When we were looking for dog names for Koda, I was looking for names that had a nice meaning. Koda – a variation of Dakota – means friend. I think Kelly may have suggested that name because it was the name of a character (I think a bear) in a show / movie the kids watched. Our dog Pepper was named by the kids because one of the 101 Dalmatians was named that. So there is a trend there.
Columbus was named by us for his propensity to explore. That should have been a clue. We named one of his litter mates Mister because he was really well-behaved. But I didn’t choose him. I fell for the explorer.
Andy’s family always named their pets after whoever was on the cover of Time magazine when they got their dog. Fiesal after King Feisal, Lady after Lady Diana, etc. We named our first kitty that way. He was Cosby, because Bill Cosby was on the cover.
So we’ve been thinking about names. We looked at Time magazine and their covers have branched out from just people. Andy was glancing through a bunch of them online and his eyes settled on Trevor Noah. Trevor seemed nice. That was in the running.
Then I was trying to think of something related to us and, specifically, Andy. Andy likes Budweiser beer. And the puppy’s nickname could be Buddy. We both liked that, too. When we told the kids, Alex pointed out that Andy likes Corona beer, too. I told Alex there was NO WAY we were naming our puppy Corona. It might have been cute, had it not now been attached to a pandemic.
Then I looked at a bunch more English names (since the pup is an English Shepherd). I liked Shep. Andy didn’t. We both sort-of liked Lancelot (or Lance) for short. Maybe that will be a future name. Maybe Trevor will be too. Tonight I said to Andy, “I like those other names, but Buddy sounds so warm and loving.” Sort-of like a big hug. So, unless we are given one of the few girl puppies (and it didn’t sound like we would be), Buddy it is. And now we can start calling our new puppy something besides “our new puppy.”
Not original. Columbus was probably the most original name we gave one of our pets. But we could use a friend right now after losing all our pets. And, like Columbus lived up to his name, I fully expect Buddy to live up to his.
I also like that this name ties together the meaning of Koda’s name and I used to call Columbus “buddy” once in a while. “Buddy” honors their legacy.