesting topic, but that’s it. I would think ahead of time of some Things To Say, such as “I know! But we loved the name, and of course Annie just made me love the name even more.” It helps in this case that you called her Annie: perhaps many people will remember her that way, and not even make the connection with the name Annabelle.
I too would be interested to know if anyone here has in fact named a child the same name as a childhood pet. I’d like to hear the stories: if you struggled with the idea of using a former (or current) pet’s name; what the reactions were and how quickly that stopped; etc.
I had a beloved dog named Bear. He was a huge Mastiff/Rottweiler mix full of slobber and 140lbs of loving personality.
He died when I was pregnant with my younger son.
I named my boy Theodore.
Theodore led to Teddy.
Teddy lead to Teddy Bear.
Now, most of the time, we call my son Bear.
And, it makes me happy.
It is not only a suiting nickname for my sometimes Grizzly Bear, sometimes Honey Bear three year old – it is a reminder of my first ‘kid’ before I had human kids.
Yes, we had a few surprised comments about calling my son the same nickname I called my dog, but it was more just an amused comment and the issue was quickly forgotten.
I think you might THINK you would name a baby Annabelle but, like Swistle, when it’s an actual human about to be born instead of some theoretical future baby you would decide against it. If I were family or an acquaintance who knew about the pet I would think it was very, very strange.
I know/know of a few people who named their kids the same name as their childhood pets. It’s seemed to be fine for them. If you still love the name when you are pregnant, I don’t see an issue with it.
One of the VERY few names my husband and I agreed on when I was pregnant with my first was Abigail, but I couldn’t pull the trigger because his grandma’s much-beloved dog was named Abby, and the 50+ aunts and uncles and cousins who loved her all live within five miles of our house (and the dog) so they had spent a huge amount of time with the dog. I think the biggest problem was actually that the dog had only just died a few years before that, and little cousins were still actively drawing sad pictures for the fridge about how they missed Abby so much. I thought it might be weird for one of those relatives to hang the baby announcement with a picture of my baby Abby next to a picture of the dog Abby their kids drew while crying. :/ I think what I’m trying to say (in the longest way possible) is that time is probably one of the biggest factors here. If the dog had died 20+ years ago, it might have made it possible for me to use the name.
Our dog was named Emily. For me, I would not name my daughter Emily, even though she was the most awesome dog ever. BUT, I would totally not even bat an eye if any of my siblings named their daughter(s) Emily. I would have thought it was cool. If the pet was loved, then it’s a positive name association!
I know two people that named their children after living pets. One is someone about my age. Her dad LOVED a name and named his dog that name. When his first born was born, he really wanted to name her his favorite name, and figures the old dog would be long-gone before she was old enough to realize she had the same name as the family pet. But. The dog lives a loooong time so she was something like 8 when it died. It’s a story told fondly in her family so there wasn’t any damage done.
The other is a friend about my age that named her fourth son the same name as their cat. They knew the cat would still be around for awhile but they couldn’t come up with yet another boy’s name they liked as well as the one they’d foolishly given the cat. Once when the child was about 3, he overheard the family discussing vacation and how the cat would be staying home, and since he heard his own name he became very sad thinking he was being left behind for vacation. It all became part of their family story and again no lasting harm was done.
That is SO FUNNY about thinking they weren’t taking him on vacation. Poor boy!
Your first story reminds me of my dad’s naming story! He shared a name not with his pet, but with his hometown. My grandparents moved there when my grandma was pregnant and the name of the town (well, a suburb of a larger town actually) was the name they’d been discussing for the baby. They didn’t really like living there and planned to move to a different suburb long before he would have been old enough to remember living there, but… you guessed it, my dad was Byron-from-Byron until the day he left home as an adult. He survived. (Part of the family lore about the story always involved my uncle – dad’s younger brother – being teased and told he was lucky they hadn’t named him after the county, which had a patently AWFUL name!)
I am laughing out loud at your post! About 12 years ago, we got our first pet, a cat, and named her Annabelle. Then four years ago husband’s cousin named her daughter Annabelle! It works out fine, my MIL is probably the only one who is confused at times, but no one seems to mind and it is a fun story.
Also, we named our daughter L*cy, and MIL had a much beloved dog named that, although I don’t recall how long she lived for Husband’s life–I think she passed when husband was 6 or so. At any rate, it isn’t an issue either, except for fond memories. Although the cousin with an Annabelle child also has a L*cy dog, and so does another cousin on husband’s side. One named after my daughter was born, one before. So really, I don’t think it is an issue. And I love the name Annabelle!!!
