Metatalktail Hour: I can call you Betty

December 24, 2022 7:04 AM

Happy weekend and happy holidays, friends! For this week's Metatalktail hour, theora55 says, "The dog name post makes me want to know MeFite's nicknames for pets, pet names for friends and SOs, kids, monikers of nemeses, etc."

So please tell us all the names of acclaim and ill fame that you have bestowed upon your loved (and not so loved) ones, or just tell us what is up with you, how you are doing, what's on your mind. (But no politics, please!)

posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 7:04 AM (67 comments total)

I’m pretty basic with my nicknames. Both cats are “kiiiittttyyyy!” when they are exasperating, which is often.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:19 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

I love this question!
My lovely cat Phoebe (pronounced "FEE Bee") is called Phoebe, Phoebe-beebee, Phoebs, Phoebster...and also Sweet Girl, Baby Girl (she is at least 8), Miss Soft Face, and probably others.
She also has an official song. The tune is Barry Manilow's Copacabana and the lyrics are all about HER. I love her so much!
posted by bookmammal at 7:40 AM on December 24, 2022 [8 favorites]

I always thought if I had two girl cats I would name them Lucy and Ramona... not from any special connection to the song, I just like the way it sounds. However, Twinkle and Moon Pie came to us pre-named, and I kept the names because Moon Pie's name is the reason they caught my eye on the pet adoption site. My late beloved 19-year-old cat Luna had passed a week before, and we'd stored her personal effects in a MoonPie box. It felt like fate.

Moon Pie's name quickly begat the nickname Moonus J. Pius, and she gets called Moonus most of the time, or Moonus James when I'm being stern.

Twinkle's government name is Twinkle E. Butt, and I call her that quite a bit because if you say it fast it sounds like Twinkly Butt. The E stands for Ebenezer, and she gets called that a lot as well. She is the orneriest one so the other day I made a joke that I was changing her name to CanUNot.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 8:02 AM on December 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

The Bad Kitty Ranch's current crop of felines are as follows with their "official" names and their nicknames (new ones added as situations arise):

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar aka Dibby, Diggy, DJ Goodchunks, Meester, Meester Boy, Mister Boy, Wiggles, Wiggly, Diggly-Wiggly, Diggy-Wiggy, Bort, Digbort, Digs, Digbert.

Agatha aka The Star of the Show, Sassy Pony,Pony Pony Trot Trot, Aggie Monster, Ags, Aggie, Agafa, Fafa.

Prudence aka Lil Cakes, Cakes, Cakey-Wakey, Prudie, Prudie Cakes, Miss Cakes.

The girls joined us in early 2021, so the nickname list is short, but I expect that will change with time.
posted by Kitteh at 8:19 AM on December 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

My family has so many nicknames for me and so does my wife when she's in a playful mood. Too many to list here but I will say this, the fake name I give to people in public, like at Starbucks or when waiting to be called next in line for some dumb shit, I go by 'Seth Jones'.

What's funny is I gave this name at the one local hair salon and they knew me by this name for years and then I think I went in one day and I accidentally gave them my real name, so now they know I was using this fake name and its a whole anxiety thing that I think about. And now I don't go back there b/c its weird b/c I made it weird in my head. Hehe.
posted by Fizz at 8:22 AM on December 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

All cats are “Bean.”
posted by armeowda at 8:27 AM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

armeowda: by us, all small creatures are "bean," including kids and even me sometimes, according to my mother.

My dog's name was going to be Rosa Canina if I filled out her registration, which I did not -- she was being spayed and never showed, so why bother? As it is, it becomes Rosa Mundi, Rosabel Lee, Rosable Bean, Rosabelita ...
posted by Countess Elena at 8:43 AM on December 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

Finley: Fin, Finners, Finny-pants, Finder binder (like fender bender but with Fin!), Pickle juice, Finny baby, Finnbutt, Finster, Finball, Finderella, Peanut.

Remy: Remers, Remulon, Buddy bud, Mr. Man, Handsome Boy, Remifer.

Emery: Emmers, Emmerboy, (Retired) Lt Col Emery Baxter Puppington III, Pupper man, Puppers, Pupper Butter, Pupster.

We have friends with a blended family so we mashed up their last names (three total; two of the kids have a different last name than their mom) to be the Messerbachbitts.
posted by cooker girl at 8:46 AM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have a friend, Megan, who has three cats named Mushroom, Mango and Moose (or Mousse).

