# How do you select names?



## Valpo (Apr 22, 2011)

Just curious, most of the birds I've ever had where already named. Although a few of them I've named. Any stories?

The first bird I named was Casey when I was a kid. My parents have him still, but his name came about because when we got him he was a baby normal grey. So we didn't know what sex he was yet. So my idea. . . name him Casey or Kasey and simpily change the spelling depending on if he turned out male or female. He turned out male so we spell it Casey.

The other one I named who unfortunutly passed away about a year ago was Weather. I wish I had a picture of her available to me so I could post it. But I think she was pied and she looked like a Lutino with large patches of grey. The Lutino part reminded me of the sun and the grey patches reminded me of storm clouds. So I went with Weather. 

The rest of my parent's flock including Louise who I adopted where already named. Louise was actually named Lou because the previous owners didn't thought she was a he. So we feminized it.


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## Eshana (Jan 3, 2011)

My boyfriend and I were originally going to name Shelby 'Sydney'. When we went to the breeder, she smiled and said 'Sydney is a really common bird name!' and pointed to her calendar where a bird was named Sydney, and to a bird she was pet sitting who was also named Sydney.

We looked up unisex names online and chose Shelby shortly after.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

My hubby usually comes up with the names but I named Cinnamon and Hershey. Cinnamon got her name because the girl at the store called her a cinnamon (she's a wf cinnamon pearl) and I liked it so that's what I named her. Hershey is our wf lutino and I was having a hard time thinking of something, but Hershey's chocolate is my favorite and they do make white chocolate so I told my hubby her name was Hershey's white chocolate, but we could just call her Hershey.


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

I named my tiel Sunny because I wanted him to bring a lot of sunshine to my and my dad's lives because we have been through a lot. Well, I think I should have named him Headache, Brat or Trouble instead! 

Nah just kidding. All in all Sunny has brought us a lot of joy and we wouldn't want it any other way.


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## Rainbow Tiel (Apr 29, 2011)

I was just sitting with my new tiel and it was like she told me her name. Breeze. 
I always wait till I have an animal for a while before I name them.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I normally come up with a list of names and repeat them till one sticks

Lucky named cookie as what she was saying sounded like cookie


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## Valpo (Apr 22, 2011)

Do your tiels earn nicknames? Most of the one's I've had have. either by what they do or more often a play on their name.

Lousie a long time ago earned the nickname "Wheeter" or often "Wheeter Wheeter Pellet Eater." Her chirps sounds like her going "Wheet" all the time.

Other birds:

Mickey we will call "Key" (He is the oldest bird my parents have and they think he's 30+)


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## Annie (Nov 20, 2009)

Yes, I never call my Sunny Sunny. I call him Bee or Sunbee. I guess I started calling him Sunnybee at one point and that got shortened down to Bee and Sunbee.


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## AMSD (Nov 2, 2010)

Dexter chose my partner at the breeders and she had the name picked out before we even found him (she has always loved that name) We call him Dex most of the time although his most used nickname would have to be 'Boy' or 'Boy oh boy' when he being a loud and obnoxious hormonal male haha (he is the only male in the house full of girls!)
Scout picked me and I spent 4 days watching her and spending time with her before the name came to me. It suited her personality perfectly (she is a 'watcher' whereas Dex is the action man!)
It was also a safe unisex name which was great because I wasn't sure of her sex at the time


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## Woodstock (Feb 25, 2011)

Woodstock is a rescue bird. He will be 9 years old on May 27th. He responded to his name so I kept it. 

He either was named after the music festival at Woodstock or Charlie Brown's bird.


