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Ask GeekGirlCon: What geeky names and nicknames do you have for your pets?

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by GeekGirlCon Manager of Editorial Services Adrienne Roehrich

I’ve mentioned before how much the GeekGirlCon staff loves animals! And, of course, we give our pets geeky names. So I asked the team what monikers we have for those in our lives, whether official or nicknamed we’ve—because one of the joys of companionship is using terms of endearment.

My own family loves animals. We almost always have a menagerie. We’ve had kitties named Ytse (after a song), Puppy (because as a college student I thought having a kitty named Puppy was funny and we called him Puppy-cat), Korben (named after Korben Dallas from The Fifth Element and of course called her Korby),  Jam (the other half of the song and called him Jammy), and Boo (short for Peek-a-Boo—my kids were young, calling her Boo-boo). You can see we like naming after our music geekiness and from our favorite characters. Other than a lizard named Liz (ever watched The Magic School Bus?), we had frogs named Yoda, Darth Vader, and Leia. I bet I don’t have to tell you where those come from. Liz has an expected lifespan of 35 years, and he is now about 5. He’s just cranky enough to live that long. Sadly, all our other kitties, frogs, hermit crabs, and parakeets have gone.

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D’Argo and Vala

Currently, D’argo and Vala, two boxers, are companions in our home. Do these names sound familiar? My favorite television show of all time is Farscape. When we got D’argo, it seemed like he fit the character, but perhaps we should have named him Rygel since he is more cowardly than brave, and certainly quite stinky. He thinks he is human and since he was two, we’ve called him “old man.” We’ve had many of his pet-sitters offer to keep him if we ever need to give him up, which we’d never do. He’s now eight, entering elderly years for a boxer, but you’d never know it.

When Vala came to us, she was a 10-month-old rescue from the Midwest Boxer Rescue. We were trying to find a name to go with D’argo, but none of the Farscape characters really fit her. We needed someone fairly feisty. So we took the actress who played Aeryn Sun on Farscape and used the character name from another of our favorite shows, Stargate SG-1. That’s how Vala got her name, and she certainly fits the attributes of the character. In the tradition of calling our pets a hyphenated nickname, we call her Vala-Wala often. She’s now six years old and just now is realizing she is no longer a puppy, but she continues with her rambunctious ways as much as possible. Both our dogs are wonderful additions to our family.

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Madison

Other GeekGirlCon staffers shared about their pets. Erin Doherty, copywriter, contributed, “I have an 11-year-old rescue mutt (part Shar-pei, part German Shorthair Pointer, part who-the-heck-knows) named Madison. He’s the first dog I’ve had as an adult and he’s my longest relationship (ahem). He was only 4 or 5 months old when I found him in an alley in Oakland, and he wanted nothing to do with me. But I’m not one to let a mangy, starving puppy fend for himself, so my then-girlfriend and I maneuvered him into a dog crate and I took him home and named him for the street I found him on. I didn’t know how to get him to trust me so I decided that the only way he could eat was if he ate from my hand. Hunger quickly outweighed fear and the rest is history. Ridiculous, heart-wrenching, adorable, expensive, pain-in-the-ass, light-of-my-life history.

Nicknames include Mr. Handsome, Mr. Madman, My Little Bertha Mason, My Little Hannibal Lecter (have I mentioned that he’s fear-aggressive?), Shnoofies, Puddlebumps, Poodleboo, and Booboo (yes, I tend toward nonsensical nicknames).”

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Wanda

SG-1, copywriter, shares her home with a cat named Wanda, a family name. “Wanda’s originating name source is family names: my grandmother is Wanda, and her sister was Theodora. My cats are sisters Wanda and Theodora (deceased). Not nerdy or cool, but my dad’s fam seems to have a habit of naming pets after family members.

My cat Wanda is the sweetest, most clingy cat I’ve ever known. She is almost 13 years old, and I’ve nicknamed her my “Velcro kitty”—wherever I am in the house, she’s either right with me, or staring at me from the doorway of my room. I’ve had her since she was small enough to fit comfortably in my hand, and my life would definitely not be the same without her in it.”

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Giles and Wesley

Jen Stuller, Director of Programming and Events, is wild about her two dogs. “We live with the two best four-footed Watchers in the world—Giles and Wesley! They even take after their namesakes! Giles is proper but with a wild side, and Wesley is nothing less than a Rogue Demon Hunter. They keep us safe from vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness—all with a side of adorableness.”