I met someone at a party a few days who has three cats, chip, mint and chocolate.
posted by Gorgik at 9:04 AM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

My kitty Victoria has a very funny meow, it's more like a squeak. So I call her The Squeaker of the House.
posted by JanetLand at 9:29 AM on December 24, 2022 [11 favorites]

all these cats are BEST.CAT!!!

I've had mine for almost 13 years, so the lists are long.

HERBERT: Berpberp, beepbopboop, Herberto, AirBear (ie the French pronunciation of Herbert), the fur stomach, Mi hijo, baby boy, spootie booty, the love bug, the berp etc. (also formerly Baked Potato)

BELLATRIX: Bell, Bella, Belly, bellybutton, smelly belly, smelly bellybutton, trixie doodle doo, bell-litty-loo-la, princess bellybutton, the crazy bell etc., (also formerly French Fry)
posted by supermedusa at 9:32 AM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

We had a dog named MLE (pronounced “Emily”) - her nicknames included Emerson, Emmers, Emlee, Doggers, and Dogalot
We also had a cat Rodeo, he was…destructive, so his nicknames included Shiva - Destroyer of Worlds, Chewy, Asshole, Fucking Cat, and Sweet Boy
posted by dbmcd at 10:43 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

Our orange cat came home from the rescue at almost 25 pounds with the name Big Bertha. We changed it the Mrs. Butterworth. Then the vet told us she was a he and he became Butterball. He has also been called, variously, Refrigerator Purry, Fat Boy Slim (over the years he has slimmed down to about 17 pounds), Butterman, Butterboy, Buddha Boy, Pooper, and Squeaky. Once when I posted about him on Facebook, I was called out for fat-shaming him because I referred to him as our fat cat.
posted by QuakerMel at 10:45 AM on December 24, 2022 [5 favorites]

Zozo, Zozer, Zuzubelle, Zozerizer, Chucklehead, Snugglebunny, Snugglerator, and &*%%$? why did you try to eat *that??!!*.
She now gets free-fed, dry food always available, canned 1x/ day, and is learning to not eat paperboard, plastic bags, bark, rocks, etc., and is so much calmer.

Previous dog was Mook, Booboo (i.e., Yogi), Punkin, Schmoopdog Lickyface McSchmoopyPants, Boogerface.

They are all The Best Puppers and Kitty Muffins.
posted by theora55 at 10:49 AM on December 24, 2022 [3 favorites]

We named our younger cat Boaty McBoatface, which I continue to feel very good about in its own right despite/because of its incomprehensibility to most people, but that's a mouthful so she's also Boat, Boater, Boateeeeeee, The Boat, and Boat-Boat, among other less common variations.

Freyja, the older cat, has just kept being Freyja. Concision does marvels, and she's a real low-energy type that doesn't demand a lot of repeated calling out by name in any case.

Every dog I pass when I'm out in the world is a bud to whom I say hey. Hey, bud. Same for crows, though also I will often address them by their formal name: crow. Hey, crow. Hello, crow. My apologies, crow.
posted by cortex (retired) at 11:10 AM on December 24, 2022 [8 favorites]

Rubus, but Rubadub to all.
posted by Rumple at 11:27 AM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I have zero imagination so I call my cat Iris, Kitty, or occasionally Dumbass or Jerkface, but only when she's being a dumbass and/or a jerkface.
posted by bondcliff at 11:52 AM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am down to one cat, Sketchy. He was named this because I thought it sketchy that he would ever come out from under the bed on his own, after having been driven over to Utah, from Cali. Yet, he is right here on my lap. I call him Boater Kitty sometimes when he sits a certain way.
posted by Oyéah at 1:01 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

When I met the woman who became my (now-ex) wife, she had a grey cat officially named Lady Gray, but was usually referred to as Gray Cat, or Grakey for even shorter. Later we switched to calling her Mang, because that's what her meow sounded like. She was a very cool laid-back cat who lived until she was 19.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:16 PM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Same for crows, though also I will often address them by their formal name: crow. Hey, crow. Hello, crow. My apologies, crow.

I, too, say hello to the crows. When we are walking the dog, we feed them kibble. After 6+ years of feeding them and more than a year of this greeting at least twice a day, not one of our local murder has used this greeting in return. Fuck 'em.