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## nkeith2 (Feb 6, 2011)

All of our birds we named ourselves actually and it is quite a task finding almost thirty names for cockatiels 
Kiba came from a show I watched on youtube called Wolf's Rain, Mama because she was such a good mother, Lilly because the lutino coloring reminded me of the flower, Audi&Chevy because I love those brands of cars, Foxy sounded good for a Fallow, Skylar has always been a favorite name of mine and it just fit my little stud so well, Spot because he has spots on his back, Lucy from the show I Love Lucy (which I used to watch re-runs of all the time when I was little), Eva & Wall-E from the movie, Elvis because my hubby really enjoys his music, Storm because his feathers reminded me of a sunny day that had a storm rolling in (like your story), Maui because it reminds me of Hawaii, Dude&DJ were my hubby's choosings, Xavier is also a name I have always liked (I know, a little odd) and the rest I think were all ones we looked up and fit the birds pretty well

[[sorry for the long list, we have quite a few tiels]]


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## nwoodrow (Feb 13, 2011)

when i started naming my cockatiels, i was big into love groups, like tarzan and jane, romeo and juliete, my newest pair are named after the goddess nyx and her consort erebus, some came pre-named but if i have a say intheir names i choose couples, i have a retire pair whose name is athena and apollo the twin children of zeus ( i have a rabbit named that so that name is off limits to me his mates name is hera- who is zeus's wife) and unfortuanately any names that dont meet my pattern and didnt come with a name my husband sorted out.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Nicknames run rampant around here...usually just plays on their names like Snowball is also Snubs, Cinnamon is Cimms or Cinnamonbits. Fuzzy is the big phoney because he lost all his pearls, Screech is the devil bird because he looks like he has horns when he's wet, Daisy is Riptide because of how vibrant her pearls stand out, Baby is a nickname already, his real name used to be Peachy but that's not a boy name lol. Oreo is big fatty (she used to be rather huge). Just some to name a few.


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## ClementinesCage (Apr 30, 2011)

Clementine has little cheeks that look like clementines... and I saw "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" the night before my mother surprised me with her... (I was 25 - how awesome is my mother?)


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## geenz (Apr 4, 2011)

Fawkes has sooo many nicknames! Duncan - since he sticks his head in his water all the time, Bumbum - I started calling him Fawkesy-bum one day and it kind of stuck, Clumsy - since he falls off his cage all the time (and sometimes when he's flapping his wings around he accidentally lets go and flaps onto the floor) Squeaky beaky - well, self explantory that one  That's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head


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## Eileen (Mar 11, 2011)

I look through baby and pet name lists.


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## bear2491 (Feb 26, 2011)

Rudy was Ruby first, because of those lutino red eyes but as it has become apparent that she was a he, we tossed around a few names but Rudy (short for Rudolf) seems to be the closest and if I slip up and say Ruby it sounds very similar lol. 
Pheonix because I love that name and it suits boy or girl
Squeak or Squeaker because he squeaks when he tries to bite, its actually very cute. Luckily he can't bite hard!

All of them get called doofus as a nick name if I have them out and they flutter onto the ground if I have them on the bed or a couch etc. I also use this name at work for the birds there lol.


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## Valpo (Apr 22, 2011)

nwoodrow said:


> when i started naming my cockatiels, i was big into love groups, like tarzan and jane, romeo and juliete, my newest pair are named after the goddess nyx and her consort erebus, some came pre-named but if i have a say intheir names i choose couples, i have a retire pair whose name is athena and apollo the twin children of zeus ( i have a rabbit named that so that name is off limits to me his mates name is hera- who is zeus's wife) and unfortuanately any names that dont meet my pattern and didnt come with a name my husband sorted out.


Thats interesting naming them after Greek mythological characters. . . I've taken classes in Greek myth so I'm fairly familiar with it all.


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

*Dude was named Dude because he is a Dude !*

creative hey ???

I'm so bad at names.... most of the time my pets are named by someone else or i ask for others opinions until i hear something that i like.


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## Valpo (Apr 22, 2011)

dude said:


> *Dude was named Dude because he is a Dude !*
> 
> creative hey ???
> 
> I'm so bad at names.... most of the time my pets are named by someone else or i ask for others opinions until i hear something that i like.


Umm looking at that picture. . . are you sure that your tiel is in fact a dude dude?

That tiel looks female to me unless thats a baby picture of him. 

I mean you've had a lot of posts here so I would figure you would know by now. But gosh that tiel in your sig looks like either a female or a young male.


