Friday, June 7, 2013

How Thean the Bean Got Her Name

During the time when we were dreaming about the day in the far, far future when we would adopt a dog, we found it fun to look at "Popular Dog Name" lists to choose our future dog's pretend name.  Originally we loved the idea of naming our make believe dog a Spanish name like Leona because B and I both have a love for the Spanish language.  Then B became obsessed with Greek god names and thought that Athena had a nice ring to it for our future (remember, we were thinking YEARS in the future) dog.  Seeing as he eventually wins all battles, we settled on Athena for our future pittie.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #1

So, back on that warm summer day when we walked into the shelter and asked to play with June (Athena's shelter name-- she was also called Penelope by the family who adopted her before us.  Confusing, right?) we had found our Athena.  The next day we picked up June/Penelope from the shelter and officially changed her name to Athena.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #2

Over the last ten months our goddess of wisdom has kept her official name, but we now call her by a handful of nicknames that reflect her silly personality.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #3

First, Athena morphed into Theana for short.  Then I began calling her Thean.  As she started to come out of her shell, she turned into Thean the Bean because she's such a silly jelly bean!  Nowadays, I mostly call her Thean or Bean.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #4

Recently her nicknames have gone in a whole different direction.  Bean turned into Beanie, which turned into Beanie Bop, which has now become Bop.  So, if you hear a crazy lady calling her dog "Bean" or "Bop" while walking her dog, that's me!  I don't think that someone walking by us on the street would guess that her actual name is "Athena" from our silly nicknames.

Athena's YBH portrait choice #5

It's fun to think that Athena started out as "June" when she was taken in by the shelter a year ago as a stray, then she was named "Penelope" by her adopted family, then she was returned to the shelter and renamed "June," and then we adopted her and named her Athena-Thean-Bean-Bop (which I think is much more fitting than June or Penelope)!

Athena's YBH portrait choice #6

Has your dog's name morphed over time like Athena's?  How did your dog's nicknames come about?

* All of the photos above were taken during our Yellow Brick Home photo shoot for our custom pet portrait that we just ordered thanks to the generous coupon code offered over at Our Waldo Bungie.  Hurry on over to their blog because the discount expires today (June 7th)!  Can you guess which photo we chose to use for our custom portrait?

*Don't forget to enter our Scout & Zoe's Elk Antler Giveaway.  A winner will be chosen tonight (June 7th) at 9 PST!

22 comments:

  1. I love that all of her nicknames! :) She is totally a Thean Bean! We call Moby "Mobisher" or "Mobe-a-Lobe" most of the time - he answers to "Mobe-a-Lobe" more often than he does "Moby." And of course Turk and Rufie are called a million different names that aren't their REAL names. So funny how that happens! I can't wait to see which pose you chose for Thean's portrait! Regardless of which one you choose, I know it will be GORGEOUS!

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  2. I like Thean the Bean! Diggory was dubbed "Oliver" at the shelter but when I picked him up as a foster I knew his name had to go as I already had a cat named Oliver at home. I'm a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and the name "Diggory" felt like the doggiest name out of the bunch I had listed. Now he also goes by "Diggs," "Dude," "Wizard," and "Dingo." :)

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  3. Our pitbull, Eva, doesn't have too many since her name is already too short. I do like to call her "girlfriend" though if I'm having a conversation with her. Our lab mutt, Coltrane, often goes by Cole, Monster, Muttley, and Coltrane Monster. She is old and can't really hear anymore so now we also call her old lady. Luckily her lack of hearing means this won't offend her! My sister also calls her a crazy old bird and calls Eva Eva Longoria!

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  4. My fav is definitely 1 because her lip and the tiny bit of teeth showing is sweet as can be.

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  5. LOVE #2. I'm glad to hear we're not the only ones who choose dog names in advance - though Gambit's almost-names when the shelter insisted he was a girl are now included in our future dog names. We've had Bubby/Gambo (Gambit, formerly Valentino), Fo Fred/Moose (Edwin), Muss/Rusty-muss (Rusty, formerly Porky), Smelly Belle/Smelly Belly (Nellie, formerly Francis but got mixed up with her sister), Mocacchino (Moca, and yes it was spelled wrong like that but it suited her so we kept it that way), and my previous dog was Doodles/Maisy/Bear-dog (Daisy May, who was almost Muttly). I'm convinced that dog nicknames just evolve over time.