There are a number of the crows we greet by name: Lefty is very brave and comes closer to us than any of the others--sometimes as close as a foot. His left rear claw is missing. We also know Jimmy (Durante) and Jaime (Farr) by sight: they have hooked beaks. And Peggy is missing her left leg entirely. Sometimes I'm tossing food to as many as 25 or 30 of them. We go through quite a bit of dog kibble.

Lately, Sneaky Pete the seagull has been showing up too and pretending to be a crow. He figures he has a good thing, so he doesn't let the other seagulls know.
posted by QuakerMel at 1:24 PM on December 24, 2022 [7 favorites]

The Old Man, Nicky, was such a sweet kitty, and already so old when I met him that I used to call him Grandpa (to which he would frown and say, “I never married.”), but also Old Maaaaan! Old Guy, Old Baby, Old Baby Seasoning, and sometimes Dinosaur, but I mostly addressed him as Buddy, as in “Hey, Buddy! Heyy!”

My sisters and I often address each other simply as “sister!” and “brother!” but also all as “booger” which is short for “booger brain” because my older sister is weird and we all sort of exist in her wake. She is a force of nature, for good or bad.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:25 PM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh yes, I forgot. All of our orange cats have, at one time or another been “booger”.
posted by dbmcd at 1:46 PM on December 24, 2022

Our dog, a Dachshund/Jack Russel mix, is Teddy - short for Teddy Ballgame.
posted by COD at 2:04 PM on December 24, 2022

The hedgehog’s full name is Ms. Daisy Peanut Butter Hedgehog, but we refer to her as the angry teapot.

Our late Gatsby cat was the “simple cat,” while her sister Ariel, who hates everything except Kid Ruki is “murder face.”

Zelda, the dog, is wiggy butt, Zelda Belda, and crooked face (because sometimes when she wakes up from a nap, her mouth is adorably crooked).
posted by Ruki at 2:19 PM on December 24, 2022

I’m pretty basic with my nicknames. Both cats are “kiiiittttyyyy!” when they are exasperating, which is often.

Haha, I can relate. Our orange kitty is officially named Toby, but gets an exasperated "CAT!" when he's being bad. Often used when he runs in front of you while walking down the hall. He's also known as Fuzzbutt, or Mr. Fuzzbutt if he's feeling fancy.
posted by cozenedindigo at 2:21 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

dbmcd, I love the name MLE, for which I have a pleasantly nerdy mental association!

I don't have any really great pet nicknames, and I have too few nemeses to be interesting, but when Mr. eirias and I used to swim regularly, our moniker for the person who usually shared our lane was Splashy McWindmill. For reasons.
posted by eirias at 3:49 PM on December 24, 2022

This is hard, get two to three dogs and " he needs to and they are at the door say she needs her nails clipped and I, look, a pheasant.......
they need to
they need
they.
look at the door or there eyes and it's a mugs game to talk about the dogs when they are in the room. so I use fast mover for dogs then variants. plane. jet. 16. runway, etc.
posted by clavdivs at 4:57 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Mods bless us, everyone!
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:16 PM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

I lost my dog Copper this year. She got old. It was sad. It's still sad.

She had many nicknames and variants thereof, but the most consistent one was an elongation.

Copper-dingle-Copper-doodle-partly-spaniel-partly-poodle.

She was a cockapoo. Which is a stupid word. I prefer cockadoodle.
posted by philip-random at 8:00 PM on December 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

Most of our cats get nicknames in addition to their actual names. Our two four year olds are Inkwell and Oxford, named after the carpet colors we used in the house. Inkwell is Inky, of course, but I have many other names for him like Mr. Boy, Inkle, Binkle, Tinkle Binks, and Binkle the Tinks. Oxford is Oxy but also Oxen, Oxen Doodle, just Doodle, and Doodle Bug. Oxy also has a volunteer gig with the neighborhood watch. Mostly she sits on the back of the couch and stares outside, getting angry at the garbage truck or the neighbors moving their cars.
posted by soelo at 8:01 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Dog names are:

Jasper, aka Jasper Underfoot, Princess, Scruffles, the Floppy Eared Nuisance, and occasionally Muppet
Timber, aka Tuffles and occasionally Moppet (as a slight distinction from Muppet) (we’ve only had her for two months, nicknames are developing)

