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We asked you to tell us how your pet got its name (or your car). Here are the honorable mentions. To find out who won, take a gander at Sunday's Carolina Living section in the Observer.
Nicole Sain, Lincolnton: My pet's name is ESPN. We pronounce it ES-PIN.
Barbara Venturelli, Fort Mill, S.C.: We have boxer/lab mix brothers we adopted from the York County Humane in November 2008. Louie Prima and Don Vito Secundo love each other and are smart wonderful pets that have learned many tricks already. Since we are Italians from Brooklyn we thought it was fitting to use Italian names!
Erin Steiner, Charlotte: My fiancé found our cat (as a very small yet to be weaned kitty) in the middle of a busy, four lane road. Thus, she was named Lanie. Had she been a boy, she would have been Roadie.
Sandy Moore, Mint Hill: I named my Ford Focus Roberta in honor of my neighbor who helped me pick it out. His name is Robert. My cars are always "girls,” hence the female version.
Elizabeth Bobo, Charlotte: My husband, Wayne, and I went to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Shelter about a year ago to look at the animals, mainly the cats. I saw three possibilities but Wayne liked a cat named Tater Tot because he was a biter. We finally decided to take him home but shortened his name to Tater just because it sounded good. He is the most wonderful, friendly, easy-going, loving feline imaginable.
Kevin Iliff, Charlotte: About two years ago while at an event at the U.S. National White Water Center, my wife picked out a puppy from one of the local rescue groups there. After tossing a few names around that just didn't stick I thought we should name her after the Web address for the place where we found her. The problem was I didn't have the Web site right. I thought it was www.NASHWA.com. I wasn't close to the actual site of www.USNWC.org, but upon searching “Nashwa,” we learned it was a female name in Arabic meaning ecstasy/elation. That was all the sign we needed for our little lab mix.
Stan August, Charlotte: We have a Volkswagen Pasat which we nicknamed Que. We came up with the nickname from the Spanish expression/greeting "Que Pasa". The name Que has stuck like glue and even our friends know our car as Que.
Jim Wolff, Charlotte: In the Fall of 1993, I had just accepted a promotion to the corporate offices of Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, N.Y. My wife Nancy and I had moved there from Chicago with our two children. My wife brought up the notion of getting a dog for the children as a way to make the move less painful and to help keep them entertained. My wife grew up with a dog and had a Schnauzer for much of her childhood. I grew up without a dog and did not really embrace the idea of having a pet to have to care for. Needless to say, I was less than enthusiastic about seriously looking for a family pet. My wife had researched potential dog breeds that would best fit our family's needs. She decided that a Sheltie would be the ideal dog for us. She found a breeder on a farm in Upstate New York. We went up there and saw the litter. One puppy caught our eye, as she had the most remarkable coloring and seemed very playful with the children. Upon watching my children's excitement, my defense system broke down and I wrote a check to the breeder to allow us to "hold" that particular puppy for us to pick up when the puppy was old enough to leave the mother. We drove back home that evening and began to think of all the possible names that we could give to our new puppy. As we called other family members to pass on our good news, one thing kept coming up in conversation: The fact that I continually told all of my friends and family that I would NEVER get a dog. People did not want to let the chance to tease me about my past comments get away. Several weeks later, we were driving back to the farm to pick up our new pet and a decision had to be made regarding what we would call her. Many names were discussed and bantered about. However, 16 years later, I can only recall one other name that my 3-year old son came up with. He wanted to call our new pretty female Sheltie “Monster Rat.” We passed on my son's suggestion and went with a name that seemed the most appropriate: "Never.” Today, Never is 16 and has brought the family many great memories over the years. I am not sure if we will get another dog when she passes on. However, I do know "Never say Never".
Mary Susan Frick, Asheville: My three-pound Yorkshire Terrier's name is Ihop. When I acquired this little guy, he needed hip surgery and wasn't able to use his left hind leg. I was brainstorming for a name and my friend said, "What about Ihop?" I replied, "I'm not hungry right now." She said, "Name your dog Ihop. He hops around on three legs." I love to eat at Ihop too, so the name stuck!
Patricia Teague, Taylorsville: Dinger. That is the name I call my car. Dinger. I am a woman of small stature. I cannot see over my backseat. So I constantly back into things. My rear bumper has so many scratches and dents in it, you cannot count them all.
Chris Fitch, Concord: My cats' names are Rusty and Wallace. I got them one week after he retired. They like to run real fast to the left, occasionally bumping into each other and wrecking. They haven't won a NASCAR championship, but they have won a cat photo contest.
Joanna Shook, Huntersville: My husband and I are huge fans of NBC's “30 Rock,” and I had always wanted to have a dog with a full human name, so when we finally got our Mini-Schnauzer and decided to name him Jack, the full name Jack Doggany popped into my head. As Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy might say, he has the look of a dog that will one day be the head of programming and microwave development for a major American corporation. His personality is almost as big as his namesake's, especially when he wears his necktie collar.