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  6. Great post! Don't mind me if I steal and use the idea in a future post!!

    Ed & Tess have TONS of nicknames. Our favorites are Tesla > Tesla Jean > Ms. Jean > Ween. Edison> Edi Monster > Monster.

    I like the "teefers" in #1 and the angle of #2!!!

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  7. Love this! One of our first posts ever was about nicknames... it was even before we got Miss Gia! We are convinced that the more nicknames you have for your pup, the more loved they are :)

    http://andfostermakesfive.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/a-dog-by-any-other-name/

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  8. Oh lord, the number of nicknames my dog has collected in 8.5 years is ridiculous.

    Somehow, she has morphed from Bella into Monkey, Monk, Monkfish, Monkeybread, and a host of other names. I have no idea how.

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  9. Our female pittie is Olive, named for the color of her eyes when we got her. She's sometimes Miss Olive, Olivina, Miss O, "Original Dog" (because now we have another one), barky barks-a-lot, Ollie and sometimes even Ollie Ollie Oxenfreed. Dio was named after Ronnie James Dio (who had just passed away the day before we adopted Dio) and can also be called Little Man, Little Guy, Poor Little Guy (because of his super pouty bottom lip), Fritz (that was his name at the shelter and he gets called that when he sits pretty and gives me "sweet face" which he did every day I saw him there)and Marshmallow Man (because he's soft and squishy like a marshmallow).
    Utterly ridiculous!

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  10. I love hearing all the nicknames people call their dogs, I did a post on the ones we've given Boomer and Dottie over the years.

    I think you've got great photos for your portrait! Are you choosing number 2 as your fav? It's pretty cute! I couldn't pass up the chance to use that coupon code either and have been taking lots of pics of Boom and Dot the past few days to share with Kim.

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  11. Beautiful pictures! She's such a beautiful girl! How exciting for the portrait - we look forward to seeing the finished product! My Panda came with her name - it fit so we kept it. Yes, nicknames galore - P, Peepers, Peanut, Flea, little girl, little grrrr, ghee, peepee - I hope we haven't thoroughly confused her - LOL!

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  12. She has a great name :) Shiner is also known as "Niner" "Shinerkins" "Shine" and a couple of other silly things too.

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  13. I'm gonna say #1 because of her toothy grin! Nicknames are so funny. Mine are so embarrassing...Norman goes by Chubbie Wub Wubs or My Wubs because he was a chubby puppy and I called him Chubs for a while. Kaya goes by Little Baby because when I first brought her home I was into this tv show, Rob & Big, where the guy had a mini horse that he called it Little Baby Mini Horse. And Gina has a bunch of nicknames like Squeaker, Squeakies, KeeKat, Cat Face and Meow Mix and she knows them all!

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  14. I love the last one because her lip is out a tad like she is going to pout. My dogs start with a mostly regular name and that changes over time. Asparagus ('Gus) became Bubba (I have no idea how), Sweet Pea is now Diva dog half the time, Kodiak is Thing 1 and Scuffy Foot. Before Bailey left us she was Bails, Skunky, Monkey, Monkey Shine, Mrs. Farty Pants, and a host of other names. Will morphed over time into Prints Charming (yes, he wasn't Prince Charming - he liked to leave foot prints all over the house) and Gracie was Momma's Girl. In fact, all of my beautiful pibble babies, foster and non-foster have been the host of multiple names. Maybe it is good that they are such sturdy dogs to carry so many names.

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  15. Haha. Hank's paper name is Hammerin' Hank. So short just Hank, which morphed to Hanky Panky, then to Hanky. I called him Munchkin that went to Munch. I now call him Dude a lot...people don't realize his name is Hank.

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  16. Nicknames are the bestest part! Athena's got some good ones too :)

    One of my weirdest nicknames is Shamu Remoo, which happened because dad started calling me Remoo and that made mom think of Shamu...my family is crazy! ;)

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  17. Somehow, she has morphed from Bella into Monkey, Monk, Monkfish, Monkeybread, and a host of other names. I have no idea how. new lawn suits 2016 , pakistan lawn suits

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