Why did you name your dog that name? Where did it come from and does it mean anything?
Saya is the name I wanted my female shiba to be and luckily it fitted Saya's personality.
I got the name from the anime movie and TV series Blood plus/ blood the last vampire.
I've been told the name also means me or I. forgot which..
That does fit shiba personality.
I think it means swift arrow which Saya does run swiftly and she's sharp like a arrow! :D
Bella short for Isabella is named by my mom she liked the name. I ask why she named her that and that was her response.
People always think she named Bella after twilight character she didn't know till people started asking her that. We didn't read the book or watch movies till later.
My next dog depends on gender and if personality fits her or him..
Female I'd love to name my next female dog Blue from wolf's rain anime..
Female name #2 is Ammy short for Amaterasu the sun goddess.. Male names I'm still unsure I'm thinking Tsume or Hige.
Tsume means claw and Hige means Beard or whiskers.
If I hadn't told my ex that we'd name a small, red and white male dog Conker then his name would have been one of these: Spock, Kirk or Kato, most likely Spock.
I wanted to name my first dog Blaze instead of Jake but I lost out against my dad. Sadie... I didn't like that name, that's all I remember. I wanted Sasha's name to be Sedona and I still hate her name and most often call her Sha Sha instead.
Only two of these were actually my dogs, but I still have yet to be the one to pick the name. I don't really know what I'd name my next dog though. That entirely depends on personality.
After meeting our sassy little girl for the first time, we went home and looked around for Japanese girls' names...Azami means "thistleflower," which we thought suited her pretty darned well...pretty and prickly :P She's a snugglebug with us, but very skeptical of others, so it's held fairly true even as she gets older. Very protective.
I feel like I've told this story a lot, but here goes...
Bowdu's name means "Precious Tummy" in Mandarin Chinese. My boyfriend picked the "Bow" character and I picked "Du" because he had a big ol' puppy gut when we first got him. If you were to pronounce his name in Japanese, it would be Takahara, which is actually kind of nice.
Bowpi's name means "Precious Companion." There's a longer story behind that name, but the short version is that my boyfriend chose the sound, and I chose the characters to give her name a more elegant meaning than he had originally intended. And it fits, since she's our second dog and everything depended on how well she could get along with Bowdu. I guess you could pronounce her name in Japanese too... It'd be something like Takahi or Takahei.
The wife picked out Lucy. I wanted Sake or another Japanese name. Needless to say the better half won out. I don't see our pup as anything, but a Lucy now, though.
Inu got his name by default. My son, wife and and I could not agree on a name. We were calling him Inu in the interim and it stuck. BTW, the first Shiba I met in 1985 was named Inu. Penny was already named by the woman I rehomed her from. I guess she iis pretty as a Penny. The japanese name I gave Penny is Kimiko which means empresses daughter. This was to honor the japanese emperors daughterinlaw who as a child lived in my building.
We chose a pretty unoriginal name - Chibi, which means something along the lines of small & cute. It's a pretty common dog name in Japan and has the benefit of not being too hard to pronounce in English.
Lately though, I feel like Ganko (stubborn) might have been a better name....
Akio ran around being called puppy for about a month because we couldn't decide on a name. We had a list of about 20 names we were slowly going through. We asked friends and family about the names they liked and of course everyone loved Akio except me. I hated the name at first and couldn't get used to it. We wanted a Japanese name no matter what though and it means Bright Boy. I now love the name and couldn't see him with any other name. :P I do call him Kyo a lot from a Anime called Fruits Basket where the zodiac character Kyo was a cat.
We looked at Japanese girls names but knew we wanted something short. DD is a massive manga/anime fan and dismissed a lot of suggestions, she really wanted Haru, which means Spring, but we thought it sounded a bit too masculine or Kohaku which means Amber and is the name of her ginger cat but in the end we all agreed on Suki
We chose (well, me really) the name Uzume after going through a list of potentials and eventually settled on that one. I'm a huge Mythology nerd and I'm fascinated by just about any cultural mythologies (greek, roman, celtic, indian, native american, japanese, chinese, etc.) so I was doing some research on Shinto mythology and found the story of Uzume which goes something like this:
Uzume is the shinto goddess who was able to lure the goddess Amaterasu (aka Sun Goddess) out of her cave she had hidden herself in after a furious fight with her brother Susanoo. Of course, the world cannot live without the Sun so the other gods and goddesses tried various ways to lure her out but nothing worked. So Uzume had the brilliant idea to make a spectacle of herself by dancing on an overturned washtub and throwing off her clothing until she was naked. The other deities laughed so much that Amaterasu opened the cave to see what all the fuss was about and the gods then closed the cave before Amaterasu could retreat.
