We took 2 cats from friends whose kids became allergic. One was named Sylvester (we changed to Spot), and the other was named Sylvia Golden Treasure (4 -year old named it...we just called her Sylvia).

We resuced a puppy from a shelter that took trucks down south on a regular basis to collect puppies because neutering is so uncommon down there. They used to name all the dogs from one lot by a common thread...like colors, insects, etc. Ours was from a batch that was named after different types of wine...her name was Cabernet!

That just did not seem right for a floppy-eared, tri-color coonhound/beagle mix. We named her Sadie, and I don't think it was too confusing because she was just 11 wks old at the time.

Someone once told me that it's best to name dogs with 2-syllable names because they're easier to call than 1 or 3-syllable names. Makes sense!

Lol, I totally would keep Debbie

But I could not call my newly adopted 2 year old cat "Morning Glory" without feeling like a crazy cat lady, so I changed it.

Adopted two young-adult dogs -- kept one name (Maddie) because we liked it and she responded to it. The other one was slightly younger and named "Nookie". She barely responded to that, so we changed it to "Abbie". We had visions of us chasing her down the street yelling "Nookie, Nookie ... come here Nookie" and were hysterical laughing.

we kept our rescue pup's name. she was a year old and had a name from her original owner and a very similar name from the foster home. She responded to the foster name, we liked it ok, and we just felt the anxious pup had enough upheaval in her life already. if it had been a terrible name, and/or if she had seemed a shade less anxious, we might have changed it. she's a happy, flourishing dog now!

We added a second name and hyphenated it.

My rescue dog was given at name at his shelter. I think he was someone's pet before that even though he was found as a stray so he probably had a name before that. The rescue group told us that it's easy to change a dog's name if you change his setting at the same time, so we gave him a new name when we brought him home. It took him about a week to learn his name.

Anonymous wrote:My kitten's name was Debbie. That was just terrible, so I changed it.

My other cat's name was Bailey - it was ok, but I changed it too.

LOL I love the name Debbie for a cat!

Our recently rescued dog's original name was Daddy Warbucks. (This is a 10 lb dog.) No way were we keeping that! It took him about a week to learn his new name.

Yes.

My kitten's name was Debbie. That was just terrible, so I changed it.

My other cat's name was Bailey - it was ok, but I changed it too.

We kept it because he was 5 and knew it. It's not what I would have chosen but it was his name. Grew to like it.

I adopted a cat from the shelter and it came w/out a name, so me and my kids picked out a name for him. It was fun for us.

I also adopted another kitty from a rescue group who already had a name. His name was "Peter." Not my choice name for a cat, and the lady there told us we could change it right away.

For some odd reason, he just was "Peter." Just was. I couldn't see him as anything else but a "Peter." So we kept the name.

Funny thing is, when we tell people what his name is, they snicker..."What??! You have a CAT named Peter?..That is crazy!!" I used to laugh at people who had pets w/human being names...now {sigh} I am one of them. Ha!!!!

I have had 3 rescue dogs, 2 from a shelter and we had no idea what the previous names were. We used names we liked. The 3rd dog came via a friend and it had a spanish name, nena. Were not spanish and it's not a real name in my book
We changed it to Madi.
All 3 dogs knew their new names within a couple of days. You just have to call them and give them a treat

Kept it - it worked for us and the poor dog (~3YO) had been through enough traumatic stuff in the recent past - we figured whatever we could keep consistent would be good.
Now, it's a good thing we didn't try to change the name because I swear the dog is SN. Parts of dog-brain just seem to be missing. She couldn't have handled a name change.
I do have a coworker who adopted a dog and changed the name... started by hypenating old name - new name (think "Sam-Fluffy"). Once the dog would respond to that, they slowly phased out the old name. Thus, Sam became Sam-Fluffy became Fluffy.

I kept the name of my cat because she clearly recognized it even though she had been abandoned and the people who rescued her gave her the name a few months prior. I kept my parrots name because he recognized the name and didn't seem to have any trauma associated with the name. (I've read that birds who are abused can have a whole new demeanor with a new name.) The cockatiels I adopted through a rescue group got their names changed because they just didn't fit and didn't roll off the tongue.