Naming the New Furry Addition to Our Family

It is amazing how difficult it was for us to pick out a name for our new puppy. When we adopted our first dog, I knew my hubs wanted a cool, surfer name, being a cool surfer dude himself. I really, really, really wanted to name him after Sirius Black because he was a black dog and he looked a lot like what Sirius looks like when he’s Padfoot. But no, hubs didn’t like that. So back to surfer names. During the first five minutes of thinking of names I thought of “Brody” and it was like no other name could do once my hubs heard it. He was going to be our little bro!

So this time I insisted on a literary name. He got his cool surfer name, I get my nerdy name! Wisely, the hubs agreed. Our new puppy is a miniature schnauzer (mixed with some other tiny breed) so I wanted an appropriate name for him. He’s mostly grey with some white and brown in his scruffy coat. Now I had to decide which book to choose from.

I checked Neil Gaiman, but most of the guys in his books have normal names, well except for Bod, but that wouldn’t work. So I went to Tolkien. I really liked a lot of those names: Pippin, Gimli, Frodo, Bilbo, Samwise, even Gandalf the Grey! Hubs really only liked Samwise, but I knew it would bug me if people started only calling him Sam instead of Samwise. So we moved on.

Next we went to Shakespeare, but the only name we both liked was Puck. It seemed fitting, we both liked it, but we didn’t have that “Yes!” moment like we did with Brody. So we kept looking. I stopped on The Labyrinth for a moment – I know, not a book, a movie, but it’s my favorite so I had to! But the only names that work (in my opinion) were Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo and Ambrosious. Hubs didn’t like any of them – I think because I kept saying “Ludo” as Ludo says it in the movie: Luuuuudooooo (in a deep creepy voice). I also thought of Jack for Jack Skellington but there are a lot of dogs named Jack.

Logically we went to Harry Potter. It is amazing how many options for names there really are in those books when you take the time to think about it. So I’m just going to write out the list for you to see what we were debating over:
 1. Sirius (of course I wanted it, but our dog Brody would’ve been a more appropriate choice for this name)
2. Draco (I’ve always liked this form of “dragon” but I would’ve liked it better if he’d been an all-white dog)
3. Malfoy (It’s a cool name, right? But see argument above)
4. Lupin (our little puppy looks like a little wolf right now, but that might not last)
5. Fang (Our dog shouldn’t be more than 20 inches tall – how funny would this be? But Fang Granger sounded off – yes, we’re that lame about this)
6. Scabbers (He’s scruffy looking, it works, but… eh?)
7. Merlin (short for Merlin’s beard! Schnauzers eventually have long beards when they get older! So funny and a historical figure in Harry Potter’s world and I love the stories of Camelot)
8. Weasly (The best family ever!)
9. Fawkes (It’s a cool name and it’s after Guy Fawkes, doubly cool!)
10. Hagrid (Another funny one, name the tiny puppy after a half giant!)
11. Neville (the underdog that became the cool hero! I really liked it, but hubs wasn’t too keen.)
12. Niffler (bet you forgot about these cool things, huh? But hubs strikes again. Which was fine, I wasn’t that excited about it.)
13. Fletcher (Mundungus Fletcher – also means someone that steals stuff – we both liked this one, it was from Harry Potter but not obvious and it was a cool name)
14. Norbert (ruled this one out because he becomes Norberta later)
15. Filius (I liked this because it’s the little charms professor’s first name, but I didn’t want people to call him Phil)
16. Kingsly (Loved this! Loved it! But I didn’t want people to call him King and hubs admitted he would probably be the first to do so.)
17. Grimm/Grimmwald (Hubs loved the name Grim and I thought Grimmwald would be a good homage to Sirius but again our dog Brody would’ve been a better fit for this name)
18. Hos (Heir of Slytherin – Hilarious for a tiny dog but I didn’t really like “Hos” and it would be a long explanation)
19. Muggle (We both liked this, but our neighbor has a dog named Mr. Muggles, too close)
20. Paddy (short for Padfoot – Another good one but not the “Yes!” moment)
21. Fluffy (You and I would know it was for Hagrid’s three-headed dog, but most people wouldn’t get it – it would just sound like one of those frivolous tiny dog names)
22. Bane (Eh, liked it, but…)
23. Firenze (We both liked it, but it’s a little awkward. You’d be amazed how many people can’t pronounce Granger in spite of Hermione Granger, I can’t imagine Firenze)
24. Felix (for the potion, but its kinda average)

 Anyway the list goes on for a bit so eventually we started crossing off names and we came to the top five:
1. Fang
2. Merlin
3. Fletcher
4. Kingsley
5. Grimmwald

 Hubs saying he couldn’t keep from calling him “King” eliminated Kingsley for us. Then realizing that our big black dog would’ve been better for any of the Sirius or Grim related names eliminated Grimmwald for us. Hubs really, really liked Fang, but I wasn’t sold.

So we were down to: Fletcher and Merlin. Hubs finally said he liked Merlins Beard Granger best. The idea that he’ll have a long beard when he’s older just cracked him up. So! I give you, Merlin!