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Objectivist Pet Names

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The Wrath

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I actually think this has been done before, but I couldn't find the thread.

There's a cat who started hanging out around my apartment yesterday and I have decided to adopt him and let him live on my front porch. So, I bought him a dish, some food, and a toy and put a box with some old towels in it on my porch. I have decided to name him Socrates. I would have named him Aristotle, but even 3 syllables is pushing it for a pet, let alone 4.

Edited by Moose
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1 dog: Lucy (after Lucy from Peanuts; a black-haired bitch. :blush: )

3 cats: Euclid, Cosmo, and Goodnight. (I always feel silly calling Goodnight in when it's bedtime and we don't want her out all night... [opening front door] "GOODNIGHT! GOOOOOODNIGHT!" I imagine the neighbors wonder why the heck I'm wishing them all a good night at the top of my lungs).

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I named my Basenji Garm from the Kipling story Hostages and Fairies. It includes the poem The Power of the Dog, which is one of my favorite poems next to If. Of course, Kipling isn't and Objectivist...

I call my main rabbit John (after Galt), since he is insanely devious and smart and has the unique ability to stop machinery out of the blue. Like "why isn't the clock or stereo working anymore?" "What happened to the fourth leg on my chair?" Anyone who has a rabbit knows of what I'm talking.

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I haven't done this, but I had in mind, if I ever get a dog or cat again, to call it Bucephalus. That is Alexander the Great's horse's name. Alexander road Bucephalus into every battle he fought, and it always lead the way. Alexander never lost a battle.

Ironically, Bucephalus died of battle wounds in Alexander's last battle.

Bucephalus literally means Oxhead, because it had such a big head.

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I haven't done this, but I had in mind, if I ever get a dog or cat again, to call it Bucephalus. That is Alexander the Great's horse's name. Alexander road Bucephalus into every battle he fought, and it always lead the way. Alexander never lost a battle.

Ironically, Bucephalus died of battle wounds in Alexander's last battle.

Bucephalus literally means Oxhead, because it had such a big head.

I do know someone with a horse named Bocephus, But then that would be Bocephus as in the alcoholic country musician. Knowing them though, it was a horrible mistranslation or confusion......this was in Pasadena, Tx after all. At least it was better than his official breeder given name. It must have had 20 syllables.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It just occurred to me a few days ago that my pets don't have names; they have definitions. I started out with a cockatiel, which my wife and I called "Bird". This differentiated it from us and the other things we owned. When we acquired a goldfish, we called it "Fish". Then we got a second bird, a lovebird. We called him "Small Bird" and started calling the cockatiel "Large Bird". Since the context had changed, the cockatiel's old definition no longer served to distinguish him from our other possessions and we had to add a new qualification.

It's probably a good thing we don't have kids; I'm not sure I could handle a son named "Boy". :P

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I have always been VERY fond of cats - they are my absolute favorite animal and it is hard for me to pass one by and not want to stop and pet it. To me, naming cats is a profound and serious ritual - and, like with people, not just any name will do. When I was living with my parents I used to drive them crazy by renaming all of the family cats and only referring to them by names that I thought were appropriate. Oh, yeah - sometimes cats can have more than one name.

Currently, I have three cats, one male and two female.

My male's name is Bosque (pronounced BossKey) and he is an orange tabby. He is also called......well, since it is kind of embarrassing, I had better first explain how I came up with it. Soon after I adopted him, I saw a news headline that President Bush has a nickname for Vladimir Putin: Pootie Poo. Considering that Putin is former KGB, that struck me as downright obscene and almost as sick as FDR referring to Stalin as "Uncle Joe." So when I saw that, I looked over at my new cat and said: "If he is Pootie Poo, I guess that makes you a Puddy Poo." He seemed to like it, so that is what I referred to him as until a few months later I finally figured out that his name was Bosque. Today, he happily answers to both names - but unless I have the opportunity to explain, I don't go around telling people that I have a cat called Puddy Poo.

One of my females is named Grethe Grooble (Grethe, pronounced Gretta) who is part Siamese. I am afraid that for reasons which are obvious, she also has acquired another name: Fat Cat.

My other female is a small tabby named Moxie. Actually, my mother suggested the name, which also happens to be the name of my favorite soda pop (and which is very difficult to find outside of New England). It is the only time ever I have even taken into consideration someone else's suggestion for a cat's name - but it was so perfect.