This makes me happy that all our family pets were named things like Meetz (originally “Mitts” pronounced with a Yiddish accent, this spelling became official and was used on a stream of cats none of whom had socks after the first one), Muffin, and Bonzo.
My aunt used two of her favorite names on her cats, Katie and Chelsea a couple years before they had children. When it came time to name their third child (second daughter) they decided to use their favorite name, even though the cat was still living– so my cousin Katie (her full first name, not a nickname) grew up with a cat named Katie. It was something we noticed but then more or less forgot about and it didn’t seem to be a big deal.
We had a cat named Benjamin Franklin when I was young. He died long before any of us started having children. My sister named her son Benjamin and I never gave it a second thought until reading this post.
I don’t think it is that big of a deal especially if the pet is no longer living so that name confusion is avoided.
My dad had a dog named Susie when he was a child and then 30+ years later, my sister was named Susan. Never a big deal. My sister was never called Susie, but once in awhile the dog Susie would come up and it was just a sweet association, nothing bad.
I do have a friend who *inadvertently* named her son after a dog! Her husband was named Buddy E. after his dad, Buddy Something-or-other, and was always called by his middle name E. So when their son was born they carried on the tradition and named their son Buddy J. and called him J. AFTER the kid was named, my friend asked her husband how the whole Buddy thing got started and only then learned that the very first Buddy in the chain… was a dog.
Hahahaha!
I honestly don’t remember the names of my childhood friends’ pets. I remember some from my family, but the animals had names like Whiskers and Trinket. Our family did have lizards though, each named Josh. They’re all dead now, so I think it would be slightly amusing to my immediate family if I named a son Josh, but it wouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand, the beloved box turtle, Ted, lives on. I couldn’t name a kid Ted because of him.
I think it’s odd if the animal is living still or JUST died, but other than that no one will think much of it after a moment.
When she was in college, my mom (an English major) got a cat that she named Ulysses, after the book she was reading at the time. A few weeks later, it turned out that Ulysses was pregnant, and so she became Lissa. She was my mom’s favorite cat ever, but she didn’t live very long. About 15 years later, my sister was given the same name. (My name came from my dad’s favorite Leon Russell song; youngest sister was named for a variety of tree.)
I have a good friend who named her daughter Maya and her cat (who was around for about 16 years) was named Maya. The cat was no longer with us when she named her daughter.
We all remembered her cat named Maya, but we also knew that it was one of the only names that she and her husband agreed on, and also, GIANT SHRUG. I think I would only raise an eyebrow if someone named their child a pet name that I don’t really think of as a human name. Licorice or Butterscotch would give me pause.
But. I do remember that there was one snarky mutual friend who wanted to snark about Maya (CAN YOU BELIEVE SHE NAMED HER AFTER HER CAT??), but I also remember that my response (as well as the response of other people in our friend group) was, “Yeah who cares?”
And now of course the child Maya is the Primary Maya and no one remembers Cat Maya.
I think that people generally use beloved names for pets so I don’t think it would be strange, but I’m betting there might be a snarker or two in your friend/family group. The good news is they most likely have a level of social skills that will prevent them from snarking AT YOU.
Like others, I think pet names work better as posthumous honor names. I was named after my mother’s cat, to much familial amusement but few others knew or cared. And hello, the name is Sarah and it was 1978, so whatever.
Annabelle has the same things going for it. Just be prepared for some teenage eyerolls if you ever tell your future daughter she was named after a pet :)
My sister (hi Sarah!) who lives thousands of miles away just commented and I randomly found her comment since we frequent the same blogs, so now i’ll go ahead and give the comment I had planned both directed to her AND to the blog. My lovely sister Sarah (see above) has a cat named Daphne. My parents also had a cat named Daphne before my sister and I were even born. I’ve always loved the name Daphne, and have often wondered if I could name a future daughter after not one, but two cats in the family. Now that I see/recall that my sister was in fact named after a cat, I won’t feel so bad if I do so in the future. It will be a double tradition! In fact, perhaps from now on, all daughters MUST be named after cats.
Ah, Swistle, your posts always make me smile. I would not think it was weird, especially if the dog is no longer living. I honestly couldn’t even begin to tell you the names of any of my friends pets. We just named our son Finn, and a few years earlier my sister had a cat named Finnegan, but it was something where it got mentioned one time, but not in any sort of negative way. We didn’t name him after the cat, it just so happened that Finn was my long time favourite name and darn it if I was going to let a cat keep me from using it :).