On a completely different note, shortly after hosting our regular extended family Christmas Eve gathering I observed that “Christmas is a Die Hard movie” which is a Freudian slip I may need to unpack
posted by nubs at 8:48 PM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

We lost our cancer cat at the beginning of May. We were incredibly fortunate to have a few extra years with her after the diagnosis, but it was still a rough time. She had a long list of nicknames, mostly unrelated to her actual name. We called her Tosca because she liked to fling herself off the top of the cat tree. Draculetta, Draculette, or Greta Garbo, because she was a goth at heart. And Mrs. Harry Butts because we’re adolescents.
Animals are the best.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 8:54 PM on December 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

On a completely different note, shortly after hosting our regular extended family Christmas Eve gathering I observed that “Christmas is a Die Hard movie” which is

exactly the phrasing I was looking for ...
posted by philip-random at 9:49 PM on December 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Everybody knows a turkey
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:48 PM on December 24, 2022

I nickname the neighbourhood cats that pass by on my balcony, where I keep a watering can filled for them to drink from.

There's Blue, and Beauty (a stunning black-and-white with Cleopatra eyes), and Enemy Cat (a big fluffy grey tabby with whom my cats have hiss wars through the glass door). And then there's Shadow, the large stocky black tomcat, suspected of the paternity of a litter of kittens produced by the neighbours' sadly unspayed she-cat. (They've finally spayed her now, two litters later.)

One of the adolescent kittens, a gentle little creature, pure black, later started coming round to the balcony. I called her Little Shadow, and the dad became Big Shadow.

Anyway, Little Shadow got adopted by another set of neighbours who've named her Baby, and now she lives next door to me. Baby and my cats are on speaking terms: I open the door and let them sniff noses, and if they're civil, everyone gets treats.

A red fox comes by occasionally to drink and sometimes stops for a nap. I haven't named her. (I assume it's a vixen because she doesn't have the skunkish smell of a dog-fox.) She's a good fox and causes no trouble.
posted by Pallas Athena at 1:07 AM on December 25, 2022 [4 favorites]

She's a good fox and causes no trouble.

This is my favorite sentence I’ve read in some time ❤️
posted by obfuscation at 4:18 AM on December 25, 2022 [8 favorites]

Cyrus is mostly "dog" as he's an only pet at the moment. He also gets called "hungry, hungry hippo," "gobbo butt," "bebe," "bub," and, by my sister, "Cy-Guy."

We had a neighbor near the family home that we all called Moe as long as we knew him. After my dad died, it turned out that Moe's name is Henry, and my dad just called him Moe for obscure nickname reasons, and the rest of us were simply not in on the joke.
posted by the primroses were over at 5:50 AM on December 25, 2022

My cat's name is Ollie, but in his heart he's Oliver Nomwell.

My last cat was named Slinky and I gave her the last name McStinky because we found her as a very young kitten under the back porch where she had been mewing all day before we decided the mother wasn't coming back, and when she was on kitten formula she had this most incredibly noxious gas.

I gave one of my sisters the nickname Emmeline, which a different sister apparently liked because she named one of her daughters Emma Lynn.

A former co-worker almost never washed his hands after going to the restroom. I don't know his real name. In my head he was Dirtyboy.

There was a racist homophobic transphobic micromanager at my last workplace; I had to have them as a phone contact so I put them in as Some Asshole at Work.

My boyfriend is The Esteemed Mr. Pookiepants.
posted by johnofjack at 6:12 AM on December 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

I forgot: Findelbrot (as in Mandelbrot but with Fin) and Findalorian (as in Mandalorian but again with Fin). Finley has A LOT of nicknames.
posted by cooker girl at 6:16 AM on December 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

I can be a prolific naff nickname generator when I start, but I try to reserve that for pets rather than people these days. An exception being that I'm rubbish at describing people by appearance so I do tend to coin mental shorthands for customers, which I'll occasionally use when they come up in conversation with colleagues. Never anything that I wouldn't say to their face, although probably with a bit of well-deserved embarrassment at the reductiveness (e.g. "Polish Greg", who could just have easily been "Stella[r] Greg", "Greg The Builder", "Tennis Greg", "Greg Greg", "Greg across the road" before he moved to London, etc)

Nice bit of verisimilitude I always enjoy in fiction (film, telly, books, games, whatever) is when different people in a group will have different names for each other reflecting their relationships. I love how Sisko calls Dax "Old Man" on DS9. There's nothing like being in a mixed/acquired friends group where half those present call someone solely by their first name and half by their second name or else by completely different diminutives because of the nature or timing of how we all got to know each other, yet everyone always knows who you mean
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:59 AM on December 25, 2022

So my wife named both of our cats. The first because she got him before we met and the second because...because.

