How did your bird(s) get it's name?

[Buffy]

Whenever I'm reading the threads, I find myself wondering how people pick the names their birds have, so I just thought I'd go ahead and ask how your bird got its name. I'll start:

 

I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan, so when I got Echo, that was the name of the main character in his show 'Dollhouse'.

 

Thumper was originally supposed to be Sully after the movie 'Avatar'. However, he would thump his foot so loudly and frequently that the bird breeder told me it would drive her crazy because she could hear him thumping from the nursery all over the house. She said grey babies frequently thump and dig, but he took it to a whole different level. I would get so tickled visiting with him and watching him thump his foot, so when I would go visit him each Saturday, I'd say 'bring out my Thumper!' And ofcourse, it stuck. I never could call him Sully. I should have known then that he was going to always be in something!

[MarcusCAG]

What a neat idea for a thread! And that's so cute about Thumper--I love it!

 

Anyway, if I'm being completely honest, Marcus was really kind of named after one of our favorite characters in the sci-fi show Babylon 5. When we adopted our Beaker, our Quaker parrot, he was supposed to be my husband's for all intents and purposes, even though I would primarily care for him; because I wanted a Grey but we couldn't afford one at the time. So my husband picked the name 'Beaker' for our little green man due to his (my hubby's) love for science and experimentation, and I was fine with that.

 

But with Marcus... he came into our lives so quickly, and although I had wanted to name my Grey-of-the-future "Jeffrey" if it was a male, my husband said absolutely not!! So I kind of was like, Well, he's supposed to be my bird, Beaker's your bird, and my husband was like, Anything but Jeffrey. So we threw out a few names while we were driving home with this lovely Grey in a carrier on my lap, and my husband suggested finally, "Marcus?" And the character on Babylon 5 was so loyal, and honorable, and true, that I couldn't help but think of good things when I heard the name. So I said, "Marcus is good," and that's how he got his name; and honestly I can't see him as anything other than Marcus now, he's my baby boy. :)

[Lambert58]

Our green cheeks: Rusty has a very red belly, so it fit, Dusty, his buddy, because it rhymed! Though we refer to the pair as "the pickles" cuz they're mostly green They both have extensive vocabularies and always say "PICKLES!" or "Pickles are CUTE!" when you approach them. they're adorable until you get within beak range.

 

Merlin and Maddox, I have no idea why we named them that it was just kinda a spur of the moment thing, but they stuck. Chilly was named that because she's so calm... chillin'

 

Leo was Cleo until the DNA test, so we just shortened it up a little. Willow just seemed... right?

 

Funny how it all happens.

[Luvparrots]

I named my female grey Ana because I like the name is sounds so delicate and regal and the Grey got attached because it just sounded great. Ana Grey is a very sweet and regal little lady so it fits. Now Sully is aka Solomon. When the pet store got he was called Butch because when they got him he was totally plucked but I couldn't call him such a name because some day he will have a royal robe of green feathers to cover his plucked body. And he is working on his new robes slowly but someday. Anyhow, Sully is always stately and regal albeit naked or not. Louie is such a clown and he came with the name so I wasn't going to change it as he called himself Louie already. Now that I know his personally, the name fits like a glove.

Edited January 12, 2011 by luvparrots

[Birdnut]

This is a great thread! I love the stories so far.

 

We basically named our first three birds after drinks in the Whole Foods store: Izze, the lovebird; Tazo, the female blue crowned conure; and Jamba, the male blue crowned conure.

 

We broke with that theme in naming our little female blue headed pionus Iris. She had such big, soft eyes, and she was green on the bottom and purple/blue on top.

 

The cockatoo is Gwyneth -- a Welsh name meaning "whiteness; brilliance." We call her Gwyn for short. (We broke with the bird store tradition of naming cockatoos with Australian-themed names, although later I thought Shela would have been a cool name.)

 

The sun conure is Daisy, a word derived from "day's eye," a reference to the sun.

 

The parrotlet is Pixel, the smallest thing we could think of. It started out to be Pixie, 'cause she was like a little fairy, but my husband thought of Pixel, and it stuck.

 

We named our Grey Moussa after the African drum and dance master, Djeli Moussa Diabate. We went to a drumming workshop that Moussa presented, and enjoyed him and his stories. We had said if the Grey turned out to be a male, we would call him Moussa. It is a fairly common African name, based on an Arabic form of the name Moses. If he had been a female, we were going to call her Queenie, after the wise woman in the Lark Rise to Candleford series.

[Lambert58]

This is a great thread! I love the stories so far.

 

We basically named our first three birds after drinks in the Whole Foods store: Izze, the lovebird; Tazo, the female blue crowned conure; and Jamba, the male blue crowned conure.

 

We broke with that theme in naming our little female blue headed pionus Iris. She had such big, soft eyes, and she was green on the bottom and purple/blue on top.

 

The cockatoo is Gwyneth -- a Welsh name meaning "whiteness; brilliance." We call her Gwyn for short. (We broke with the bird store tradition of naming cockatoos with Australian-themed names, although later I thought Shela would have been a cool name.)