Walter Brown, Matthews: Our first van was blue, therefore the name Vanna Blue.
Ginnie Crouse, Mooresville: Larce, our orange tabby cat, is short for larceny because we “stole” him. My mother-in-law wanted a kitten, so my husband and I decided to get her one for Christmas. We found Larcen two weeks before Christmas, and planned to keep him a secret until Christmas Day. Well, as time drew near, we became too attached to Larcen to let him go. So, as his name says, we stole him from my mother-in-law. Don't worry though, we found another kitten for her that proved to be a perfect fit (and she never knew Larcen was supposed to be hers!)
Elna Falls, Charlotte: My cat was named Pumpkin because she was orange. Pumpkin came to my porch with Hurricane Hugo in September 1989. She and I circled around each other a long time and finally adopted each other.
Pam Gibson, Gastonia: A friend's husband, while driving on Shiloh Church Road, saw a very small puppy on the side of the highway. He stopped, fearing it would be killed, and tried to locate an owner with no avail. When he called his wife to tell her of his find, I just happened to be standing there. My friend said, "You know anyone who wants a puppy?” He brought the puppy to our office and to say it was love at first site is an understatement. The only name that ever came to mind was Shiloh. She is not "shy" but is "low" to the ground. That was three years ago and she brings us much joy.
Deborah Ray, Charlotte: My dog, an adorable chow/retriever mix, is named Pick-up. He was found as a puppy abandoned in the back of our pick-up truck. Also, my car is Sven. It's a Volvo - what else would you call a Swedish car?
Sara Webb, Waxhaw: Since we live in Union County in the Marvin area off Rea Road, we named our 6-month-old Shihpoo Marvin Rea after the town of Marvin and Rea Road. He has a poodle half brother, Percy Monroe, named for the town of Monroe where we bought him.
Nikki Olliff, Gastonia: My dog's name is Chaya. In Hebrew, Chai means life. I named her Chaya on the way home from Tri-County Rescue because I hoped she would mean a lot to our family and add some "life" to our home. My husband and I had recently become custodial grandparents to our granddaughter, Claire. I later found out from my vet that Chaya also means wild animal in Hebrew! Since she's a combination of Jack Russell Terrier and Beagle, the name fits her perfectly. Also, my car, a turquoise 2003 Nissan Sentra, is named Claire-a-Quinn after my two grandchildren, Claire and Quinny.
Anna Wadsworth, Charlotte: Our energetic Miniature Schnauzer's name, Zip-A-Dee, was inspired from the song in the movie Pinnochio. My husband used to wake up our children for school, then ages 10 and 7, singing songs and pretending to be characters from Disney movies. Zip-A-Dee was a favorite morning tune, and also turned out to be the perfect name for the Christmas morning puppy that never seemed to stop moving!
Debbie Zelewski, Tega Cay, S.C.: My cat Murray was a brown tabby Maine Coon mix. He was an awesome cat named after the movie Stripes, since he was covered in stripes. Bill Murray is the star of the movie, hence the name Murray. After Murray died, a new kitty showed up at our door one day. He looks and acts very much like Murray did, so my husband and I named him MeToo for Murray #2.
Jill Santuccio, Charlotte: My 14-year-old Golden Retriever's name came from my favorite classical music composer, Anton Bruckner. I was raised by two classical musicians (my father John Santuccio was the executive director of the Charlotte Symphony in the early 1990s) and our childhood lab mix was named Rimsky-Korsakov. More recently, my parents had a cocker/lab mix named Gershwin. So we have a history of naming family dogs after famous composers. Also, my green Honda CR-V's nickname in Kermie (after Kermit the Frog.)
The Gibbs, Davidson: In 2003, with a toddler and a new baby, we were very impatient to get our newly ordered 2004 Toyota Sienna van. It was the first year of its new remodel, so they were backordered and we had to wait for months. We kept saying “When will the damn van get here?!” That resulted in out van being named “Jean Claude Damn Van.”
Carmen Ramos, Charlotte: I have two female cats. One, Miss Rudi, got her name because we adopted her right after 9/11, so we named her after NYC Mayor Rudy Guliani. (We are originally from NYC and now live in Charlotte.) The second one, Murphy, was named after my favorite show back then called "Murphy Brown.”
Phil and Nancy Kabza, Charlotte: The idea for our dog's name came from when my wife Nancy gave me a Valentine's Day present of a star named after me: With some binoculars, you can see the star Phil Dog near Procyon in the constellation Canis Minor, the small dog winter constellation's Latin name.
Several years later, weary of corporate life, Nancy said, “If you can find a way for me to work at home, you can get a dog.” So I did, and we did, and her name is Cana Carolina – Cana as a feminine name corresponding to Canis Major, the Great Dog. "You mean we're going to name our dog Dog?” Nancy asked.
So we have Cana Carolina, the Great Dog of the Carolinas, and a wonderful dog she is, a full-blooded, long-haired German Shepherd dog and a wonderful companion for us and a friend to all our friends.
