Apologies if there is a thread here already but when flicking through show catalogues etc. I often wonder how people choose their kennel names.  So just wondering how did you choose yours?

Ours is the name of the small village my nan grew up in near Leuven in Belgium.  When she moved to England she always dreamed of moving out of the East End slums and back to the countryside.  She eventually got her dream and they named their little house in the country - Lovenjoel.  When choosing a kennel name it was an obvious choice - to us it meant love, joy and the heart of the family.  What better way to sum up our dogs.

So how did you choose yours?

My first three dogs.

Sheba Elsa Tashe    SHEBELTA

My Children

Tho Thomas r Rosa jakk Jack er Erin

Thorjakker

Montreathmnt. this is a local forest that we walk in. K.C. woulnt allow Montreathmont, so we took th o from the end out.

Vellbern  Vell from a Velocette motorbike my now OH and I spent 6 months  of our wild, leather clad youth riding round on, head over heels in the passion of teenage love! and Bern.. well thats self explanitary ... we have Bernese!
(Took us 23 years apart before we got back together, and finally got married 34 years after we first fell in love)
Aileen

I have just taken out a new one for my show dogs

And used my 2 Cardi's first names Caleb and Wiggle to make it but I used a K instead of a C for my name - Kerry

Make's my affix KALWIG

ETA Thats a lovely story Merlot, makes your affix very special then. :)

My mum and dad decided on Briarlow over 30 years ago  I don't know whether there was a road or a place near the Rough Collie breeder of that day of the Rokeby kennel but believe it was something that they saw when they went to mate a dog!

I'm not a breeder but Nando's kennel name comes from his breeders surname and shepherd mashed together to make 'Woodshep' What I did like was that he got his actual name in his pedigree name, so it is 'Woodshep Nando' :)

Combination of mine and my first Ticket bitch's names so Marisa + Misty = Aramisty

About to apply for one that has names of my two collies who died recently (better not say it until it's granted lol).

Oh Aileen, that is so touching, I felt quite moved.

The first 3 letters of my first name and first 4 letters of the breed, the first middle and last letters are my initials, didn't realise that till the certificate arrived.

Mine is my first name and my middle name initials spelt phonetically, so JAYENHOPE JAY (first name begins with J) EN (Middle name begins with N) and the last bit is my surname.  Surprised I was allowed it really.

Mine is ALfi my beautiful Dal boy that we lost at only 18 months old and PAula my name...I added a H coz I though it looked better and of course DAL is my chosen breed :-)
ALPHADAL

Golden Retriever and Malinois = Goldmali. Big mistake considering I now have Papillons and Malinois LOL!!  If I could time travel and change my mind I'd not include any breed reference. It would have been better to do what I did with my cats and use names. My cat breeding prefix is Blondbella from my first queens Blondie and Bella.

Borubears - Boru from my lab whose full name is Brian Boru and Bears as the Mali's are collectively referred to as Malibears in our house!

I had wanted Moonbears as we used to call the girl we lost Megan moonbear but the KC didn't allow that choice.

Rigrunner, because we wanted something that reflected the working side of our Sibes

>ALPHADAL

I'd assumed that it was because of your ALPHA (ie first) DALmatian. :-)

> I'd assumed that it was because of your ALPHA (ie first) DALmatian.

Yes Jan a lot of people think that but no it was because Alfi was going to be my first show dog. It wasn't my first choice..I had one with letters from my daughters names but they refused that and then I had one along the same lines (letters from kids names) but when I saw it printed I didn't like it.
I'm so glad that I got the AL one as we lost him so young, he never made it into the ring but will always be there with us now :-)
Paula

VANAYRES - Van from my first name Vannessa and AYRES from ayres rock as my fav colour is red

Nessa

Mill for my nan that worked in the mills in Scotland and Spice after the spice girls i liked there singing.
MILLSPICE

A lady at the Kennel Club came up with our name. I'd put in 3 applications for names which had all been taken already...names of the spacecraft from the Alien films of which we are huge fans....Nostromo had been our first choice, and we nearly got it until a bit of research found it had been taken by someone in Ireland although never used. If it had been anyother Country in the world but Ireland the KC would have granted it. So feeling very sorry for us, and I suspect not wanting to refund my £70 fee, she did a bit more research and found out that Nostromo wasn't his real name, but part of his real name was Fidanza, and that Fidanza also means trust in archaic Italian. So it sort of ties in with what we wanted in a (very) roundabout way.