Both have names which are animals but not cats.

The first is Lapin because when he was a kitten she'd always call him "mon petit lapin" and it stuck.

The other is Sky Puppy for two reasons: around when we got him (more on that in a minute) we were talking about fruit bats (aka sky puppies) for some reason. She'd never seen one and refused to believe a bat could be cute. I sent her a video of one eating a banana to which her immediate response was, "get me one!" And I said, "if one shows up in a tree we'll keep it." (We don't have fruit bats here, I was not serious in case anyone was worried.)

Which brings me to the arrival of Sky Puppy (the cat.) One Saturday morning 5-ish years ago my wife says to me, "do you hear something?"

"No...."

"I think it's outside."

So outside we go and what do we hear? "Meow!" From about 30 feet up in a tree. He was stuck and scared and couldn't get down. We eventually got him down with the help of a neighbour and their ladder.

He was super affectionate and not afraid of people at all so we couldn't believe that he didn't belong to someone. We took him to the vet to check for a chip: nope. Posted on local groups to see if anyone had lost a cat. No replies.

So, after shots, blood tests, flea treatments, etc. the tiny kitty who showed up in a tree officially became our Sky Puppy.

I'm not so creative with the nicknames. I mostly call both of them buddy (my nephew is also buddy.)
posted by Mister_Sleight_of_Hand at 7:16 AM on December 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

One of Nellie the Cat's nicknames was Lady Digby Chicken Ceasar. She was also Nell-Belle, Neleanor, Nellie the Egg, Mrs. Chicken, and Nelbert. Her full name was Eleanor Caroline. "Caroline" came from her distinct resemblance to Chuck, the head tom of the feral colony where she was born.

My current cat Tommy has a habit of picking up middle names. His full name is Thomas Patrick Benjamin Franklin Wilhuff Alexander Woollcoat.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:45 AM on December 25, 2022

Oh, and Tommy's nicknames include Tom-tom, Tim-tom, Major Tom, and Catpan Tommers.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:10 AM on December 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Fun question and answers. Every cat that I've owned have been named after characters in novels, except one that was adopted with a partner and named after a state. My new cat that I haven't brought home yet because of flight cancellations has a shelter name that is two random letters that mean nothing to me or her current home; presumably not to her. I think I'm going to rename or nickname her Éponine to continue with tradition. (She's shy, picked on by her siblings, craves human attention, and will scratch your eyes out if she feels threatened. I will provide cat tax when I can.)

Pretty much any other nicknames for pets have just been leaving off a syllable or adding a diminutive to their official name. I don't really use pet names for SOs or friends except really boring and obvious ones - and one childhood nickname that that is probably too easy to search for to mention here. (I had a SO who used to call me "parakeet" because of a silly misunderstanding regarding something my family said early in the relationship.)
posted by eotvos at 12:38 PM on December 25, 2022

Also, now that I think about it, I also randomly adopted a cat that came from the shelter with a name from a novel that we didn't change - Flower for a vaguely skunk-colored and shy cat.

There was a big, friendly, free ranging dog that everyone in my neighborhood had a different name for when I was a kid. We called him by his color with a y on the end, which wasn't very creative. There were other neighbors' names. His owners called him Clifford, I think. We became pretty close friends because of that dog.
posted by eotvos at 12:56 PM on December 25, 2022

As far as pet names for people go, almost everyone I've ever known has resisted using them on me, and I have tried to return the favor.

There was that one childhood dentist who called me Punkin, but he was a Jimmy Carter lookalike and his fingers didn't taste bad, so I cut him some slack.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:36 PM on December 25, 2022

The chickens are white lady (lower case, like danah boyd) and grey lady. Black lady died last year.

The dog is Betty, aka Bets or Ratbag.
posted by tangerine at 6:31 PM on December 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Alfonso came from the shelter with that name, and we decided he was for Alfonso el Sabio X de Castile, and therefore his sister kitty must be Berengaria of Navarre. We're like that.

