I have just received a message from The KC saying that the name I am applying for to register my dog will not be allowed because it contains the word 'heart' which, they say, is an affix. When I applied for my affix 16 years ago (it's Aramisty), I was told that I couldn't have Aramis because it was a word in common usage so they wouldn't anyone to have it as an affix. It therefore beggars belief that the word 'heart' can be an affix surely?

I'm sure there are plenty of dogs with the word 'heart' in their KC name which isn't that person/breeder's affix so if you know of any please can you tell me so I can pass this on when I phone The KC back.

Many thanks, M x

Don't know about it used on its own but I know it is contained in at least one  affix in my breed

I know dogs who are called xxxxxx Heart n Soul and yyyyyyyy Affair of the Heart in my breed plus more on the Activity Register - will have to look at a recent catalogue lol

This happened to my friend years ago she resubmitted the name and got it :-)

Thanks but they've already taken payment so not sure I'd get away with that lol.

Hearts was an old Welsh Springer kennel (as in Fashion Plate of Hearts, Diplomat of Hearts)

This happened to me when trying to register my last litter. I wanted the word Flying in all the names. eg. Foxbriar Flying High, Foxbriar Flying the Flag etc. I was told the same as you, that Flying was an Affix so couldnt have it. I also was not allowed to shorten it to Flyin' either so eventually went for Fly instead which worked for most of the names. But I did have rethink a couple as Flying Start  didn't work for example. Irritating because I had 8 names with Flying as the second word but couldnt work out 8 with Fly as the second word so had to have it as the last word in one and had to use Flies in a couple of the names.

Like you when applying for my affix I had a name refused because they said it was commonly used for registering puppies. I wanted  Sonata which as well as a piece of music is the first 3 letters of my first name and the last 3 letters of my last name. But that was refused. It does seem surprising to me that such a common word as Flying should be allowed to be an affix.

I am also sure I have heard of dogs with the name Flying Colours or Flyin Colours which was one of my names. There doesn't seem to be any logic with the KC.

I always thought if you had an affix to uniquely identify your dogs you could use most thing and Flying and Heart seem such obvious choices to make up a name it does seem a bit silly.
I know it is frustrating as I was set on a name in one of my litters for my own puppy and the feeling when it was refused was one of total shock as I had been set on it from day 1. I can't remember even what it was now LOL

Is it because the word was wanted to be repeated in more than one name, which means it could be confused ass an affix as opposed to just a word, and that is where the conflict lies?

Surely that can't be the reason as I usually choose a theme and repeat on word in all the puppies. For example a lot of mine have Light in the name. All seems strange to me.

Not in my case as I have done this with other litters I have the surprise litter and the news litter and the American litter. All have the same word in every name.

The affix Hearts is registered to The Late Mr t Arthur.

wanted  Sonata which as well as a piece of music is the first 3 letters of my first name and the last 3 letters of my last name. But that was refused.

There's a wellknown kennel called Sorata so I bet that was the reason -just too similar.

My last litter, registered at the end of last year, all had 'heart' in the names. Maybe it depends of whether someone in your particular breed uses the heart affix.

What I meant is they don't like you repeating a word if it's similar to an affix, where if only one pup had the word then it might pass.

Heart N Soul was obviously an imported dog and as such the KC would have no control over his name, however there are a couple of dogs registered with affix Wild at Heart and a litter registered in March this year has 3 puppies with names that contain the word heart.

yes snomaes--Hubert Arthur had Hearts (WSS), the forerunners of some of the most successful WSS kennels (Dalati, Tregwillym, Ferndel).

This business with choosing an affix that hasn't been used before is getting to be a nightmare.   Plus the fact the various KCs don't recognise those used in other countries either.   We registered our Kennel Name out in Canada - no problem.   When we returned to the UK it was quite another matter.   Somebody in the UK, in another breed, had registered the same name so even if we slightly altered the name, added a bit, it was still refused.   I approached the owners of the UK registered name as I knew they were no longer breeding but was told 'good, the KC are doing their job but (get this!) if we paid them a 4-figure sum, they'd agree to allow us to 'take over' the name.   Even if I was heartbroken not to be able to use the name we'd been breeding and showing under out in Canada for 15 years, no way could we find that kind of money.    So we chose another name (the original one was the Roman name for the town we lived near in the UK) which was somewhat similar, but different and that was accepted.    We'd bought 7 hounds back with us, most of then bearing our original affix and shown with that original name (imported dogs can't be changed) but those coming down from them now carry the new name - heaven help those doing research in the future, if they don't know!!

No doubt as others have said, Heart was already granted and maybe to a significant kennel in the past too - those names would be protected for posterity.  

But I digress - As for names of puppies, I wanted Denver (it was a D-litter) but that was refused because Denver is an Affix here.  At least they came back to you - with that puppy, they put another D-name on him (Duddenhoe) which was just ridiculous even if it was part of the name of the village we lived in at the time.

Mystery solved (sort of). In 1965 someone at the KC saw fit to allow someone to have the word 'Hart' as an affix which is why I had problems with wanting Hart to Hart at Aramisty. They have now allowed Heart to Heart at Aramisty instead (not exactly what I wanted, as I'm a big fan of the old tv series Hart to Hart, but never mind). Unbelievably, 49 years later, Hart is still 'active' so thinking maybe I will apply for another affix with 'Hart' in it somewhere eg 'Hartside', any ideas folks?

Certainly more than one of our breeders in my breed been active for 50+ years

I always have a theme for my litters and I wanted "rain" as last year was a crappy summer. I was told I couldn't use it as it was an Affix. I have now discovered that a couple of my dogs KC names are the same as other kennels names although the affix is different, so can't really see the problem. (Does that make sense?)