Mine is Cardair, it is a mix of my first 2 rough collies, CARla and lAIRD.
20 years ago I bought my first cardigan corgi and have had them ever since, most people in the breed think its a very apt name for cardis...!

Mine is Tarabish, which is a card game. I started with a papillon, and then went to BCs - I had a Red sable pap, got b/w BCs and knew I wanted a red BC eventually, so sort of played around along that line for a while, then had the idea of playing cards. When I found out that Tara was sanscrit for Star, it sealed the deal :)

That said, I'm liking it less and less as time goes on, so might have a re-think

I wanted Luphen which is our website, half of my name & half my hubby's, but the KC wouldn't allow it so I put an 'ex' on the end making Luphenex and they were happy with that. Wish I'd been allowed Luphen though!

Thank you for sharing - It seems that combining family names, dogs names etc. is really popular.  I love how the kennel names are so personal and really represent people, pets and happy times to each of us. 

Merlot - I thought your story was particularly touching.  I'll be honest I couldn't even think of a different kennel name for us so I really feel for people who couldn't get their first choice

Ours is because of our dogs have a penchant for stealing shoes and boots - SCHUNIKKA

> SCHUNIKKA

Love it!!! :)

Loving this thread. While I am miles off needing a kennel name I can't help but think an affix to tie on to my dog's names, and tie us all together would be nice. They're the same thing really aren't they? I'll be wanting something special and personal to me too.

I wanted one with my daughters names Jemsett (Jessica and Emily) but there is a Gemsett - then I thought Jessily - as in Jessily Setters but OH didn't like - we then went for our names Rachel and Ken - Rackens (this was second on our list) - Rackensett was our first choice which I am glad we didn't get as it is to breed specific even though I only have setters still - you never know do you what is on the horizon!

I only have boys and don't really think a Kennel name is necessary for me as I've not done anything with them except show them.  They are very much the product of their breeder - if that makes sense...

BUT choosing a name is something I often do when I can't sleep.  I play around with options, using place and people names, and it sends me right off :)  Actually I'd quite like to apply just to see if it's ok and so I can save it, just in case.

I like reading the catalogues too - some of the names really are _________ .  You can choose any of the following   ... interesting/funny/accidentally rude/a bit daft/quite descriptive/very apt ...  and I do wonder if some breeders really thought through the whole name when adding their pups.  Love em :) 

> I only have boys

I too only have boys but like to link them to me.

and I do wonder if some breeders really thought through the whole name when adding their pups.  Love em :-) 

I use song titles as names and I've got  a bit superstitious as to what I keep now LOL. I started off with All Or Nothing and that was very true -either he won everything in sight or nothing at all, either he was wonderful or awful. Never in between. Believe turned out okay ("Do you believe in life after love?" goes the lyrics and she took over when All or Nothing had died so there was new life after love). Then it went downhill. I thought Crash Boom Bang by my favourite Swedish group Roxette was really funny as a name (and Roxie as a pet name tied in nicely). Well the lyrics go "Every time I fall in love- crash boom bang" -meaning everything goes wrong. Go wrong she did indeed! I can't show her as she is too nervous, yet she started off with a good show career as a pup but then yes crashed. Next came Dreams Come True -very apt as it was my first ever Papillon puppy born after the first attempt only resulted in dead pups so it was a dream come true -especially as out of the 3 pups, this was the only live one. Not an awful lot to say about E or indeed G, but for F I was determined to check BOTH song title and lyrics lol and ended up with Fame, Firework and Fabulous (i.e. the ones that stayed with me), and the lyrics for all talk about success and admiration etc. :)

I love that GM, I have called my show bitch Super Trouper because I love the song and thought it suited her well (she was the smallest of the babes when born). Hope she lives up to it!

I wanted an M word and something that depicted something I liked about the breed, which for me was their movement and their German roots. Marvelmarch.

A small plea!!

Please, please, please spell check your names before submitting them.

For the life of that dog (and on through its pedigree), people will be able to see in black and white that you cant spell / dont understand the meaning of words.

Eg:  Affix...Guilt edged... no, not deliberate but he was gold in colour :-)
  Affix...Charlies Angle
  Affix ...Fasination

So many more but they have slipped my mind. Every catalogue I open.... I see screaming mistakes.

> people will be able to see in black and white that you cant spell / dont understand the meaning of words

Now I've always assumed they were printers typo's!!  I have to admit that my dogs have been misspelt from time to time despite me typing my entry forms...