I wasn't sure if the name was appropriate but Zume does little dance-like moves and really tends to showoff so I think she's kind of earned the name. We *almost* named her Killian, after the Irish Beer, but thought better of it as her nickname would most likely be "Kill". It would've been cool if we'd also gotten a black and tan shiba and named it "Guinness." But, I have a tendency to name pets after gods/goddesses. My first dog (a black lab) was named Nike. Not after the shoe, like so many people assumed (although that didn't prevent us from giving her nicknames like "Nike AIr!"), but after the Greek Goddess of Victory. The hubs prefers the slightly more amusing names. He got to name our two cats Null and Void (sisters). His reasoning is that he always wanted to have two black cats named that because 1. he's a huge geek and 2. he thinks it's hilarious.
My first dog, rough collie, was named Rain after the character Rain in the manga Immortal Rain. My second dog, a Borzoi, was named Cairo after the Egyptian city. He was black and reminded me of the Anubis statues you would see near the pyramids. My cat is named Dexter after the TV character Dexter in Dexter. My shiba's name is Kishi after Kishi-joten. I believe she is the goddess of luck, beauty, and the geishas.
Katsu's full name is Katsu Tonkatsu, her AKC name is NIji's Victorious Panko Breaded Porkchop. Katsu means victory, and TonKatsu is a breaded porkchop. Dawn liked the sound of the name and I thought it was funny. Plus shibas look like porkchops. White underneath with a gold brown/reddish coating. Her nick names are baby, bitch, peanut,princess, stinkbutt, and bitch.
Tanuki's full name is Tanuki Bunbuku Chagama, or Bali Hai's Happy Racoon Teapot. He's named after one of my favorite kid's stories growing up about a racoon dog who turns into a teapot. I think his name means Racoon dog happiness bubbling over like a teapot, or something like that. The name fits him. He has the same mischevious but stupid personality of mythical Tanukis minus the large testicles. His nick names are THE Man, Mannington, zhu zhu man, man man, Nuki, Nuki man, Fuzzbutt.
Our cat is named Calypso after the character from Pirates of the Caribbean. She's a calico, so I thought of Calico Jack which meant a pirate so she got a name from a pirate movie. I wanted to call her Major General Rhombus Mcnugglet but was shot down by my wife. Her nick names are skitty skat and THAT FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS CAT.
I named Scout after Miss Jean Louise Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. Figured Shibas were crazy, feisty and intelligent and the name fits her perfectly.
Shadow I named after an uncle I never knew, he was killed in WWII but the family talked about him a lot so it was my small way of honoring him. My Shadow lives up to his name as, unlike Scout who is the more typical aloof Shiba, he follows me anywhere and everywhere.
Sakura means Cherry Blossom, it is also a very common name for first born daughters in Japan, Sakura is our first 'child'. If I can convince my husband someday we are going to get either an akita or another shiba (black and tan likely). His name would be Ryuu, which means dragon and I think fits the shiba personality well.
Im going to include my parents dog as well, since he kinda is mine. I named him and his name is Neemo (two e's to distinguish that he is NOT named after the fish). He is named after Captain Nemo from 20,000 leagues under the sea. Captain Nemo is insane... and so is the lhasa apso, also very determined.Stefanie & Sakura Twin Cities - MN
Nami means wave in Japanese. We thought it would be a nice name for a shiba, just like a wave she can be soft and gentle or can cause terror. We got it from anime One Piece. The character is a red head with a tough stubborn attitude, fits our puppy really well.
My husband named Elwood after one of the main characters in the movie the Blues Brothers (Elwood Blues). I wanted to name him Aiden (which means 'little fire' in Gaelic & seemed like the perfect name for a red Shiba) but got overruled since I named our first dog. Turns out the name Elwood suits him pretty well, though, since he's a huge goober :-)
Our Pomeranian is named Sadie, which means 'princess' in Hebrew, and she is certainly a spoiled little princess.
We named our guy Kuma, because it means bear an his fur feels just like one of those teddy bears you get for a gift that your "not supposed to play with"
I named Kenzo after the Japanese Fashion Designer - Kenzo Takada. Takada created a fashion house in Paris (which still operates with a new head designer) after starting out in Japan and moving to France. He's since retired and sold the house to LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy). You might recognize his fragrances (the most successful line as of late). And now I'm going to stop with the fashion nerd out.
I thought it would be fitting as I studied Japanese in university, but am in love with fashion. I plan on getting some fancy schmancy dog tags with the kenzo logo on it and kenzo in Japanese below it. I've been waiting on it because I'm a bit hesitant about dropping $75 on 3 badass tags.
I Finally decided to call my puppy Hachiko after the famous Akita Story name Hachi. if you haven't seen the movie yet.. You have to watch it! I can't believe it's actually a true story.
My husband and I will be seriously considering the name Zim for a boy or Tak for a girl if we get a Shiba. Those are the names of two Irken invaders from the show Invader Zim that was on Nickelodeon a few years back, both of whom were intent on taking over Earth. Since we figure that world domination is probably near the top of any Shiba's to-do list, both of these names seem like they would be very fitting.