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

I have never named my cockatiels as they where all rescue birds already named. So I am thinking of keeping a pearl baby from 1 of my pairs and my daughters want to name her Pebbles. Then we will keep a male from my other pair and he will be named Bam Bam. Or Max and Maxine. My daughters can't decide, guess we'll have to let the grow first. as they are only days old.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

> Umm looking at that picture. . . are you sure that your tiel is in fact a dude dude?
> 
> That tiel looks female to me unless thats a baby picture of him.
> 
> I mean you've had a lot of posts here so I would figure you would know by now. But gosh that tiel in your sig looks like either a female or a young male.


That's an old pic of Dude...Dude is most definitely a Dude lol. Its his baby pic lol.


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## Valpo (Apr 22, 2011)

roxy culver said:


> That's an old pic of Dude...Dude is most definitely a Dude lol. Its his baby pic lol.


Ok got it.


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## dude (Mar 29, 2010)

yep he's defiantly a DUDE.... that is my sweet sweet baby.... soooo young there. but i love it soooo much , because it reminds me of how sweet he use to look as a baby with his racing stripes. so i keep it even though he is a big boy now.


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## KTyne (Apr 16, 2011)

I usually pick a name and give it to the animal, lol. I don't usually look for names that "suit" the animal, but more names that sound nice to me and that I know I won't get annoyed of.
Most of the time I pick names from different languages, such as my cat Peata, which means "pet" in Gaelic. Or I end up naming them after gods or godesses from random religions (mostly Egyptian). My rats though were named after characters from the show "Hamtaro", lol.


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## Zenna (Sep 22, 2010)

I let mine pick his own, I was watching him for about an hour when I got him, I'd already liked the name Zowie, But i was watching him and he was so curious. so i was like "hmm a name.. do you like george?" (As in curious george) and he shook his head! o-o I laughed and i was like alright then hmm.. how about alex? and he shook his head again, So i tried Zowie and he ended up nodding! So thats how I picked my birds name^^


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## athingforjaz (May 5, 2011)

My new cockatiel was named "Lucrezia" by her former owners, but I wasn't a huge fan of that, so I've renamed her Lucy.


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## Kaoru (Sep 14, 2010)

I was looking up some Japanese names (bf and I love the japanese culture) and came across the name Aiko, it means something like little loved one, and I liked it.

Taro same story, I was looking up names and saw the name Taro, I looked at the meaning and it was "first born son". so I checked with the breeder and he was the first hatched boy in the nest, so it suited him


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## LoveAllPets (Oct 31, 2010)

I write atleast 3 lists of names I like over and over and in the end I see which ones appear often and write those ones down on a list theni take the list to the place where I get the bird and stare it down saying different names.When the bird reacts to a name or looks like one,or even just sounds nice with it I dubb it that name.Half the time i have the name before the bird!


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## smashleyy (May 10, 2011)

Let me begin by saying that my fiancee is no longer allow to name our birds because, well, you'll know by the story...

To keep it short we got a whiteface pied first and he decided, after watching Seinfeld one night, that he should be named Little Jerry Seinfeld (for those familiar with the cock fighting episode where Kramer names the bird after Jerry).

Our second bird, a DYC cinnamon, was named for Larry Bird, due to his yellow patches which reminded him of the blonde basketball player. 

So now we have Larry and Jerry and since both names end with the same sound they respond to each other's name.

Anyway, we just got two girls, Prim and Rue who are named after characters from my favorite dystopian trilogy, The Hunger Games! If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it!


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## ClementinesCage (Apr 30, 2011)

Smashleyy -- My family had birds named for basketball players for years:

- Larry Bird
- Otis Birdsong
- Rory Sparrow
- Meadowlark Lemmon

When I got my first bird that is MINE, I broke the trend, LOL.


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## smashleyy (May 10, 2011)

Haha, yeah. I didn't mean to let him name the birds at all, but he just started calling them by their respective names and now they have no clue which one we are talking too! Just glad I got to name the two girls...


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