Pet Peeve

There are some good pet names out there, but often people don't seem to put a lot of effort into naming pets.  Sometimes it's due to letting the kids name the pet, in which case you'd expect to get a simple "Snowball" or "Fluffy" or the like.    But a lot of times it's just choosing something fast and easy.  Out of curiosity I looked up the most popular pet names in the U.S. (they must be accurate, as they come from bowwow.com):

1.  Max          6.  Smokey       11.  Molly            16.  Patch

2.  Tigger       7.  Maggie        12.  Bailey          17.  Lady

3.  Jake         8.  Bear             13.  Sassy          18.  Lucky 

4.  Tiger         9.  Sam             14.  Shadow      19.  Sadie

5.  Buddy     10.  Kitty             15.  Simba         20.  Misty

Now I know that since these are the most popular names, you wouldn't expect to see the imaginative and uncommon ones on the list.  Yet the point remains that not a lot of time goes into the selection of pet names.  Of course, giving a lot of time to the task does not insure good names- witness people with names like Colin and Fanny- but at least take some time to see the personality of the animal.  There are even pet name books now for the truly uninspired.  Sometimes pets are obtained in pairs and get "couple" names, like Rocky's fish Cuff and Link.  Those can be cute, as long as they're not overly intellectual or trendy. One thing, though.  If a child ever brings home an animal, don't let him/her name it.  As soon as it has a name, it's yours.