I am asking what people think of the names they call their dogs and if when you have rescued a stray dog rather than keeping the name the kennel staff gave, re-named the said dog and how the dog reacted to this?

I have had a dog now for 7 months, when born he was named 'Starsky' but soon became known as 'Fatman'....I never liked him being called 'Fatman' because he was fat but now he is nicely streamline! so I reverted back to his original name of Starsky and he seems not to like it....When I call him off lead outside he will not really react and if in doors will start to whine- this whining was a major thing in his life but has stopped now only when his name is mentioned. Now I have been saying to him Boo Boo and there seems to be no nervousness with this name and does not whine when my son goes over for a cuddle when he his in his bed?
Earlier on I told my boy to say Boo Boo and see what he does and he went running up to him [ with no whining I may add] This dog is nearly 5 years old why would he  suddenly like being called something else?? And more importantly is it wrong to start calling him but something else.

At our center we often encourage people to change the names of the dog. Sometimes if a dog has been badly treated it's name would often be used before something bad happened (I am talking handovers not strays) and therefore when the name is used it reacts badly.  For strays....sometimes changing the name may take away a connection to the re-homing center. If the dog was unhappy for whatever reason it again may associate the name with the experience. Once the name is changed, depending on the age of the dog, it soon gets used to it and if used in happy circumstances....looks forward to being called something new.

Not saying this is always the case, but we often find it to be true.

Both my rescue dogs have had name changes and they both adjusted to their new names really quickly. The first dog's name wasn't so bad but had a letter t in the middle that I knew would be "dropped" when calling his name so we changed it to a name that had the same vowel sound at the end and the same number of syllables. The second dog had a name that I just couldn't imagine myself calling out so his name was also changed :-)

I had a bitch returned to me that had been called Susie. Nice enough for a little dog, but this was a very forceful Munsterlander ;-) We changed it to Krishna and she was more than happy with it. I wouldn't hesitate to give a dog a new name if I didn't like the old one.

Thank you for your replies...

Well he seems to like being called  Boo Boo so think that will stick.
I remember when I was young having a stray cat come to live with us she had kittens in our coal shed so eventually she moved in and called her lots of names but would react to nothing and hearing radio 1 at work one day heard this woman say her cat was called honeybun... I thought at the time what a stupid name but after talking to the cat and saying lots of other names she loved Honeybun! 

my older boy had a few names and he answers to them all.
so i would say go ahead and call him BOO BOO if thats what hes ansrewing too.
why not.

weve changed our girls name we got her 3weeks ago but shes only 4months old her name was maddie ...lovely name for a child ...but not a big gsd lol
Edit to say didnt take long at her to get it :)