What Else Do You Call Your Dog? – Clever Call Names

By Chris Robinson

Nicknames. Americans have a penchant for them. We give them to children, ourselves via computer names, friends, enemies, vehicles, cities and towns. The style and diversity of nicknames is limited only by our imaginations. And, for better or worse, our nicknaming skills reach their zenith (or in some cases, their nadir) in how we refer to our dogs.

By dog nicknames, I don’t mean the commonplace call name stuff–Bob, Rex, Spike, Lady or Daisy–as these are often a derivative of the dog’s registered name. My young Chesapeake, for example, has as his fancy name Sprucegrove’s Rippling Waters Pro Bono and his official call name is simply “Bo.” But, on occasion that morphs into “Bobo,” “Bo-man,” “Bomeister,” “Bozo” (when he’s being stupid,) and “Mouse.” The latter name is a result of his many vocal variations which range all the way from his deep “Halt! Who goes there?” challenge to a high pitched squeak, like a mouse, when he’s really excited or happy. Now and then “Mouse” becomes “Bomouse.” One of my Brittanys had the call name of “Belle.” But, she was often called “Birdo” from her formal name of Sprucegrove’s Burden of Proof, “Birdy, “Birdwoman,” “Abu, the tiny terrorist,” “Boo,” “BooBoo” and “Boo Babe.”

Nicknames can be whatever we want them to be. They can be added to a dog’s registered name or be a play on it. They can describe physical traits, heritage or an oddball feature. They can make at least some sense or be total nonsense, be names that we deliberately create or that just pop into someone’s head. We use some of those names in public, some around close friends and there are some that are reserved for private use which are often so silly we’d be embarrassed to have anyone but the dog hear them or so profane that they’d also be an embarrassment if they were used in front of anyone other than a longshoreman, a Marine Corps drill instructor or a Navy master chief, or they can be a combination of silly and profane.

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Posted by Alex on Oct 3 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.