Naming non-pedegree pets!

[zeb]

Someone (French) was very upset with us last night for giving our puppy a French name. He was furious and said it was insulting to everyone in our commune.

Obviouslly, we don't want to upset anyone and can easily change the name. He said that it's OK with an English name like Bob, Tom, Jack etc but never a French name.

Is this so all over France, as our puppy came from another area and his brother at the farm we got him from was called Arthur (named by the French farmer)?

[Chrissie]

Your French person must have a very large inferiority complex and a surfeit of free time if he can get so worked up about a dog's name!  As far as I understand it (whenever I say that, I'm usually wrong....) French pedigree dogs are given a name beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet corresponding to the year of their birth.  I think last year was U which must have resulted in some funny names, and the next few years should be interesting as well unless they skip X and Z.......     Presumably you were unfortunate enough to happen to choose a French name that started with the appropriate letter and your friend thought you were deliberately taking the £&*@.     (?)

Chrissie (81)

[Deimos]

Thinking about it, at my (old) dog club none of the dogs had

“human” names.  As to that being coincidence

or just that U and V (many of the dogs were quite young) are not prefixes of

that many names.  The closest to any “human

name” was Undy (sort of pronounced very like “Andy”).

The other thing to distinguish is what a dogs “name” is and

what you shout at it.  My French pups

name is totally different to what she is called in everyday life.

Ian

 

[Will]

In our part of France the alphabetical naming convention extends to non-pedigree dogs, cats, cows, horses etc, although it is far from compulsory. In fact, for 2006 names begin with B - in 2005 they were A, 2004 was V (they omitted W, X, Y and Z). Other French-speaking countries us a similar system, for instance 2006 in Canada is an R year, in Belgium it is E. I agree that U was an interesting year - our vet had a list of suggested names displayed which contained such gems as Utensil or Uranus.

Interestingly, most of the lists of names available on line (do a Google search for 'noms de chiens' or 'noms de chats') are rather lacking in French names, so perhaps the original questioner was correctly informed, though I have heard of plenty of French people whose animals have human names.

[Opalienne]

Round us the alphabetical naming convention applies to all dogs, pedigree or not, though, as Will says, plenty of people don't do it.   Our dog was born in an N year and.the vet gave us a list with really soppy names on it, none of them human.   So we called him Norbert.   People do seem to think this is is strange, though funny rather than offensive - when he met a human Norbert they were delighted with each other!  

[zeb]

Apologies for poor spelling of title and thanks for your responses.

Our dog is called Jacques which we didn't think was a problem as he is non-pedigree. We knew about the alphabetical names but didn't think it mattered. Anyway, apparently calling him Jacques is a complete no, no because all the men named Jacques in our village and beyond will be terribly insulted. According to this French person, it's bad enough taking work which could go to the French (we have a micro), but calling the dog after a French person is terrible!

So, I have started calling the puppy Jack (simple change) which is OK.

Oh dear, we live and learn! That's two steps backwards in the integration process!

Thinking about it though, our neighbour's dogs and cats are all named after exotic places or characters from Indiana Jones and a friend's French dog is named Nimbous, obviously born the same year as Norbert!

Has anyone found a list of other things which are normal to Brits but the French may find insulting?

[Opalienne]

It sounds as though this guy has a huge chip on his shoulder and I really wouldn't worry about it.   If this is how he behaves with people he doesn't know very well I suspect that he may be less integrated than you are!   Do you know anyone called Jacques you can introduce the dog too and see what he says?  

[Deimos]

As others say, alphabetical naming applies to all dogs.  The trick is to add an apostrophe after the

prefix letter.  Thus if your dog were born

in a “U” year and you wanted to call it e.g. “Rover” then you could officially

name it “U’Rover” (which is acceptable under the naming regulations.

I’m just waiting for a similar rule to be introduced for

people.  I believe they have started

with rules about children being able to take both parents surnames or something

about the 1^st child can and subsequent children have to follow – I

think the prefix letter for people most be just a matter of time [:)]

Ian

 

[Christine Animal]

I had never noticed that here they didn't give dogs "human" names.  I'll have to think about it...  My parents-in-law's setter was called Jim and noone found it strange.  We once had two tiny little Yorkshire terriers we had rescued and I called them Henry and Lucy and the vet's wife did say something about what are these funny little names, but I think she liked them.  Zeb, maybe the reaction you got is a bit exceptional.

