SALON

Friday, Mar 8, 2002 8:23 PM UTC

A boy named Rover

What do you call the baby when all the good names have gone to the dogs?

By

Topics: Noble Beasts,

I checked my voice mail this morning, and in between the one from my mother and the one from my boss was one from my husband. You wouldn’t have been able to tell it was Ray, but I could. No one else would hold the cellphone up to the car radio for a full 30 seconds to record Neil Diamond singing “Cracklin’ Rosie.”

Ray is no Neil Diamond fan, but he loves the name Rosy. We both do. I like AC/DC about as much as Ray likes Neil, but I’ll always keep the dial on “Whole Lotta Rosie.”

The name Rose is beautiful. Classic, elegant, with a great nickname — Rosy. And it’s not too popular, only 294th on a list of girl names in the morning paper.

So you’d think that when our first child — a daughter — is born this summer, we’d have no trouble picking a name. But there is a problem: We’ve already got a Rosy in the house. A 5-year-old, 50-pound, sweet-faced, black-haired dog.

Much as I love Rosy — both beast and title — I can’t name my child after a retriever-spaniel mix.

I haven’t taken a survey, but still, I’m certain I’ve stumbled on a social phenomenon here. So many people are waiting longer to have children, and making dogs their pre-kid substitute, that there must be a rash of babies out there with second-choice names. How could anyone name their kid after their dog? (Or cat, for that matter. I never should have wasted the name Isabelle on the kitty.)

For years, I’ve made secret fun of a second cousin who named her daughter Shayna. Shayna is a pretty name — literally, it means “pretty” in Yiddish — and Shayna is a pretty girl. But even now, with Shayna in her teens, I can’t help but picture her namesake, the long-departed family Schnauzer, whenever I see her.

It’s a dilemma. When I met Ray, he had a cat named Tigger. I like people names for animals, so Isabelle (nickname: Izzy) followed, then Rosy, then Elliot (dog) and Ernie (cat). Now all unavailable names. I suppose one solution may be to give your animal a human name that you could never give a kid. My friend Cindy named her cat Zoe, knowing if she has a kid it will have a B or an M name in honor of departed relatives. And my sister and her husband named their beagle Danny. A perfectly respectable name for dog or man as far as I’m concerned, but apparently not fit for their kid. My sister won’t tell me why, except to say that it has something to do with a private joke in grad school.

So I can’t name my daughter after the dog, but I do hope she has all of Rosy’s attributes — quiet, loyal, always wants to cuddle, yet playful, sweet and never bites. My child could even lick my leg when she’s hungry or rip the stuffing out of her toys — I’d probably love her all the more.

For now, we’re getting our minds around a compromise. How bad could it be if we gave her Rose as a middle name? There it would be, a beautiful touch, but nestled where it wouldn’t lead to too much embarrassment — or confusion for the dog, a loyal girl who might be driven insane by the constant calls to attention.

Amy Silverman is a staff writer for Phoenix New Times. More Amy Silverman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations