What is in a Name?

          Scholars have debated if a name dictates who a person becomes.  If you give your daughter the name Candy does that mean she will become a stripper?   If you give your son the name Richard, does it mean he will be brave?  Many parents take great time in selecting a name.  A name that will suit their child.  But how do you go about picking a name for an infant that for all intents and purposes has no personality yet?  Parents pick names that they believe are unique and fit the vision they have for that child.  Is the same true for animals?  I see a lot of bad names come through the shelter.  Dogs who don’t come from the best circumstances often carry names like Demon, Beast, Trouble, Naughty, Mistake, Dog, or Lucifer.  Can a name dictate a dog’s behavior?  No.  But the people believing that their dog is just a “Dog” or is the devil certainly do.  Dogs, just like people, have a tendency to reflect their names because of the conditions they come out of. 

            When I first started shelter work someone told me when stray animals would come in, “Give it a name.  It adds something to their spirit.”  A name gives a creature that merely is “just a dog” a persona.   A chance at being referred to in conversation as a self not a thing.  Personalization causes attachment and I think makes shelter workers fight that much harder for the cats and dogs that come in.   Where I work now we don’t give names to the strays.  We don’t name them until after they have been evaluated.  At first I thought this was depriving the animal of something; one thing that was missing from their essence.  Yet after working there several months, I now realize it is to protect the workers.  When you fall in love with a dog and then later in the evaluations he shows to be aggressive towards other dogs, it is very hard to put down Teddy.  However, it’s not so hard to put down that husky who is aggressive with other dogs. 

            A name is something so small yet it gives people their identity.  The same may, in part, be true for animals.  It gives love and life to an otherwise disregarded beast.  Instead of being apart of the collective, it makes individuals.  Perhaps that’s why even though we all know it’s hard on our own spirits, my coworkers and I silently name each animal that comes in.  We never speak of this practice, but it’s done.  Attachments are formed.  Hearts are crushed.  Still, at least for a little while, the stray dog that comes to us is not "just a dog,” he’s someone and that is very special for person and animal alike.