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Puppy NamesApril 13, 2008 Midst the gnashing of alligator jaws, progress is being made. The swamp isn't drained yet -- I still haven't finished the Very Last Edit of Mud of the Place -- but I'm in the homestretch, and some of the alligator snoots have been firmly tied shut: truck repairs have been made (don't ask me about my credit card bill) and Uhura Mazda is ready for re-inspection; the clean-up phase of one copyediting job is nearly ready to send off. Unlike my 2007 tax return, I must add, in the interest of full disclosure. I'm gonna start that tonight. Honest. So I've finally got a tentative plan in place to bring home my puppy: head off-island on Friday the 25th, stay overnight at my sister's, drive to upstate New York on Saturday (possibly with niece Rozzie riding shotgun), meet dogs and people on Saturday afternoon, lay over Saturday night, hang out more with dogs and people on Sunday morning then head back with puppy, stay Sunday night at my sister's, then catch a morning ferry home on Monday. Sound reasonable? So far, so good. Meanwhile I've been reading How to Raise a Puppy You Can Live With and thinking about what to name the puppy. Yeah, I know there are books out there on names to give the puppy, the kitty, the horse, and the kid. I can't believe anyone names anything out of 1001 Names for Your Whatever, but evidently they do, or at least they think about it long enough to buy the book. My book would be more along the lines of How to Pick a Name for Your Whatever. Here's a short version. You can't really name the puppy till you've met him or her, and when you do actually meet the puppy, the options may seem so infinite that you'll settle too quickly on something boring, inappropriate, or overdone. An awful lot of malamute puppies seem to wind up with names like Juneau, Kodiak, Yukon, Denali, or Bear. (Rhodry's father was a Bear -- Pooka Bear of Xanth -- so we're not knocking Bears.) Around the time Rhodry-to-be was born, I narrowed the field to names in Katharine Kerr's Deverry novels, which I was immersed in at the time. The puppy who picked me was a boy, which narrowed the field further, and his personality was so Rhodry that other possibilities fell quickly by the wayside. His litter name was Han Solo -- nearly all of them had names from Star Wars -- and now that I think of it Han Solo and Rhodry Maelwaedd have a fair amount in common. Things I want in a puppy name:
This last wasn't a consideration when I was naming Rhodry, but my pup-to-be's father's name is Trouble (Masasyu's Here Comes Trouble) and the two mothers are Mayhem (Masasyu's Bound and Determined) and Sara (Masasyu's Affairs of the Heart). These are powerful, inspiring names, so I've put them in the cauldron. When Rhodry was born, I was immersed in fantasy/science fiction, so f/sf was a natural source. These days what I'm immersed in is music, and it didn't take me long to settle on Canadian songs and singer-songwriters. (Does this sound like a Jeopardy round or what? "Canadian singer-songwriters for $100!") Currently James Keelaghan's Home is on the boombox, having just replaced Stan Rogers's Northwest Passage. In Uhura Mazda's CD player is Garnet Rogers's Get a Witness. There's more, lots more, on deck. Northern names for a northern breed dog -- why not? So here are some ideas. Keelo (JK's nickname) or Keela (female version) Compadre Corazón -- this is partly a private joke, because I keep hearing a line in the "Red River Rising" chorus as "Corazón the other side," which of course it isn't. It's "Cory's on the other side." Cory would be the nickname. She's kin to "Darling Corey," who's asleep while the revenuers are riding in to smash her still in the song of the same name. Tell me that's not a good name for a pup whose parents are Trouble and Mayhem! Garnet Naseby (from Pete Morton's "Naseby Field" -- OK, he's not Canadian, but he's from the north of England) Jez (after Jez Lowe -- he's not Canadian either, but he's from the north of England too, and don't you think anyone whose band is the Bad Pennies fits in with Trouble and Mayhem? He also co-wrote the stunning "My Blood" with JK) Malvina (after Malvina Reynolds, who wasn't Canadian but if you think about trouble and music for very long her name comes up, and doesn't "MALvina" suggest MALamute at least a little bit?) Molly Ivins (immediate segue from Malvina -- not Canadian, not a musician, but wouldn't that be a perfect name for a pup by Trouble and out of Mayhem?? Problem with Malvina and Molly is they wouldn't work for boys, and I have this hunch that I'll be coming home with a boy puppy) Thowra (or Thawra; the Arabic word for revolution. I've loved the word since I learned it in college) Segredo (Jay's name, from Mud of the Place. Would almost certainly turn into "Gray" or "Gredo," which works) Well, there's a start. Let's see where it leads!
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