[Dailydrool] Names

[Michael Meckler]

I love this thread, and hearing all about how folks found names for 
their hounds.

My best story doesn't involve a Basset Hound but rather a beagle; 
however, the dog was named after a Basset Hound.

Back when I was kid, there was a television series called "The Governor 
and JJ." It was a comedy about a widowed governor and his 
independently-minded, modern, semi-hippie daughter (or what passed for 
this in late 1960s TV comedies). Anyway, there was an episode in which a 
stray Basset Hound turned up at the governor's mansion. The dog had no 
identification, and no one came to claim the dog. Without a dog tag, no 
one on the governor's staff knew what to call the dog, but they 
discovered that whenever they called out "Governor" in addressing the 
governor, the dog came. So they figured out that the dog's name must be 
"Governor." And the governor kept the dog, who made occasional 
appearances for the rest of the series.

I thought that was the coolest name, and when later that year my parents 
got us a beagle, we named the dog "Governor."

Now concerning my current Basset pack, I named Dermot. I got him from 
the breeder as a puppy, and that was the name I had my mind set on from 
the start. I liked the name because 1) it was a good, two-syllable name 
that a dog could easily learn when being called; 2) I wanted to give my 
dog an Irish name, and I like the name Dermot; and 3) I knew it would 
not be a common dog name, so that there wouldn't be any confusion with 
other dogs when working with him in classes at my local obedience club. 
And indeed, I have yet to come across another dog named Dermot, let 
alone another Basset Hound. Every year the county auditor releases a 
list, in order of popularity, of all the dog names on licenses in the 
county (and I live in a large, urban county, so it's quite a long list). 
And every year, "Dermot" is at the bottom of the list, with my dog as 
the only one. So, as I like to tell folks, "There's only one Dermot!"

Panda, on the other hand, came with that name. And there are about 30 
other Pandas registered in my county. So her name is not so unique.