There are plenty of mistakes in crits too that I always put down to the printing or judges error, or their bad handwriting / note taking on the day :)

My latest is my own engraver mis spelling my woofs name on his breed club trophy.  This, despite me typing it for her in block capitals and her writing it out again in handwriting her husband is familiar with.  Ppffh!

Edited to say: one of my very favourite typo's (presumably) was the dog called affix Frat Boy who was immortalised as Fart Boy.  I really really wish I could remember who it was -  I read it in a Crufts catalogue many years ago

Mm yes I know what you mean -I won't name any because my breed is too small so everyone will know whose dogs they are LOL. One funny thing though: a UK breeder in another breed but mine used Swedish names, and wanted one up to be called Gold Digger. In Swedish that would be Guldgrävare. Note the Ä which is the second to last letter of the Swedish alphabet. Of course, in English it became Guldgravare. Which would translate something like Gold Graver.......making you think of graves.

The best ever though was at home in Sweden, a dyslexic breeder using English names. One animal (I won't say which species!) was to be called "Getting Some Fun Out of Life." It ended up being registered as "Getting same fan aut of life".

> Now I've always assumed they were printers typo's!!

When you consider the mixed population which inhabits the show world, theres no surprise that many cant spell. Spell checker can help with this.

The number of affixes for northern spitz breeds which are 'Artic'-something amuses me - and they're paying for the maintenance of that mistake every year!

> every year!

:-) :-)

> The number of affixes for northern spitz breeds which are 'Artic'-something amuses me

Somewhere out there, I reckon there's a dog registered as Artic Laurie.... There has to be, surely?

Going back briefly to the original subject...

I've mentioned before I had nursed a certain word for a while which I was hoping might be my kennel name one day, even though I have no reason to register one at present. Recently found out there is a company registered with that name, which has no connection at all with the name's history and is located in another area of the country.

I have been looking into historical manuscripts and found an earlier spelling of the word (671 AD, when the word I wanted was first recorded 680 AD) but it only differs by one letter. Is that one letter difference enough for the KC, do you think? Especially as it doesn't conflict with any existing kennel affixes - just brings up this one company on a Google/company house search.

I dont understand the significance of companies with the same name as your affix.

My affix ( and website) are the same as one of the largest DIY/ kitchen showroom companies in Belgium....inadvertently of course :-)

> Recently found out there is a company registered with that name

Have the KC told you they would reject the name on that basis?  If you're really keen on having the name, why don't you just apply anyway.  It would be a shame to hang on for years and then find out another dog person has snaffled it :)

>A small plea!!

>Please, please, please spell check your names before submitting them.

Don't count Hetty in that - thanks to the KC not letting me have Luphen as my affix, I was one letter short for wanting to call her 'Let Me Entertain You' - I was dead set on that name as it goes back to her father and she was quite the character as a puppy and I suspected she would live up to it, also I like my names to start with L and I'm a huge Queen fan! But even though I asked if I could have an extra letter if I paid extra (long shot, but apparently you can do it in the US), I had to settle for 'Let Me Entetain You' which I've never been quite satisfied with. They wouldn't accept 'U' instead of 'You' and I didn't like 'Entatain' or 'Ntertain', though I'm starting to think 'Ntertain' would have perhaps worked. Still, I send it in correctly spelt and most secretaries 'corrected' it in the catalogue! :-D

Family names  Roger Shirley  Russell Neil. eventually became my  kennel name Roshinru

in memory of my dad who loved dogs his name 'roy' and then the first part of our surname 'champ' put together so my dads name will be first on the name of any dog we ever have. Our house names is this also and im sure my dad would be very proud to be linked to all my babies i have today :)

I lost my youngest daughter 7yrs ago (although it still feels like 7 minutes ago!).  I had my affix as DanisDream, it's my way of involving her.
xx

Many a time it is not that people can't spell but there's a dog with the correctly spelt name so they vary fhe spelling slightly.

Some years ago we struggled to think of a name till my eldest son reminded us of something he used to say when small. I had 5 young children and we often travelled to France, Wales etc for holidays. To keep costs down en route we used to buy a tray of pop from our local cash and carry. On long hot journeys the kids, especially Adam would say' Dad, can I have a can, Dad, can I have a can Dad etc) This kept gettting shortened to 'Cav a Can'.
Hence our affix Kavacanne was born :-)

Mine is "Border" as in border collies and "force"  to make "Borderforce"...hopefully a force to be reckoned with!!

The bitch I kept from my last litter is called "Borderforce Wicked Witch" ...unfortunately she is living up to her name! LOL!