Our cats are Edison and Tesla. Last names of historical figures often work well (and is often a source for posh-ish first names)

Brummel

Woolstonecraft

Lovelace

Pavlov

Bayer (for homophone fun!)

I have to get back to setting tile, but will continue to ponder.

I do love last names of historical figures!!!

The dog is a mini labradoodle. Reddish brown/tan? I do not actually know which dog of the litter yet. I pick the puppy on Sunday and bring it home next Friday. I definitely won't pick a name until I know which dog! But want to have a few ideas? Rather than just calling it "puppy" for a few weeks?

also those sound like super shitty jerks, Erin, and I fully support you throwing things back at them if they try.

The dog is a mini labradoodle. Reddish brown/tan?

Hmm. Preston. Chance. Winston. Jasper.

Isn't there a celebrity who claims to be perfect at naming pets? (Anna Kendrick, maybe?)

Also, maybe we need to outsource this decision to the guy that came up with Murderbiscuit's name.

I would accept suggestions from Murderbiscuit or his namer.

I would accept suggestions from Murderbiscuit or his namer.

Nothing my cat would suggest will be good. It'll probably be a bunch of eldritch sigils that, when spoken, summon at least 2 but up to 7 of the Old Ones.

The guy who named Murderbiscuit is a smartass who named his tarantula Elizabeth Báthory, so he's a little sketchy.

Reddish brown/tan?

Rusty

Rufus

Curly

Moe

. I am personally against using person names for animals because then you end up in a scenario like my friend who named their dog Audrey...then her sister married a woman named Audrey. So it's not uncommon for the name to come up in conversation followed by "auntie or doggie?"

My friend Katie is a nicknamer. She called both her father (who had dementia) and her crazy dog "Bubba"! Which lead to a great confusion when Bubba was running through the fields behind her house (It was her dog).

Worthington (my old kitty, sadly now departed) came with that name, which is a town in western MA, probably where he was found as a tiny stray. So when we got another cat 10 years ago, of course we had to go with another western MA town and name him Chesterfield.

I have collected handmade "teddy" bears--not toys--and their facial expressions have always suggested their names. Emerson, Hillary (Sir Edmund), Virgil, Froderick (not lit'ry, but he has violently curly blond fur), etc. I have one who used to belong to a friend, and no matter how he was posed, he was always looking down. So when he became mine I named him Newton. Familiarly he was called Isaac, then Ike. And then I learned Newton based his theories on the writings of Ibn Al Haytham, and so the bear now carries that name, known familiarly as Al (admittedly mostly because I have no idea how to pronounce Ibn).

Laura, I have one of those, too. And I was reminded of the fact during the year he was away attending to dying relatives and their estates, and I realized how often I hadn't needed to call somebody about a leaky faucet or a cranky dryer or a stuck screw, or a light bulb in a place too high for me to reach on a ladder. He's just always there, and always knows, or is quick to find out, what to do. I want to wrap him in bubble wrap and keep him forever. Aside from the whole love him for decades of marriage thing.