 

The sun conure is Daisy, a word derived from "day's eye," a reference to the sun.

 

The parrotlet is Pixel, the smallest thing we could think of. It started out to be Pixie, 'cause she was like a little fairy, but my husband thought of Pixel, and it stuck.

 

We named our Grey Moussa after the African drum and dance master, Djeli Moussa Diabate. We went to a drumming workshop that Moussa presented, and enjoyed him and his stories. We had said if the Grey turned out to be a male, we would call him Moussa. It is a fairly common African name, based on an Arabic form of the name Moses. If he had been a female, we were going to call her Queenie, after the wise woman in the Lark Rise to Candleford series.

 

I love the names you gave them! What stands out is that you put such thought into it. It's indicative of the fact that you're a great parront

[birdhouse]

It is interesting to see the different names. I think this thread will be a lot of fun!

 

Sundance, my teil swaggered around like a western outlaw. He really wanted you to think he was bad*$$. But even though the Sundance Kid was known as a great gunman, he wasn't supposed to have killed anyone until his final shootout.

 

And it was obvious Sundance was always going to be Theo's side kick. It was love at first sight & she ruled the roost.

 

Theo - Theodora was named after the Byzantine empress. Enough said?

 

Phenix, my Grey, was a rescue with murky prospects. With the maroon tail, grey coloring & my hopes for his future, the mythical Phoenix almost seemed to fit.

 

My Quaker , Charm was just simply the most charming little bird. Cute & adorable as they come.

 

I named my Ekkie Kura because I read somewhere that it was an Aboriginal word for treasure. The perfect description from the right part of the world. I saw later where it also means treasure house in Japanese.

[judygram]

We had a similar thread that I pulled out of the vault that tells how some of our fids got their names.

 

http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?11022-How-did-you-name-your-Grey&highlight=grey+names

[Elvenking]

I named my grey Issac after Issac Newton. I almost named him Pepper but then changed my mind. I wanted to pick some historical physicist to name him after and Einstein had been used many times. Also, it seemed kind of cool to have a flying parrot named after the father of gravity.

[Birdnut]

I named my grey Issac after Issac Newton. I almost named him Pepper but then changed my mind. I wanted to pick some historical physicist to name him after and Einstein had been used many times. Also, it seemed kind of cool to have a flying parrot named after the father of gravity.

 

This is a great name. I had considered Newton as a name, also after the physicist.

[Jingles]

We had a little red lorikeet that I named Jax... don't know why now... But when we got Jasper, I wanted something to go with Jax... AND, twilight was really big and I liked the name Jasper...so, Jasper and Jax... (we don't have Jax anymore)

 

So, yes, honestly named after Jasper in Twilight! lol

[bran]

When I went to get Dexter they told me his name was "Twix" or "Twixie"... don't get me wrong I love the candy bar, but I just couldn't have my handsome Timneh be called "Twixie". On the way home we thought of a few, I asked him what he thought about Dexter, I got a response. I think it was close enough to "twixie"... so I called him "Twixie Dexter" for a couple weeks, and then just switched to Dexter. Great Transition... and boom, now he likes to use his name frequently!

[hammco]

I have the most boring story of all! Timmy's name is, well, the name he came to me with.....Since he is a Timneh his first owners named him Timmy! WOW huh........sorry for the lame story hahahah!!

 

Pete (parakeet)- my four year old son picked him out at the pet store and named him after his best friend in kindergarden, Pete Jackson (thats petes whole name, but we just say "Pete")

 

Sam (teil)- again, my son picked it out...have no clue why!

[Barbara2]

Rocky was our first bird and he is a rehome so he came to us with his name. His first owner named him that because he rocks back and forth on his swing so much.

 

Paco is actually short for Pablo Picasso. I was in art all my life (taught it for 23 years) so I wanted a spanish name and I like Picasso.

 

Neo had many names before I settled on Neo. I wanted an African name with meaning. Neo means "gift" in an african language.

[MarcusCAG]

I have the most boring story of all! Timmy's name is, well, the name he came to me with.....Since he is a Timneh his first owners named him Timmy! WOW huh........sorry for the lame story hahahah!!

 

It's not lame! Marcus came with another name too but--we just could not call him what those other people named him, so we knew we had to give him a better and more appropriate name instead. And now he uses it occasionally, himself, so we think it's worked out okay in that regard.

 

Timmy is a nice name, though. I knew it was "Timmy the Timneh" when I first started reading your posts.

[Morana]

In our country Grey's are called Zako, but Z has check mark over it (it is a letter which doesn't exist in engl.). For that reason my mother started calling him Zako, Zako (but just with slightly different accent), then she shortened it in Zak (with check mark over it) and he learned it very quickly so there was no point in changing it. I wanted the name Mike but he didn't like that one , nor did my mother.. .-S

[Pandora]

hello

my little pandora has been named as I am spiritually interested.

pandora stands for our hope.

