Name Me, I'm Yours!

Some years ago, a trend in Neopian Times articles began, one which has since proved very productive: naming articles. Dozens of Neopians were taught how to pick the most suitable name, avoiding numbers or underscores, varying spelling, and refraining from naming your Grarrl "Fluffy". Suddenly, the naming of pets was no longer a complicated issue: all it took was a few minutes of clear-headed thought while standing at the Create-a-Pet desk.

And yet, for all their usefulness, these articles always ignored one particular important issue. Whether through oversight or because they simply didn't consider the alternative within their scope, the authors have always assumed that the above position is exactly the one you'll find yourself in: at the Creation Centre, flipping through the species catalogue with a pen in hand to fill out the form. Yet hatching a pet is not the only way to bring a new sibling into your Neofamily, and it's just as likely that a prospective new owner will be standing in the lobby of a quite different and more infamous building.

When the new pet is adopted, the situation is turned entirely on its head. Rather than choosing a name entirely from scratch, the owner has to choose from a selection of pets who all come with their own names, some of them distinctly unusual. Moreover, it's clear that many of these pets' original owners don't read the Neopian Times as much as they should: however much they may have loved their pet before they had to part, they have made precisely the mistakes we've all been eloquently talked out of making. Numbers, underscores, misspellings, and random strings abound. And one of these pets is the new sibling you had intended to bring home.

What can a Neopian do when faced with pets whose names don't quite fit? Sadly, the option taken by many is to ignore all but the perfectly-named pets for adoption. A quick survey of Help Chatters revealed that many of them would be entirely put off by a bizarrely capitalised, numerical or randomised name. This kind of elitism is understandable, if somewhat harsh. Many owners worry that the "perfect" appearance of their family will be spoilt by the arrival of a pet that obviously clashes with his or her siblings; others dislike the lack of control that comes with a pre-chosen name and try to reclaim it by selecting the absolute pinnacle of perfection.

But whether we like it or not, strangely-named homeless pets exist, and they need to be rehomed and loved as much as their luckier brothers and sisters. Taking on a pet whose name isn't perfect can be somewhat daunting for Neopians used to hatching their own Neopets, but it needn't be the start of an imperfection within your Neofamily. It's not entirely true that you have to "put up" with a pet's name after you adopt him or her. From your new pet's personality to her favourite toys, she's yours now, so why not add your own touch to her name as well?

After three years in Neopia and twelve permanent pets, the majority of whom were adopted, I present the three ways of working with an adopted pet's name. They range in order from the most to the least drastic alteration, and chances are that one of them will be right for you.

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Option 1: Rename

When faced with a name that just doesn't fit with the rest of your Neofamily, the instinctive option is to change it. Unfortunately, Neopets doesn't provide an official way to alter your pet's name. However, there's nothing to stop you creating your own new name as a gift to your new pet, if the old one simply won't do. Half the battle is making your pet's new name familiar: if you use it enough in "public", eventually that name will become as much a part of the pet as its old one ever was.

So what should you choose as a new name? If the name the pet was hatched with is unsuitable enough that you want rid of it completely, that's fine. Feel free to ignore it and choose names that you think reflect the character or appearance you want the pet to have.

As an example of how renaming can work, take my Kacheek, a dear little thing whose given name won't be mentioned here. She arrived close to Giving Day of Year 7, with the help of a young woman named Kiara. I quickly found out that she was a sweet, but timid little pet. I decided she needed an attractive, but slightly childish-sounding name, something not too plain, but not outstandingly innovative or exotic. Eventually, I chose "Rebecca", which could easily be shortened to "Becky." It's handy for a pet to have a shorter name he or she can use from day to day, whatever he or she was originally called.

In many Neofamilies, a single name will be enough; however, if most of your pets have full names (as mine do), more thought may be needed. If you know the previous owner of your pet, you might ask permission to add their surname to your pet's name: otherwise, things may be slightly harder. A good idea is to think about topics that surround your new pet or your family and use them for inspiration. I came up with the idea of adding some words to Becky's name that would be evocative of Giving Day celebrations. If you decide to "theme" your pet's name this way, it may help to make a list of words surrounding your chosen topic. For a Giving Day arrival, words like star, holly, sparkle, chime, angel, snowflake and so on might be appropriate: for a pet who feels particularly close to Faeries, names like Cloud, Charm, Brightwing, Spellcaster, or Fae might be a start to your list. In the end, I chose two names from mine to add to Becky's, and finished by adding the name of the girl who'd brought her to me. Rebecca Kiara Angel Star was born, although in practice she's Becky Star to anyone and everyone.

