Banksia Park Puppies

6 Fun Tips to help you choose the pawfect puppy name!

What’s the second hardest decision after choosing your perfect puppy or dog? Why of course, choosing a name! A name not only sums up your paw-pal’s personality but also something you as the owner will be using quite often! Some dog owners pick out a name before they have met their puppy or dog, while others can take weeks, even asking friends and family (or an occasional stranger) for their opinion before deciding. So how do you narrow down your options and pick the pawfect name for your paw-pal? We’ve got 6 fun tips to help you choose:

Tip 1: Use a baby name book or app.

We know babies aren’t quite related to puppies but hey, they’re both cute and they both require a name! It also helps that baby name books are alphabetical and cover every practical (and interesting) name discovered.

Tip 2: Use a map.

If you’re fond of travelling and or love some of the names towns or landmarks are called then why not use them. We’re surrounded by amazing places that hold significant meaning for us and using a place name for your dog can help keep that travelling nostalgia alive!

Tip 3: Hold a competition.

On Instagram, we love to post ‘Name A Puppy Competition’! Our followers enter by commenting on our post with their name suggestion(s) for one or two of our future parents. We also mention any competition conditions, such as only names starting with a certain letter. We receive hundreds of entries and many names are ones we would never think of, are from a different culture and or have specific meanings behind them. Our winning entry receives a prize and recognition for naming our puppy which makes the process worthwhile and unique.

Tip 4: Ask a kid.

Kids have a beautiful imagination and make up the coolest names! They seem to have a knack for blurting out what seems at the time like a crazy word but actually perfectly describes a situation or object. Use this to your advantage and invite your or your friend’s child to play with your puppy or dog and ask them for a cool name suggestion, it may surprise you!

Tip 5: Observe your puppy/dog:

Puppy and dogs are amusing to watch and can find fun in almost anything. They have their usual traits of eating, sleeping, digging, chewing, running and jumping but if you watch your puppy regularly you’ll notice that it may have some interesting colour markings or personality quirks. These quirks make your dog unique from most other dogs and can be an awesome way of thinking up a name. Here at Banksia Park Puppies we have used observation on many occasions to name our future parent dogs. We have a beautiful female Cocker Spaniel named Swan. Although her name needed to start with the letter ‘S’ like her mum Sari (which is one way we track bloodlines) it perfectly describes her elegant and graceful personality, physique and temperament, which is like a ‘swan’.

Tip 6: Lucky Dip.

So you’ve narrowed down your options but are at a stand-still! There’s a couple of names that you love and know will suit your dog but you are struggling to decide. That’s when a lucky dip can help! Write down your favourite dog names and place them in a hat or container, close your eyes and pick one out. If you find yourself feeling disappointed straight away with the name you picked then you know that name can be removed from the hat. Even though lucky dips work by staying with the first choice we do realize that choosing a dog name is an important process and learning the names you don’t want (using a fun and creative game) will definitely help you narrow down your options quicker!

So now that you’re inspired or have hopefully chosen a name for your beautiful puppy or dog you will definitely have a story to tell about the process that went into carefully choosing your paw-pal’s pawsome name!

Has your dog’s name made the top 100 popular names of 2017 according to Medibank Pet Insurance?