Put name labels inside. No name on outside. No pets or anything.
"hey, Cathy! I am a friend of your folks. You are growing up so fast! Come let me take a picture my camera is in the car over there ."

"Hey! I have a bulldog, too! He's just a puppy. Want to see him?"

I do not put names on my kids backpacks for safety reasons. You could do monograms/initials if you like the look.

To OP, just don't. It's hard to pass them onto anyone else, and is totally unnecessary from a kid knowing their own backpack thing. Order some labels (like from Name Bubbles or wherever) and stick it on the inside of the backpack. That's what we do to help the teachers (and we put labels on everything else (hats, gloves, extra clothes, water bottles) too.

Anonymous wrote:The responses are so interesting here.

I look at it as an easy way to minimize risk.

Things do happen. Look at Relisha Rudd from DC many years ago. I’ll take every precaution I can.

What does having a name on a backpack have anything to do with Relisha Rudd?

Relisha was an example of how children are kidnapped/trafficked by an adult the family trusted. He groomed her and her mom to trust them. The mom covered for her disappearance. I don't know how having a name in a backpack would have changed anything