I agree the fact that you mostly called her Annie will lessen the connection for most people. I agree with Swistle most of your friends probably won’t remember the name of your childhood pet. As a test, you could quiz a few of them, or quiz yourself and see if you remember the names of pets your friends used to have. Your family will know, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal.
I considered using the name Samuel, despite the fact that we had a dog named Sam growing up & my parents had another dog named Sammie when I was an adult. Only reason we didn’t use it was because my husband just didn’t like the name. I’m pretty sure my family would have commented, but both dogs were very loved, so I think it would have been more of a sentimental “Oh Sam was a good dog. What a nice name” kind of thing. Then they would have moved on.
My SIL named her daughter Sophie. At the time, she had an old cat named Sophia. We thought it was a bit odd, but as she predicted, the cat died within a couple years and it was never a big deal.
This reminds me of the conversation between characters in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Henry: Come on, Junior.
Indiana: Will you please stop calling me Junior?
Sallah: Please, what does this mean? Always with this Junior?
Henry: That’s his name: Henry Jones, Junior.
Indiana: I like Indiana.
Henry: We named the dog Indiana.
Sallah: The dog? You are named after the dog.
Marcus: Can we go home please?
Indiana: I have a lot of fond memories of that dog.
Steve Irwin (the late Crocodile Hunter) and his wife named their daughter Bindi Sue Irwin. From Wikipedia:
Her first name comes from the name of her father’s favourite female crocodile at the Australia Zoo, and her middle name is from the family’s dog Sui, Sue. According to her father, Bindi is an Australian Aboriginal word that means “young girl.”
That’s kind of sweet and kind of weird but either way makes a memorable story. I think it’s important to point out that these are beloved pets and favorite crocodiles, not terrifying pets and hated crocodiles. That seems relevant to how “right” it feels.
My fiance had a dog named Rory (in adulthood, even), and I would totally consider that name for a baby because I love it. We quizzed ourselves on the names of our childhood friends’ pets and came up with one apiece, so I think probably only your family would remember sweet Annabelle and make the connection.
Ooh, thanks for this! I am debating the exact same thing for my theoretical second child – my beloved childhood cat had my second favourite girls name and I can’t decide if it’s too weird or not. My issue will also be with my mother, though, so I have to decide if she’d get over it or not. She has very strong opinions on names. The other problem is the cat was 17 or so when she died, so I was 25, which means most of my adult friends knew her!
My brother has the same name as one of my mom’s late pets. It has NEVER been a problem, like Swistle said, most people don’t remember the names of other peoples pets and assuming you have a baby in your twenties there will be years in between when your dear Annie left you and when you welcome the new one. That would make it similar to when my brother came along. By the way, I highly doubt my brother even knows my mom had a dog with his name.
My mom (b. 1943) is a Linda. It doesn’t really seem usable now but it makes me happy thinking of one of MY kids using it as a honor name for a daughter some day (especially as my daughter is name for my wife’s grandmother), so thanks for that thought, Swistle.
It would be interesting to know how old the poster is. The dog died when she was 16. Is she 20 now or 40? Makes a difference to me in how usable the name is. I’d say no in the first case, sure in the second case.
I had some really well-named fish in my teens and early twenties, and while I would love to use their names for future children, my husband cannot get around the fish thing! They were all shockingly long-lived, and the most recent was still around when we moved in together, so it’s pretty much the only association he has for the name. I’m still persuading him :)
Annabelle is a fashionable name right now, and if both you and your husband are on board, go for it! If the dog was named something incredibly obscure that you wouldn’t readily find on a playground that’s one thing, but I don’t think anyone would bat an eye after the initial announcement.
Whoops, I mean you and your boyfriend** not husband….read more closely, Heather! lol
Funny thing, my childhood dog growing up was named Jasper… she was female! Always thought it was a cool name, and then it gained popularity when Twilight came around, but as a male name. I think it’s always been a male name, and sounds male, but to me, it’ll always be my female dog’s name. LOL. :) I have to bite my tongue from saying “Oh, that was my dog’s name!” when I have friends suggesting the name for their own children.
Interesting topic! I love the name Frederick, but the beloved family dog is called Fred. I think I would still use it, though (in 10 years when I’m actually having kids…)
My dad actually had a cat called Jemima (my name) as a child, although I wasn’t named after her by any means. And my mum had a dog called Gretel (my twin sister’s name)!
Offering the perspective of someone who grew up without pets–no big deal. Pets may be part of the family, but babies are more so, and I think my only reaction to the double use of the name for a pet and then child would be, “wow, they REALLY like that name”–whereas I’d have a shocked and/or curious reaction to two HUMAN sisters named Annabelle. I think the problem is almost nonexistent when the pet in question is no longer living.