Alfonso is also Ally-fonso (sung to the tune of Lady Gaga's Alejandro), Mister Kitster, Mister A, my little (old) man, and Alfonso [double-barrelled surname]. The last is when he's doing something he knows better than to do.

Berengaria is usually Berry, Miss Berry (sung to the tune of Black Betty), Miss Kitten, Your Royal Rottenness, Berry Bo Banana Fanna, and Berengaria [double-barrelled surname], the last for similar reasons.

The three cats we had before them were named Lionors, Linette, and Laudine, which were all imperfectly spelled Arthurian princesses. A few years after Lionors joined the family, we found a stuffed kitty toy at Ikea that had the same brown/black/white fur pattern she had. After we thought it was her in the dark of the night several times because the coloration was so similar, we dubbed it Lio-neithers.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 6:40 PM on December 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Partner calls our doggo "bubby". Obviously, I call him Doggo.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 5:56 AM on December 26, 2022

I love learning about all the pet names and pet nicknames! Ours don’t usually get lasting nicknames though. The dog is Dexter (named either for the saxophone player or the fictional serial killer, depending on whom you ask), the horse is Duke (both have suitably fancy-pants official names which we never use). Dexter is sometimes referred to as Dexy, Duke sometimes
as Wayne or Bowie. Here’s a picture of Dexter being introduced to Duke.

Our rescue cat is Ji-ji, affectionately referred to as Stinky since she hadn’t learned how to cat properly when we got her.
posted by boogieboy at 10:42 AM on December 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Like Duke the Horse, my childhood dog King had some ridiculously long name registered with the American Kennel Club, but I never knew it. I asked Mom about it once and she said, "It's short for King Something-or-other." He was too big to show anyway, so there was no need for it.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:18 PM on December 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Pet names: My wife is Kitten. My girlfriend is Vixen. My twin boys are The Monkeys. My daughter is Dragon. My himbo orange cat is Goofball. My other cat is Miss Priss All of then are Sassafrass when they are being difficult.
posted by gwydapllew at 5:23 PM on December 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

Three cats are Lillibet, Finn and Rosie.

Lillibet is Lilla, little Lilla love, hey asshole, Little Bit (I actually called her Little Bit when we found her at 6 months, and my husband said "that's not a real cat name" and it was an easy half step from Little Bit to Lillibet).

Finn is Finnegan, Phinneus, Finn-tastic, Finny, Finn-face, and Our Big Orange Boy.

Rosie is Rosita, Rosalie, Rosie Posey, Rosie Posey Pudding Pie, Ro Ro, ChickenShit, and The Void (she is a mostly black tortie)
posted by ersatzkat at 5:25 PM on December 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

We had both a Lily and a Rosie when I was younger. Lily's nicknames included Liliana, Tiger Lil, and Liliuokalani. Our Rosie, like ersatzkat's, was also called Rosie Posey and Rosie Posey Pudding & Pie, and occasionally Rosalinda.

Lily's littermate Libby was e-Lizabeth. Googles, Betsy Non-Wetsy, Elibazeth, Libby Tuna, Goldenguts, and Faucet Feet. Rosie's littermate Olivia didn't get much nicknaming beyond Livvy.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:56 PM on December 26, 2022 [2 favorites]

My cat Baby Goat was named for his love of head butting and vertical leaps with gamboling. He is also called Am Bebe, BB, Big B, Baby G, Sweet G, Lacatnik, and Butterhead.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:56 AM on December 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

My dog is Helo (from Battlestar Galactica) which turned into Helo Monster (like gila monster, get it?) which became Monster, which became H.M. which became Mr. M.
posted by radioamy at 1:51 PM on December 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oona, Oonster, Miss Nibs, Barkley, the sheriff , Sparkleface (cursed glittery wrapping paper)
posted by emelenjr at 5:11 PM on December 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

My house is the home for unwanted pets; three of the five cats came pre-named by the neighbor who later on abandoned them. There's the big, black and white Irene (aka: Big Girl, Pretty Girl, Houdini). There's Bear, the fluffy all black only male (aka: Melvin, Boo Bear, Hairy Boy, Snuffles). There's Precious, the slightly daft Snowshoe cat (aka: Blue Eyes, Mickey Blue Eyes, Sweetie).