Alternately we're considering Japanese names. Ryosuke (after Ryosuke Takahashi from Initial D) or Sesshomaru (after the dog demon from Inuyasha) for a boy, or Rin for a girl (after the little girl from Inuyasha).
And yes, we name all of our pets after television characters.http://obeytheshiba.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/OBEYZIM
Our first shiba was something of a rebound puppy for my fiance, as the dog he had grown up with had died about 6 months previous, and we had been thinking about getting a dog for a while. The dog he had was a boston terrier named Chance after the dog in the homeward bound movie (he was six, what can I say?) In any case, we fell in love with our little 9 week old shiba puppy and took her home, and thought on it (we're slow about naming, we want it to match the animal, so we have to get to know them a little first) and I got the idea to name her Kismet, which is... I want to say Sanskrit for "Fate", so we had chance and fate.
When we got our second shiba, I was trying to sooth her every which way and I kept catching myself calling her "mei mei" without meaning to, which is "little sister" in Mandarin. She's also a day younger than Kismet. On introducing the two pups, they immediately went nuts playing and wrestling happily for the next year or more, and we were making jokes about how she was causing a melee, so we decided to name her that, since the "mei" was still there, and make it spelled out like it was just pretty Chinese, so she is Mei Lei.
My cat is named Exile, because I found him looking for my first car at 15, I found him in an abandoned in an abandoned Toyota Camry XLE. We think he was either first first or the last kitten being moved by a cautious mother, and somehow was left behind when the car was moved. We wasn't even weaned at the time, I had to teach him to drink out of a saucer...
Interesting discussion, Sakura's name was chosen mainly as a pretty Japanese girl name. As said earlier by Adonia1986 it means cherry blossom. I am half Japanese so I felt it best to name our Japanese breed dog along the same lines. It suits her very nicely for us but many people we meet find it difficult to remember or pronounce if we see them again.
We are 2 weeks away from getting our second Shiba. He is black and tan. The name we have chosen for him is Kuma. Also a fairly popular Japanese name for Shiba's and as said above it does mean Bear. Can't wait to bring him home. His name was chosen based upon his colouring and it being a boyish name too.
I decided to name Hobbes after the toy tiger from Calvin and Hobbes. Yes Hobbes is a tiger, but throughout the comic book, Hobbes serves as a best friend as well as a tormentor of sorts. In doing my shiba research, it seemed alot of folks had a hard the occasional hard time but that they also thoroughly enjoyed their shibas!
Okami means wolf in Japanese and Amaterasu is the name of the Japanese sun goddess. Amaterasu's original name is Amaterasu Omikami...so the name I chose is a twist on the original. Amaterasu has also been depicted in the form of a white wolf, hence the name.
My goal, one day, is to have a male, black and tan shiba named Kitsune Tsukuyomi. Kitsune means fox and Tsukuyomi is the Japanese moon god.
We looked at a Japanese Baby name website as well. We kind of liked "Mayumi" which means *True Bow* (as in Bow and Arrow). However I changed it from "Ma" to "Mi" just because I liked the way it sounded better. There are different ways you can spell it in Japanese which have slightly different meanings. You can spell it as "Fruit/Nut/Seed + Bow" or "Looking/Viewing + Bow" but I like "Beautiful + Bow".
Miyumi
Heather, Logan, and two Shibas named Miyumi & Yoshiro
I decided to name Etsuko a Japanese name, considering that the breed is of Japanese origin, I first encountered the Shiba breed in Japan, I'm very interested in Japanese culture and have visited many times and I had wanted to teach Etsuko Japanese from the get go, so it all went hand in hand.
Originally her name was Violet, though she didn't seem to care for the name at all. After starting to call her Etsuko, through training and daily interaction she came to love her name and now she knows that she IS Etsuko.
Etsuko means "delightful child," as Etsu means "delight" and ko is like a suffix for kid's names, meaning child. I think it comes from the word for children, kodomo. So Etsuko, comes to mean delightful child. Other examples of these types of names are Reiko, Yoko, Yuko, etc...
A friend saw a picture of Shiro before I got him and mentioned that he looked like a little polar bear. I looked up what that is in Japanese and it is shiro kuma. So I named him Shiro (Kuma is his last name lol). It wasn't until later that I found out Shiro means white. Russia (Siberian Husky) was named after the country and Bailey (Siberian Husky) after the color he was when he was a pup. He changed color though and is grey now. :)
^^^ Darn, I was kind of looking forward to re-naming him "Baka Unko..." Honestly though, I was kidding with my question. I'm sure dogs could not care less whether their name is Japanese, German, or whatever else.
