According to vetstreet.com, the top ten female puppy names from 2012 include Bella, Daisy, Lucy, Molly, and Lola. Notice anything odd? They’re all human names! Gone are the days of pets named Fluffy and Pooch. In are the days of human children named after fruits and vegetables. In the Middle Ages, though, you might run into dogs that answer to Amiable, Trinket, Nosewise, Holdfast, and Clench. For more about pet ownership back then, check out historian Kathleen Walker Meikle’s book Medieval Pets. This is part of a complete episode.
Leave a comment
1 comment
More from this show
Google Translate has expanded its offerings with 110 more languages, including major languages such as Cantonese, endangered languages such as Manx, and many less-spoken ones like Kallaalisut, used in Greenland, and Latgalian in Latvia. This is part...
John in Omaha, Nebraska, wonders about a phrase that encourages someone to attend an event or risk being left out or feeling uncool: be there or be square. Don’t fall for the fake etymology about people wearing boxes on their heads! Ditto for...
Co-workers laughed at my dog’s name – Jeffrey. But it made sense when I explained I had him a couple of months before I decided to keep him, so I had time to get to know his personality. Looking through a book of [human] names, I found Jeffrey, which is Old French for “divinely peaceful.” That certainly fit, so Jeffrey it was. (He was so mellow that he could calm down other dogs by just standing
(Besides, I said, I’m not gonna name him something stupid, then stand on the front porch where all the neighbors could hear me calling at the top of my voice, “Come here, Doodles”!)