Posted on 03/26/2009 3:48:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
SNIP
The Top Dogs project is a database of L.A. dog registrations that was launched by The Times last year, and we're quite convinced that we could spend hours examining it without ever getting bored. It's chock-full of fascinating, if trivial, insights -- for instance, the most common name-and-breed combination in L.A. is a chihuahua named Princess (there are more than 1,200 of them). A pit bull was more likely to be named Rocky (there are more than 300 of those), and a chow chow like Stewart's was often named for its ursine resemblance (more than 1,000 of them were named either Oso or Bear).
And at least three unfortunate L.A. dogs are named Genghis Khan. Another 11 are simply named Genghis (and we doubt their owners are referring to the oddly named L.A. music club Genghis Cohen).
Troubled by this new knowledge, we did some more amateur sleuthing. Were Angelenos naming their pets after other brutal dictators as well?
As it turns out, this naming trend isn't as uncommon as one might think, especially for the more powerful breeds often used as guard dogs.
For instance, L.A. has eight dogs named Attila (including three rottweilers and two boxers). There are 44 Neros (six of them are rottweilers), six Maos (including two chow chows) and one Stalin (oddly, a Labrador retriever).
Perhaps most shocking was the information that 15 L.A. dogs are named Hitler (mostly rottweilers, German shepherds, boxers and pit bulls). An additional 12 are named Adolf, including four German shepherds and three rottweilers. (We're hoping against hope that at least some of those are misspelled tributes to debonair actor Adolphe Menjou, but maybe we're just kidding ourselves.)
Why, why, why, we ask, would an owner saddle their pet with such an unpleasant moniker?
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(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
Their data base was only launched last year. How do they know this is a new, disturbing trend? I knew people 20 years ago who called their german shepherds Hitler and Mussolini. I think the reporter just emerged, dewey fresh, from a bandbox into the real world. No wonder the LA Times is hemorrhaging readers and money.
My sister has named her cats after tyrants from the ancient past.
Which is more popular, Barak or Obama?
She is named after St Patrick, since the litter was born on St Patrick's Day.
By the way when she was born the placenta and amniotic fluid got on her fur and she came out with green fur.
The vet said that her regular coat will come back in a couple weeks.
My cat’s name is Oreo. Could that be construed as having named him after our Dear Leader?
My dog’s name is “Twice”.
My Ozzy is named after the Ozman himself.
When I was really little we had an Afghan Hound named Genghis Khan. Ghengi for short.
Just the Heinz 57 State dogs?
RE: “What no Mugabe’s..or Putin’s..or an Idi Amin?? Would it be Presumptious to name my dog TOTUS??? LOL”
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Some years ago I had Russian immigrant neighbors who owned a wonderful Airedale named “Gorby” after Gorbachev, of course. It made sense — Gorbachev did open things up a bit there after the darker days of the old Soviet Union. I know, because I visited Moscow and “Leningrad” in ‘77 and ‘85 and it was not pretty, trust me.
I like TOTUS for dog’s name, but my silly chow mix is named “Abby” — much to the dismay of the lib-moms in the neighborhood who have named their precious girl children “Abby” as well.
I knew a Doberman once named “Ruger.” heh heh
I still laugh at that one.
I named my rams after heroes and tyrants: Ajax, Etzel (a variant of Attila) Dion, Darius, Genghis, etc.
"What's a 'dick tater'?"
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