Pandora's box was opened and out from a lot of good and bad but was shut out of fear closed box before hope could come out and when the box was opened so we got hope back.

so therefore I felt that my little girl to have hope name.

[animalINSPIRED]

When I put a deposit down on Averi I knew there would be a huge debate over her name, and I wasn't disappointed. Even though Averi was my bird, everyone wanted a say. I wanted her name to have something to do with her. My mom threw out tons of names and gave far-strecthed reasons for what they have to do with African Greys. She suggested Ellie, because she's always liked that name for an Elephant and Elephants are Grey.:confused: I believe my Dad was the first to suggest Avery. I had liked that name for a little girl for a long time and I thought it'd be perfect for my flighted Grey, kind of like aviary and aviation. My mom suggested Aerial for a girl (again since she was to be flighted) and Greyson for a boy (for obvious reasons). These were my top name picks when I found out she was a girl. Avery just seemed to fit her better; she was bold and independent, even as a baby. I decided to do Averi as it looked a little more feminine than Avery. I have plans to get another female CAG in the next year, and as long as the name fits her personality, she will be named Aerial. And many, many years in the future I'd like to get a male TAG named Greyson.

[rbpittman]

Wow, such inspirational stories. Let's see we have:

 

Sterling - Umbrella Cockatoo - came with the name, but we kept it since he was like sterling silver in our eyes.

 

Dixie - CAG - My husband, being the red neck he is, commented that I had made the appropriate choice in birds as she is "grey" and we live in the south, she is a southern belle. She at once tranformed herself into Dixie Bird Grey (all southern women have at least three names). Hence the name Dixie.

 

Beau - CAG - Given that I have a southern belle already we had a good foundation for that old "soul" of a gentleman, and Beau is every bit that. He is General Beauregard Grey.

 

Blue - Sun Conure - My son named him, he had the smallest amount of blue under those beautiful green wings (he was only a few months old) and my son thought he would get more. He is officially Tequila Blue, since he mimics a tequila sunrise.

 

Bean - Sun Conure - My son's favorite books when he was small were about a cat named Bean. Now Bean was only a few months old when he came to live with us, so of course he became Bean (because he was Green). Make sense? It did to my son.

 

Morgan - Panama Amazon - Have to blame my daughter on this one. She looked at him and declared him a pirate's parrot, especially since he was wearing little "pants." (The ultra fluffy little legs.) Captain Morgan he became (and the rum was another reason - she is 21 - her uncle bought her a bottle for her birthday).

 

The four parakeets - Eenie, Meeni, Miney & Moe

 

I should have named the conures Phobos & Damos (Fear & Chaos) as that is more their personalities, but hindisght is always twenty/twenty.

 

I'll include the dogs here since I have the chance - all three are Pugs and we picked names for them before they came along, but knowing they were on their way - while at a chinese restaurant - Chow Yun Fat, Sushi Bar & Mushoo Pork. Chow is very much as elegant and beautiful as his namesake, Sushi looks more like a sausage roll and Mushoo is a little pig.

 

Thanks for the thread, it's great!

[Mama CJ]

My girl is a recent rehome so she was named already but I love it! Her name is Millie. She was born/hatched on January 1, 2000. Millie is short for millennium!

[thenabrd]

we have to start with our dog, a male siberian husky. our son had just finished a paper for school about hermes. considering a husky's personality and traditional use as a sled dog we thought hermes was a great name for him. when we got our peach front conure i looked to see what greek deity was about birds or had a bird. athena had an owl, so we had our athena! well 2 years later we found out athena is really a he, so we've shortened athena to thena. we just lost our rescued husky mix female, lily, to a brain tumor. but at one point we also had a box turtle i named herman. (we had greek deities, so why not herman and lily munster, lol) now we're about to adopt a grey named honey. not really a name i like. so i've done some searching for a deity that represents honey or bees, to honor her current name and its a roman deity named mellona. she'll be called lona. we'll go slow on that so she doesn't get confused too much. it's kind of cool because if you take hermes and athena (both greek) and see what the romans did, hermes is mercury and athena is minerva. all those m's, it just seems meant to be in a weird birdy way!!!

[chelseaB]

I named Biscotti pretty much for sentimental reasons. My mom was Italian and I always loved the way she said "biscotti", not the americanized way that I say it. She too was an animal lover and always encouraged my passion for all things feathered & furred.

She passed away in 2008 so when I got Biscotti in 2009, I decided to name him after the word I missed hearing so much. Oddly, when he says his own name it sounds more like my moms Italian version than my americanized version.

I know she would love her "grandfid" very, very much.

[Morana]

So here's to Biscotti!:-)

[thenabrd]

what a great name!! i love the reason you chose it!!

[chezron]

I am afraid my story is rather simple compared to the rest. Brutus got his name because he was so much bigger than his flock mates. His feet seemed ENORMOUS! When I picked him up I told my husband, "He's a brute!" ....so it segued into Brutus