Kristine Hassell, Twitter Administrator, now understands why people brag about the members of their families. “People always like to brag about the cuteness of their pets and children. I never got into this headspace until this guy came to live with us back in Texas.

Andy and I went to a local shelter and started our search. He gestured toward a cat who stayed asleep amidst the din and during our meet-and-greet, stayed calm. We didn’t need to see other cats. We fell in love instantly.

Nubbin

Nubbin

The shelter named him Nubby because of his shortened tail. We felt Nubbin was a more suitable name for our new family member and it fits him perfectly. Nub is also a polydactyl cat with extra toes on his front paws so what he doesn’t have in tail, he makes up with in toes!

Sir Nubs-a-Lot has been our constant companion through two moves, an apartment, one loft space, a townhouse, and finally our house in Seattle. He dislikes seeing our suitcases but loves when we settle in the HT room for some Netflix.

Nubface has endured a hurricane, a tropical storm, monsoon season, and Snowpocalypse several years ago. He decidedly didn’t care for snow. He does, however, love watching the daily squirrel show from his silken pillows.

Nubblins has been our constant companion since 2000 and life would be a sad place without that sweet face.”

So, GeekGirlCon Readers, do you have pets? What are they named and why?

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Eric Mack
“Rock On!”

12 responses to “Ask GeekGirlCon: What geeky names and nicknames do you have for your pets?”

  1. Rabecca says:

    I have a little black cat named Artemis. (from the sailor moon show.. yes,i know artemis is white but hey! it fit)

  2. Joni says:

    I have a black cat named Pixel for The Cat Who Walked Through Walls and also because I’m a computer geek. I’ve got a rabbit named Westley after the Dread Pirate Roberts. And have had pet rats named Inigo and Buttercup.

  3. Amber says:

    One cat, a Maine Coon cross I adopted from a local no-kill shelter named Shrodie. Her nickname is Fuzzybutt.

  4. Wendy W says:

    My husband and I named our dog, Sindaen, after his first character he created in Everquest (Barbarian Warrior). It, of course, fits our mighty rat terrier well. 🙂

  5. Nicole says:

    My black cat is named Binx after Thackery Binx from Hocus Pocus. 🙂

  6. Ady says:

    Our cat Nami is named after a character from the One Piece anime. Our other cat Dante is named after Dante Hicks from “Clerks” (he has a perpetual put-upon/martyred griping attitude on life!) and our pup Casey was well, named after my husband’s favorite Law and Order SVU ADA, Casey Novak.

  7. Nikki says:

    As a kid, I had Spooky (black cat), Tam-Lin (husky with a white T on her chest, she was the first of the Tolkein names…), Gandalf (beautiful male silver Lynx point cat, very wise), Frodo (the goldfish), Samwise & Pippin & Merry (more fish), Gollum (a catfish that started at 1/2″ & grew to 3″), Pluto (a coyote mix with colouring VERY similar to the Disney character), Spazz (albino Alaskan Malamute. She was crazy, only obeyed me, drive my mom & dad nuts…it was hilarious! She loved candy! “Go get mom!”, and she would run & find my mom & bark the most high pitched bark at my mom & wouldn’t stop until I told her :D), Moondance (pure black Chow/Cocker Spaniel mix. Sweetest, most mellow dog ever. Names after a Van Morrison song), Scratch (humongous back rescue kitteh, ginormous fangs. My boyfriend at the time would not let me name him Satan because he couldn’t tell his Grandma we had named tha cat Satan, so I went with Scratch, an old blues name for the devil), Medusa (small grey kitten, rescued and loved, but the pound and the vet didn’t bother to tell us how sick she was and she only lasted a couple weeks). Now, the current babies in our happy home are The Dread Pirate Tonks laFitte (yes, that’s her full name. Part Princess Bride, part Harry Potter, part famous pirate), and Eddie (named for Iron Maidens mascot).

  8. Malyn says:

    Our two black cats are Harry Potter/Firefly names one being Neville SImon and the other Kaylee Luna.

  9. Mary says:

    My last kitty was named Captain Jack after the wonderful Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood/Doctor Who.

  10. Heather says:

    My pug’s name is Teal’c and my 18 year old cat is Stormy, in part after Storm from the X-Men. My shepherd is Spartan which was inspired by the comic/movie 300.

  11. nerdymindedgeek says:

    I recently lost a blond shepherd mix named Ripley, after The bad ass character Ellen Ripley of the Alien series. I now have a yellow lab mix named Helo, after one of my favorite Battlestar Galactica characters. My Helo is female, but I think her name suits her well.

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