My MIL has two dogs, and one of them is named Zoey. My BIL and his significant other recently had a girl and decided to name her Zoey. Everyone in the immediate family kind of snickered and went, “Like the dog?!” but that was about it. We all know Zoey is a popular baby name now.
It used to be MY top baby girl name (about 8 years ago) until I actually got pregnant and fell in love with another name. If anyone had pointed it out to me at the time, though, I would have immediately been turned off from using the name. But that’s just me.
I don’t see a real issue with it but one thing not addressed is how the actual child will feel about it once they know. Had I been a boy, I would have been named Alex. Alex was the first dog my parents owned together when they started dating. When I first found that out I was somewhat offended to to have been almost named after a dog and glad I wasn’t a boy. Now that I have my own dog and love him more than life itself I think I would have felt a little more honor connected with it :) If you love the name and it holds a special place in your heart because of the dog, I say go for it!
Sophie has been my favorite name since I was a very young child. Like, I had literally been planning to name a future daughter that since probably kindergarten. When I was nine, we got a cocker spaniel and took a family vote on the name. Someone (my mom, I think…grrr…) nominated “Sophie” and I was frantically trying to convince everyone to use the runner-up, Annie. I kept saying, “But I’m going to name my daughter that someday! We can’t use Sophie!”
Well, as it turns out, I will NOT be using that name, although I had still planned to use Sophie until very recently. I ended up having no problem naming her after my beloved childhood dog (who died about six years ago or so), but now that Sophia is SO popular (number one name!!) AND we have a relative with a little daughter Sophie, the name no longer feels usable to me. So it wasn’t the dog factor after all! :) In fact, she was SUCH a sweet dog–I now know, after having two different dogs, and my parents and brother having other dogs, that she was exceptionally gentle and loving, and I would actually consider it more of an honor name. Haha. Why not? I love animals, and we name our children after other loved family/people…why NOT a pet?
Also, my uncle named one of his sons Nick, and the family dog growing up had been Nick…in fact, my grandparents still had him when I was a baby (he was ancient by then–and dead by the time Baby Nick came along), and I honestly never even heard anyone make the connection. I think to this day, I’m the only one who has even thought about it. :)
Honestly, I think people will get over it in about 5 seconds if they make the connection. It’s not like you NOW have a dog named Annabelle. PLUS you called her Annie, which is probably what most people will associate the pet with. And, by the way, Annabelle is a very pretty name…much preferred to Linda. :)
We gave our son a shortened version of a beloved cat’s name. The cat died three years before we had the baby. Only our immediate families made the connection, but it was never an issue and the only comment we ever got was, “Kind of like the cat?” Our pet-naming style is pretty much the same as our baby-naming style. We didn’t name the baby after the cat; we just still really liked the name. We don’t look at our kid and think of the cat, either. And now our families only associate the name with the kid, not the cat. When we were having our second baby, we realized that we should have saved a name we used on our dog for her! But we drew the line at living pets; we decided against having the dog and the kid with the same name at the same time.
So when I was 8 my parents bought me a puppy. I wanted to name it Shannon after the Little Sister Babysitter Club books (obviously my fav at the time… Oh good ol’ 80s) the main characters dog was Shannon. My mother kindly reminded me I had a cousin named Shannon and that wouldn’t be appropriate. So instead we settled on Sandi, because she was the colour of sand. Well several months later, we realized that my dad’s sister (whom we hardly saw as she lived in another country) was named Sandi. Oops!!! No one in our family had ever made the connection or said anything. Even my aunty sandi. So I think there could be worse names/associations you could choose!
I did! My daughter Margaret Rose is called Maggie, and we had a dog named that when I was younger.
However, we had a lot of dogs, and they all had people names: Hannah, Emma, Maggie, Lucy, Jack, Emmett, Gabby, (Little) Ann.
It doesn’t bother me. Jack is actually on my shortlist if I ever have another boy.
Yep, named my 5 year old son the same (“normal” human) name as a beloved cat who died a few years earlier, though not as a tribute to the cat. A couple people commented and it’s not been thought of since, to my knowledge.
My mom had a cat for a dozen or so years before I was born – still alive when I WAS born – and the cat’s name became my middle name. And now it is my daughter’s middle name. I never made the association until just now.
I also strongly considered naming a boy baby after cats I had when growing up, and never really thought twice about the fact those names belonged to pets at one time. But they are all long dead, so maybe that helps.
I think it would be totally fine to use the same name especially since the cat is no longer living and had a nickname.