Previously, I had three very wonderful male cats which I had to have put to sleep and all of whom I really miss. I had Boris, a tabby, since I was a little kid and he lived to a ripe old age. He was also sometimes called Bumble Burble. Then there was Bix, another tabby, who was very special to me. And there was Clicquot (pronounced KleeCo, as in the 1920s era brand of soda water and sponsor of radio's Clicquot Club Eskimos) a Manx who was born without a tail and was also very special. Bix and Clicquot would both sit and perch on my shoulders for however long I would let them - something I have never been able to train my other cats to do.

Oh - I also name a lot of the stray cats that come around and which I usually end up feeding. There is a funny story about one of them who came around back when Bix was still alive. I named the stray "Miss Ugly" because it really was one of the ugliest cats I had ever seen. One day, I came home from work for lunch and it was a beautiful spring day. I opened the back door and let the cats look out the screen door and enjoy the fresh air. Suddenly, I noticed that Miss Ugly was in the back yard and that Bix was not paying attention and did not noticed. He always made the funniest sound whenever he saw birds or other cats in the yard so I did want him to notice. So I went over to the screen and picked Bix up and said: "Look, Bix, Theeeerrrs Miss Ugly! Theerrrres Miss Ugly! Bix, say hi to Miss Ugly." Suddenly, I noticed standing on the steps to an above-garage apartment in the neighboring back yard was this woman who was giving me a VERY filthy look. She very obviously thought I was talking about HER - and, unfortunately, the description would have been quite apt. I had no idea what to say or do. I really couldn't say "Uh, ma'am, I am talking about the cat, not you." So I just meekly went back inside and hoped that I would not end up with a brick or something thrown through my window. To this day I wonder if the poor woman ended up being traumatized or something.

And one more thing - at Christmas my cats get a visit from another cat named Kat Klaws who comes down the chimney when they are not looking and leaves them catnip and neat things to eat. :P

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I actually think this has been done before, but I couldn't find the thread.

There's a cat who started hanging out around my apartment yesterday and I have decided to adopt him and let him live on my front porch. So, I bought him a dish, some food, and a toy and put a box with some old towels in it on my porch. I have decided to name him Socrates. I would have named him Aristotle, but even 3 syllables is pushing it for a pet, let alone 4.

call him SO-crates (like from bill & ted's excellent adventure) that way it's only 2 syllables

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Two cats here. One is a blonde(light-ginger) called Dakeyras (after Waylander by David Gemmell) and the other, a is a tabby called Arakasi after the character in the Daughter/Servant/Mistress of the Empire series by Janny Wurts. I also had a female tabby called Cara, from the SoT series, but no longer.

Unfortunately my chocolate lab was named by my girlfriend before we met so my dog (bitch) is called 'Faith', though thankfully it's not indicative of my GF's leanings :P

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call him SO-crates (like from bill & ted's excellent adventure) that way it's only 2 syllables

:P

This is an excellent idea.

Or, I could call him "Most Excellent Philos-o-phizer from Ancient Greece." I suppose that would be a little too long, though.

Edited by Moose
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Okay, sometime later this week, I'm taking Socrates to the vet so that I can bring him inside permanently. However, he seems to have spread the word and now there is another cat hanging out on my front porch. This one is a female, and they just sit there about 10 feet apart, staring at each other. It's only a matter of time before they get it on and litter my porch with kittens (no pun intended).

If this cat hangs around much longer, I'll name her Plato. I know, I know...I'm not supposed to like Plato, but he was next in line after Socrates, so it fits the theme. If another cat comes around, I'll name him Aristotle. Socrates, however, will be the only cat that gets to come inside. I refuse to take every stray cat in the thriving metropolis of Huntsville, TX into my apartment.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's me and my new indoor cat, Socrates, who I just discovered has an extra digit on his front right paw.

The cat that I named "Plato" kept coming and scaring off Socrates and eating his food...I didn't like that cat, so I just brought Socrates inside and now Plato seems to be gone.

I like Scott's idea of a pet with a 20-syllable name. If I ever get another cat, I'm going to name it Abu Abdullah Rahman Mohammad Faruq Aziz Bin Dawood Al Masri...exactly 20 syllables. The "Bin Dawood" means "Son of David," and my name is David. "Al Masri" means "the Egyptian," and since cats were first domesticated by the Egyptians, then that's about the best guess as to his nationality.

post-1234-1132419113_thumb.jpg

Edited by Moose
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