Option 2: Reinvent

On the other hand, maybe your new pet's name isn't quite as bad as all that. Despite horror stories, not all adopted pets have unintelligible strings of letters and numbers inscribed on their collars. The vast majority are both comprehensible and pronounceable, and you may have been lucky enough to choose one with potential. In this case, the given name just needs a little bit of tweaking to make it suit.

With some names, the reinvention is obvious: there is only one possibility, which just needs to be separated from the rest of the name. My Acara, Nelly_b4v1p1, is a striking example of this sort: there was no question of his being called anything other than Nelly from the day he arrived. On other occasions, you may have to work a little bit harder.

As in the whole of Neopian life, you shouldn't expect the same conventions to apply that you've been used to among humans. The perfect nickname may not be at the beginning of a pet's name: it might be at the end, in the middle, or even separated by the occasional misplaced number, and need to be picked out (and capitalised) before you can use it. My Gelert, BadDesigner, is known from day to day as Des or Desi. This sort of nicknaming is very common among those who adopt pets; it doesn't take a lot of work, and tends to be accepted fairly readily by other Neopians. (You may, however, need to tell people how to pronounce the nickname.) If you want, you can add your own invented names to it, just as you would if you were creating a name from scratch.

Option 3: Reevaluate

Although the previous two options have assumed that you cannot be happy with your new pet's given name, this isn't always the case. Reevaluation is the third option: learning to understand your pet's given name a little better, either to help you Reinvent it, or to help you learn to live with it. This isn't as insane as it sounds, I promise. Just take a look at your new pet's name, and see what comes to mind beyond the initial shock.

Not all names are just random strings of sound. If your pet's name contains a first name also found on Earth, do a little research to find out what it means. It isn't always wasted time: by finding out that "Neha" means "rain" or "Aimee" "beloved one" you might gain an unexpected insight into why your pet was originally named what she was. You might decide to cut the pet's name down to that section alone, or even use the meaning as her favoured name from then on: there is nothing wrong with using Beauty for a pet originally named Belle, it's simply a matter of personal taste.

If no meaning is forthcoming, then there's nothing to stop you attaching your own. This is the path that requires most thought, but it can be a very worthwhile one. Take some time to consider the question: Why is your pet named what he or she is? Could there be an imaginative reason of some sort?

If you feel inspired, don't limit yourself. Assuming you didn't know the pet's original owner, it's up to you to figure out your new Neopet's origins. Maybe the odd string of numbers at the end of your Aisha's name dates back to when she was an Alien Aisha space cadet, ordered to report back with that numerical code and that code alone. Perhaps the reason your Lupe's name isn't spelt exactly normally is that he taught himself to read and write as a wild-living pet who desperately wished to be civilised. That Kougra may have been named Grarrl by an owner who wanted her to grow up into an uncompromising, tough fighter.

The sky really is the limit, and you may even find yourself turning your creativity into a story. When I first started wondering where my Eyrie's given name might have come from, what began as a simple explanation became a long tale of life on a faraway spaceship. The story that resulted, "Starshine", made it into the Neopian Times. So don't stifle your imagination: if an idea strikes you, see where it takes you and your pet. You might make some unexpected discoveries.

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Naturally, these options aren't for everyone. Despite the amount of "imperfect" names out there, the appeal of shorter and simpler pet names is still fairly widespread. With the help of this article, though, more Neopians will hopefully be convinced that an imperfect name shouldn't equal a long stay in the Pound for the next otherwise-suitable pet they come across. After all, a Rowze by any other name might smell as sweet, but a pet by the name that you give her is instantly closer to you, even if she's just getting used to her new home. What better welcoming gift could set the tone for a loving pet-ownership than a creative, well-thought-out name?