We knew a doctor who had a dog when it was the Vs an earlier time round, and he called him Virus !

 

[Chrissie]

I have never thought about it before but perhaps that's why people all laugh when we say the cat is called Charlie..... Well, there's a really French habit we've all learned about.  Should be under the French myths thread!

Chrissie (81)

[Ron Avery]

That now explains what the poster in the vets was with all names beginning with B for 2006.   I thought it a bit strange at the time but assumed there were more bits of the poster on other walls.[:D]

[Russethouse]

Someone should have told my mother - she had a Yorkie called Gay.................named after a flippin dog !

 

[Teamedup]

I knew that that was folks did but we didn't. We found a name we wanted and called the mutt that. We still suffered a few disparaging remarks about not going for the letter for that year.

[Tag]

I thought I had heard of some idiotic notions in my time, but having to call one's mutt by a chosen series of names corresponding to the dog's year of birth takes the biscuit. Presumably there are doggy priests to bless the birth, name days and even doggy marriages, according to canine rite and sanctioned by the Minister of Doggy Names. It was bad enough when people had to chose their names from a list.

Sheer stupidity!

[Opalienne]

It makes the choice easier, though.   I think naming animals is almost as hard as naming children.   And it originates with racehorses, so that their age was obvious to everyone.  Norbert says hello to all of you with names beginning with N.......

[Teamedup]

It isn't only just dogs Taq, it is very much part of the french way with regards to animals. Haven't you noticed the names of the horses who are to run in some races, all names start with the same initial.

 

 

[Viv]

Apparently it wasn't that long ago when the French were legally restricted with regards to the names they could give their kids, probably why we don't yet have a generation of Halliday's and Zidanes in every class , or perhaps the french just have more sense?

[Weedon]

Friends of mine called their dog Cortina. They were saving up for a car but decided to buy a dog instead.

I have some very strange friends because others called their car Effing...after their Effing Fiat.

weedon

 

[Teamedup]

Viva when did they stop having restrictions on what kids could be called? I hadn't realised that they had stopped them.

[Viv]

I recall reading something quite some time ago that stated that the laws had been relaxed/ changed but that the registrar could refuse to register a name if they thought it was frivolous or could cause the child problems in later life.

[Fay]

My Devon Rex cat is called Pyewacket (ref: Jimmy Stewart/Kim Novak film called Bell, Book & Candle) but on her first visit to France a couple of weeks ago I knew I couldn't possibly tell my French neighbours and builders that, so I referred to her as Pye (as I normally do anyway). They, of course, heard this as 'paille' (straw) which, given her crimpy corn-row coat and her long skinny legs, seemed rather appropriate and appeared to be approved of by all!

[fcr]

 

Hi

Found this somewhere copied it and lost it again.It's not just in France

Canada: La lettre pour 2005 est le «R». La lettre de l’année n’est pas requise pour un chien importé.
France:  La lettre A est utilisée pour les chiens qui naissent en 2005.
Les lettres Q, W, Y, et Z ne sont jamais utilisées pour les chiens pure race.
Belgique: Les chiens nés en 2005 ont un prénom qui commence par la lettre E.
Suisse : Le nom du chien n'est pas lié à l'année. Normalement, l'éleveur choisit la lettre A pour sa première portée, puis B pour la seconde, etc… Les chiens qui proviennent d'une même portée doivent avoir la même lettre initiale. Le même nom ne peut être réutilisé pendant 10 ans dans un même élevage.
Luxembourg : L'ordre alphabétique est respecté et le C sera donc utilisé pour  2005.

Fi

 

found it http://www.dogstory.net/Prenomsdechien.htm

[Teamedup]

All french speaking countries then. I wonder when and why this started.

[Christine Animal]

Doesn't the Kennel Club do this then in England?  It only applies to pedigree dogs to be in the Livres des Origines.  In a post above which I can't see now, there is mention of chien "pure race" .  Our vet once told us there is no such thing as pure race, they are either de race or they're not!

http://www.frenchtoutou.com/info/liste_nom.htm

 

[ali-cat]

I think we may be in trouble!!  We have 3 cats, Ben Penny & Solomon & are moving over to France in a couple of months.  The names may be acceptable to our new French neighbours but when they start attacking the sofa or we can't find them at night (the cats, not the neighbours!) we tend to use their full names (you know - the way your parents did when you were in trouble).  So standing in the back garden shouting  "Benjamin Livingstone" may raise a few eyebrows!!