This reminds me of a humiliating story from when I was in third grade. Over the weekend, my family had adopted a kitten. She kept going after our shoelaces while we walked, and climbing into our shoes playing with the laces after we took them off, so I suggested to my parents that we name her Lacey. They agreed and Lacey became her name.
When I arrived at school on Monday, I realized there was a popular girl in my class whose name was Lacey, and I thought it was funny that I hadn’t remembered and named my cat that. So I went up to her, and instead of saying “Our new kitten is named Lacey too, what a coincidence!” I told her that I named my cat after her.
And then of course it was weird and later after I figured out just how weird it was I tried to backtrack but she had already told her friends and ugh. I was already a shy nerdy kid, and this misstep didn’t help things.
I mean, I was a kid, I misspoke/didn’t understand the implications of phrasing it that way, but I still feel sort of embarrassed when I think of it!
I’m so happy that this discussion was brought up. My husband and I are due in September and one of our top baby name contenders if we have a baby boy is the name Elliot, which happens to be the name of my husband’s childhood dog. He loved his dog, but also we both really just love the name too! At first, I was very turned off by the idea, bc I didn’t want our babies name to be a constant “joke” about how we “named our baby after the dog.” But the more I think on the name, the more it just starts to become our babies name and a shared memory of the dog. I also have a cousin who named their daughter Ava, which was also their previous dog’s name. I think in my opinion, if you love the name, go for it! Seeing so many positive comments on the idea makes me feel better about our baby name Elliot. Thanks for featuring this topic Swistle!!
Such a great topic.
Before my husband and I had children we got a dog and her named her Romy.
A few months later we had a daughter and named her Piper. When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I don’t know how many times I received the comment. “too bad your dog’s name is Romy, because Romy would have been cool name for your second daughter” Everyone likes how Piper and Romy sounds together. We went on to name her second daughter Felicity.
but I still get a lot of comments on how well our names flow together meaning our children and pets.
Piper/Felicity *children
Romy/Eliza *pets
I don’t think it matters, as long as you love the name and you loved your pet…so I think it’s a cute story to tell your future daughter some day.
Thank you so much for posting this! I loved my childhood dog, a girl Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Charlie. She died with I was 22. 5 years later, I am engaged and we love talking about baby names. On both sides of my family, Charles is a family name, and I have fallen in love with the name for a boy. If we have a son down the line, I find the name Charlie Johnson to be absolutely adorable, but always wondered if it would be considered weird.
Thank you for posting this and adding that the more positive association with a name, the more endearing.
One of my friends took in another friend’s cat that needed to be rehomed. The cat’s name: Bijou, same as the adoptive kitty mama’s youngest human daughter.
There’s a reason “childhood pet name” is a common security question for password reminders: nobody besides very close family is going to remember such details.
I come from a family of mostly Licorice and Butterscotch-type pet names, but I did have a cat named Blanka. When I met a friend’s newborn Blanka, the cat was mentioned as a sort of interesting tidbit, but that was it. (Hey, it means I remember her daughter’s name! I have trouble with her son’s name. I think it’s either Victor or Vincent.) And Rosina/Roseanna is ruled out for a hypothetical future child not by my husband’s childhood dog Roseanne, but by my non-hypothetical daughter’s name, which ends in -anna.
In short: I think naming after a pet is perfectly fine. (As long as the pet had a people-type name! Naming a child Mittens or Buster would be …exceedingly odd. As nicknames, though, I think even those would be fine.)
My sister named her daughter, Luci, after one of our childhood dogs. But she said we could never use the old nickname, Lucy Goosey for her daughter. Mostly she goes by Lu.
I guess I’m an outlier here. I had a beloved dog named Rosie, and it knocked Rosalind right off the list for me, even though the name is significant for me and i pronounce it differently. Rosie was Rosie, and I find it difficult to even think of giving her name to someone else, especially a child. But then, I am a strong proponent of “everyone gets their own name”. No juniors or even repeats of cousin names for me.
However, one of my good friends settled on Molly for her second daughter, and her husband never even mentioned that he’d had a dog named that. Her in-laws brought it up.
My stepsister’s middle name is Margaret, after my stepdad’s dog, Maggie. I have been trying to get my husband on board with Miles as a middle name for a potential future son, after my beloved dog. (He’s called Miles because he’s a rescue from Puerto Rico and is from many MILES away. Heh.) And my daughter’s name is Ruth, and we call her Rue, and I SWEAR I did not realize this when we decided it but: my first, beloved kitty was Pooh Bear, my two current kitties are Piglet and Owl… ooops. And I have a friend with a dog named Izzy, and her niece is Isabelle.