February 2, 2014

a lesson in democracy: puppy naming

for years, we told the boys that they could have a dog if we lived closer to work. 
we moved last summer. 
and now find ourselves living closer to work. 
the boys reminded us we have been overdue on a certain promise. 
we considered the current state of our lives. . . 
the boys have been potty trained and sleeping through the night for years. 
why embrace this sense of stability?
so. . . 

we are getting a puppy. 
more specifically, we are bringing home a puppy this friday.
we are pretty darn excited. 
not surprisingly, one of the biggest topics floating around the Savvy house has been "what shall we name the puppy?"

in an effort not to make this a boring conversation, all four of us wanted/liked different names. 
even different kinds of names. 
this was becoming problematic. 

until, of course, bernie pulled out his BA in Political Science and guided us through a multi-layered voting process. 
at the dinner table. 

here's what that looked like. . . 

ROUND 1: 
everyone put forward their suggestions for names. 
bernie wrote a master list of said names. 
here it is: 



in case you can't read the awesome green ink we used for this process, here are some highlights: 

bernie and I suggested some typical names: Tucker, Parker, Oscar, Obi
"Windmaker 626" - Ben
"Rudy, but only if he has a pink or red nose" - Ben
"Sonic, Link, Tails" - Anth
"Ketchup Wonder" - Ben
"Paul" - i have no idea. 
"Hairy Potter" - Anth
"Syrup Guy" - Ben
"Astin/Sanford" - it appears that Bernie got bored around #43

ROUND 2
after we all felt that we had added our potential names to the list, Bernie read through each name and we voted if it was one we would seriously consider. 
those are the tally marks on the long name list. 
shockingly, not many of the names received more than one vote. . . 

ROUND 3 
we moved forward with the ones that had 3 or 4 votes. 
bernie made ballots: 


of course, before i could properly cast my votes, i had to test out the names i was considering: 


(turns out it is "Obi Wan" and not "Obie Wan." oops)

but, then, the votes were in: 


ROUND 4: 
by a final vote of hands, we landed on Rocky. 

now, i imagine some people will think this little pup of ours is named after a certain boxer. 
not true. 
rocky was actually anthony's suggestion. 
becuase he has a teddy bear named Rocky.
it was given to him when he was just days old by a friend of the family, Ankita Rakhe, and her mom. 
their name isn't actually pronounced "rocky," but...details.
so, almost 8 years later, we have a dog, named after a bear, named after a friend in Northern California. 

even better?
benny panicked about a week after we selected the name. 
he realized that, because of a mark on the dog's back, he really wanted to call him Bolt. 
which, as you can see, was not even on the final ballot. 
we all compromised and agreed that our new family member could be Rocky B. Savarese. 
forever making him seem like he was named after Rocky Balboa. 

so, friends, meet our not-like-the-boxer Boston Terrier, Rocky: 

5 weeks

8 weeks

i'm certain there will be more posts to come as we all learn to take care of him together. . . 

3 comments:

  1. We had a similar process naming our 2 labs when they each came along. It's serious business. Both times we ended up with something not even on the original list. :-P

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  2. I like this process to name your little puppy, i didn't heard of it before, because i choose the names that i like

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  3. Instead of naming your dog something like Sir Merlin of Mangovia, you should shorten the name to Merlin, or Mango so that your dog has an easier time recognizing his name.

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