No, its weird. You don’t want to have friends over and have one of them respond when you’re yelling at the dog.

Sure! Pets can have whatever name you choose to give them. And a name that's traditionally human would be a nice change from yet another Spot or Whiskers.

Personally, I like the idea of giving pets really, really frilly, over-the-top names, the kind that you might not even give to a baby these days. Names from theater, opera, you name it.

It shouldn't matter, although I know there are some religious groups who think it's irreverent, because they maintain lists of human names that are considered to be spiritually valid, such that newborns are supposed to be named from that list (pre 1960's Catholics are an example, but there are others) and pets are specifically *required* to have non-human names.

However, as someone who's owned many pets, I've always found it made more sense to give pets expected to respond to non-human commands non-human names, because it's hard enough for them to understand human language without complicating it by double meanings.

It's easy for people to not sense just how hard it is for cats and dogs to learn human words, but to put it in perspective, the typical human has a brain pre-designed for doing language, and can recognize 50,000 words from their own language, a simian like a chimp or a gorilla can be taught up to about 300 words, so yes, if you have a pet chimp, and you can figure out a vocabulary that will tell it everything you want it to do within 300 words, then you can order them around verbally, even though they can't talk back, but with dogs, it's about 7, maybe 12 words (depending on how smart the breed is), and with cats... about 3 (if you're lucky... cats will *never* get it unless you are extremely, extremely consistent), however...

... just to remind yourself how frustrating it can be from the pet's point of view, see if you can find a family with a dog who speak something other than English at home, and see how long it takes *you*, a being naturally wired up for language, to figure out what they're telling their pets to do in that foreign language. If you don't already know the language, you *will* feel sorry for the pet.

So... go ahead and give your pet a human name if you want it to go nuts with frustrated confusion, otherwise, be nice, and give it a name that's so contrived that it will never hear that word in any other context...

In other words... invent a new word.

Also, both cats and dogs hear high frequencies easier than people, plus it's easier for them to hear if the consonants are hard, like t and b, and not soft, like s and v.

My last cat I named Tookie, which uses only hard consonants and naturally comes out in high frequencies (plus I only used finger snapping to tell her when to get off my lap) and we got along so well that she used to follow me on long walks, which is normal for dogs, but not cats, and when I was feeling down, she'd always jump on my back and massage it, which is a sign of bonded affection for cats... and I'm sure that a big part of it was that she could tell when my communication were for her attention.

I think that it's good for pets to have human names. I don't think that it's necessary, but I think that it's good.

The name of my dog is part way between being a "real" name and a fictional name.

Her name is Charlie

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2616/4012834648_b919af9897.jpg

The fictional name comes into play because of my last name. It's Brown :)

I like animals with human names .... because sometimes they act like their names. When your pets are a big part of your life I think its cool to include them in the family.

We've got a cat called Phil
and I did have a fish called Bruce

I like human names for my furry children and my slightly less furry children. My dog is Jake. My cat is Squeaker. He was named that because he made a squeaking sound when he tried to meow. Scruffy was named by my daughter (he's a little 5 pound dust mop of a dog, a Maltese), because when we adopted him, he was, well, scruffy. I didn't like the name. It was too 'dog' like.

My friend named her cats Kalista and Kassandra and she calls them Kassie and Lista. I like that.

In a way, it humanizes them to me, and they are every bit a part of my family. I love my 80 pound blue heeler shepard mix like he was one of my real children!

My dog before him was a cocker spaniel - her name was Dani (short for Danielle).

So my vote is for human names.

My late German sheperd was a pedigree, and her name is.. Quana Von Cafilo. her mistress' name? Lidya (not last name on my ID card). her name is WAY better than a normal human name here. lol.

Yes, Pets can have human names, because when we bring to our homes we treat them as one of our family member not like an animal.....

I don't see anything wrong with pets having human names. What you name your pet is a personal thing between you and your pet. My favorite Pomeranian was named Lady Nicole...well that was her registered name actually, we called her Niki. The little cutie you see on my avatar is Bitsy, my itsy bitsy teeny weenie. :) I have another dachshund that I adopted and her name is Isabelle, which is a human name, as a matter of fact I call her Isabella Rossellini. Do you get it? Itsy bitsy teeny weenie and Isabella Rossellini. :) I didn't name her that but I liked it so I kept it.

Well pets already have human names. So the answer is Yes.
And the reason is they are part of family. Most of people have pets because they feel alone or they need someone to love. So being part of family, they can have human names. With human names they will apparently not different than us. Even you can notice somebody gives surname of family to pet. So to make pet a family member it should have human name perhaps surname too !

I think when it comes to pets, the golden rule is never give your dog a name that you would feel embarrassed shouting in the park... "Come here Jimmy" or "Snowy" is fine, but shouting come here "Luvywuvykins" is not going to be good for your self-esteem or your dogs either.

So if you want to name your dog Indiana, or Billy then thats fine....

I don't see why not. Our dogs are named Martha, Esther and Mable. Someone asked us why our dogs all had old lady names. I don't know why but my husband picked those names. Gotta quit letting him name the dogs, I guess.

My ex brought home a dog one of his friends was giving away, I told him change the name or get rid of the dog. The mutt's name was Amy, he thought it was funny and I did not. Looking back all those years, now I see the humor there.

I am a fan of naming the animals people name, and as I bird person I have always named my birds with human names. Right now my cockatiels are Angel and Demon, it very much fits their personalities.

We have had pets with both fictional and human names, and loved them all the same. Our latest pet, who is actually 4 years old now, was named Nina by my husband. This was the name we were going to give our daughter, had our second child been a girl. However, we had a blossoming little boy and so the name stayed around. After our son was one year old, we bought a small Pomeranian for him and his older brother in early December. When our children were unable to come up with a name for the puppy and had depleted their mental resources, my husband suggested the name "Nina". At first I was a little surprised and asked if he was planning on substituting my desire for a daughter with a doggie, but then I started liking the idea. Now our doggie is our little spoiled "princess" and has as large of a wardrobe as our daughter would have had. :) Him giving our dog this name has also demonstrated my husbands' acceptance and love for our dog. He did not grow up with pets as a child and was never too fond of dogs or cats. But when he named our pup "Nina" I did realize that his doggie would be an important part of his life as well and he would make every effort to love her as much as our children and I would. The human name also helps, since the vet tech's tend to add the family surname to the pet's medical records.