My boyfriend I have decided to name our 8 week old girl "Kira". We spent weeks agonizing over names, and finally found one that we both liked. It's a nice unisex name. To me, it reminds me of the female gelfling character from "The Dark Crystal", one of my favourite childhood movies. Also the main male character from Death Note. To Tyrell, it reminds him of the female character from Star Trek (he's a huge Trekkie *eyeroll*). And in Japanese it means "glittery", "sparkly", or "shiny". Just feels like a nice fit for us!
AWE46M3, I did fail to mentior however that I have a friend with a German Shepard... who will mostly ignore you if you speak english, but utter German and you have his full attention. No real reason for it either. You could always have Baka Unko be a middle name... :)
I got the name from the author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley. It seemed appropriate seeing as Hux is my first dog and it truly is a brave new world for me.
We missed the boat. Everyone had so much fun naming their friends!
Luka and Wickit were both rescued (6 months and about a year old) and responded descent to their given names, so we left the subject alone.
The funny part was someone told me a couple years ago that we must really like Star Wars. We didn’t understand at first, but there is an Ewok from Star Wars (little furry guys from the movie) named Wicket and of course, Luka, for Luke Skywalker. You have to love goofy coincidences. I don’t see the resemblance though. :D
Ichiro (AKA Chiro) is our first dog and given that his names means first born son, we thought it fitting for him. Oddly enough I thought people would really struggle with the name, heavens knows my parents do! (They refer to him as Taco for some reason I’ll never get.) Imagine my surprise when I tell local dog-parents his name and usually the husband pipe up “Oh! Ichiro, yeah…. Cool. You like baseball?” I was clueless until I found out about Ichiro Suzuki, who has a shiba himself. Funny note – when we took Ichiro to “Dog Days” at White Sox US Cellular park, we got him a Mariners bandana to wear. People asked about it, and we explained that while WE are Sox fans, our dog was a HUGE Mariner’s fan.
Akira (AKA Kira) was named after Akira Kurosawa by the rescue she was born to. She’s got a funny story… Her mom was a retired breeder from a mill who was released to SIRA here in IL. The gal who was fostering her was surprised (to say the LEAST!) one January evening when her foster dog went into labor and had smuggled 4 puppies out of the mill. We put in an application for adoption and were lucky enough to bring Ichiro over to the foster home and let him have first pick of the puppies. He and Kira hit it off from jump street and have been thick as thieves ever since. (Oh, my parents call her Loco, so our dogs are Taco & Loco to them!)
Jenn & Stephen (humans), Ichiro & Akira (shibas), Abraham & Anya (cats)
When I was looking into getting a dog I knew I wanted a black male German Shepherd. I already had 2 cats named Chaos and Wicked so I wanted to stay with that theme. One day I was listening to the song Hero/Heroine by Boys Like Girls and the lyrics were "I'll keep a sinister smile and a hold of my heart" I liked the sound of sinister so I named my male Sinister.
When I got my black female German Shepherd I wanted something that went with the names of my other animals Chaos, Monster, Sinister and Wicked so I named her Malice.
My next dog wont be for at least 4+ years and it will be a male Dalmatian that I will name Havoc.
Later in life I want 3 Shibas and I will name them Kiba, Kina and Kitana. :)
Lauren
Sinister ~ 3 yr old black male GSD 3.11.09 Malice ~ 9 mth old black female GSD 6.19.11
We've got 2 names lined up for when we get our shiba. Assuming the name fits, our plans are as follows: If its a boy: Data (with a long A sound), named from Star Trek Next Gen. Both for the character's intelligence, and a fervent hope that the good nature will rub off on the mischievous pup. Also, in a more round about way, after Ein from cowboy bebop. Also a small obscenely intelligent dog, a data dog. So, Data.
We were also considering Hige or Kiba from Wolf's Rain. But Data has a much higher priority. :P
If its a girl, it may still be Data, but we're also considering: Toboe, from Wolf's rain. Again more with the optimistic good will vibe, or I wanted to play with Kitsune in some way, but it seems like it'd be a pretty common name for a shiba.
When we first considered adopting a shiba, we thought we'd have a girl and my husband always wants a daughter named Sakura. It turned out we've got a boy instead of a girl, so we named him "Saku"!!! Heehehhe...it means "blossom" or "Remembrance of the Lord". He really lives up to his name. He is out-going, extremely playful and has a large personality!
Our second shiba is a girl. We thought long and hard this time. We wanted to name her Sakura but worry it might confuse the dog since their name is so similar. So we went through a Japanese baby girl name. "Minako" stood up! It means "beautiful child" and we call her Mina for short! She is a lovely and sweet girl just like her name!
My boyfriend is a huge Bleach fan so we decided that we needed to steal a name from there. We chose Benihime because I thought it was pretty but it turns out it means "crimson princess" so it is quite fitting. Her name usually gets shortened to Hime which is perfect because she is a Spoiled little princess. :)