There's Lucie, abandoned in an apartment when her people got arrested and my friend the maintenance man had no place to bring her. She's mean, Lucie is short for Lucifer, lol. So she is also: Meany; Bitey Girl; and Knock-It-Off!)

Jersey, who turned up over 16 years ago as a sick kitten is also Grumpy, Old Girl, Crankypants, and Snugglebunny.

We also have a love bird that no one wanted. I "named" her Mitzy, for Mitzpah, but really she's Pretty Bird all day long, ha ha.
posted by annieb at 5:49 PM on December 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

I apologize for chiming in so much on other people's posts; it's just that I've had so many pets over the years that more memories keep coming back, triggered by things other people say.

Houdini

I forgot to mention above that King the Dog was also called Houdini. I assume that Irene got the nickname the same way he did, by being a talented escapologist. He never met a collar or harness he couldn't shake. One time we got another dog he didn't care for; he got both himself and New Dog out of the barn, disappeared for a day, and came back alone and happy.

There's Precious, the slightly daft Snowshoe cat

I once inherited a very feisty calico named Precious. I changed it to Priscilla because she just didn't have the temperament of a Precious, but I usually called her Pris-killa.

She's mean, Lucie is short for Lucifer, lol. So she is also: Meany; Bitey Girl; and Knock-It-Off!)

One of the family cats when my mother was a kid was called Lucifer, but she never knew how he got the name. He had a brother named Rhubarb, named for his tendency to walk around with his mouth open as if he was waiting for his bite of stewed rhubarb to cool.

Sam was an orange classic tabby who didn't have a lot of nicknames for her entire self, but many of her markings and body parts had their own names. We used to joke that the stripe down her spine was her mean streak, and so his name was Meanie.

Mattie was the bitiest cat I ever had. I should have suspected something from the "DOES NOT BITE" sign on her enclosure at the shelter, clearly meant to attract suckers. Anyhow, we took to calling her Lady Bitington or Lady Stripely-Blorply, Duchess of Bitington. (She was also Martha, Marfa, Marfushka Mattie-Cattie, and Skittlepaws.)
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:45 PM on December 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Many years ago, I saw my neighbor out walking her dog Daisy. With her was her little (at the time) girl, who was walking/pulling her stuffed dog on a leash. I asked her what her dog's name was and she said, "Egg," and I've always thought that was a perfect pet name.

That said, the family cat is a little grey cat (found at the side of the road). Her name is Little Edie - grey cat/Grey Gardens. She is a sweetie, but won't wear scarves.
posted by brookeb at 9:26 PM on December 27, 2022 [2 favorites]

Two separate neighbors' dogs: #1 The Trumpet, #2 White Noise.
posted by Namlit at 9:39 AM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

My very good dogs are/were named:

Pax - aka Paxie, Paxie-boy, Pax-dog, and Packy
Sam - aka Sammy, Sammy-girl, Sam-girl, Sam-dog

Pax died last year at 14, Sam is living her best squirrel-chasing life at 15 (they were litter mates). My profile picture is them within a few weeks of when I rescued them (found in a ditch in North Carolina).
posted by Pax at 7:49 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

OMG, Pax, what sweet puppies!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:57 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I must note that, on the subtopic of onsite user names, Wordshore's is the most aptly appropriate user name of them all.

Look upon his profile page, ye Colossal Wreck and despair...

In a word: Yikes!
Such is my especially humble opinion at present.
posted by y2karl at 10:29 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Luna the Tortie is also known as Mayhem, Spooky and/or Darling.
Rosie the Black is also knows as Menance, Inkspot and/or Chubbs. (She is quite chubby).

Spouse tested positive for Covid today. Both kiddo and I are negative and I’ve had TWO negative tests in less than a week.

So I masked up and stocked up today, just in case.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:25 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Smokey, Smokie-dokie, Smokie-dokie-Artichokie, Smokes, Buddy, Bun, Lil Boo, Little Jimmy Smokes.

He doesn't care what we call him, he's almost completely deaf (he's coming up on 20 years old!).
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 6:46 PM on December 29, 2022

Why I chose the name Milo:

- Milo, The Phantom Tollbooth protagonist
- The Descendents' singer, Milo Aukerman
- Milo Minderbender from Catch-22
- Sounds like Miles (Davis)
- I saw a mile marker on the highway when the name came to me.

He's a 27-year-old human now. Still, doesn't answer when I call his name.
posted by not_on_display at 6:57 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]