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Tips & Tricks For Naming Your Pets


by kallaco

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Some of the greatest challenges with naming are finding ones that are untaken, original, and pleasing to the ears. Most users' goals are to acquire a name for their pet that is capitalized, pronounceable, has no numbers, and no underscores in it. This guide is here to help you achieve just that, with a few exceptions along the way.

Finding That Special Name

Finding that special name for your new Neopian addition can be a daunting task. It’s not always easy to find inspiration, and when that is the case, there are some wonderful places to look.

The NeoBoards: Although it seems odd to ask others for help in naming, you may just be lucky enough to come across some very helpful Neopians. Let people know if you have a gender in mind, a specific species, or a color you’d like your pet to eventually be painted. All these characteristics go into naming, so it’s important to take them into consideration ahead of time.

NeoNaming Lists: While on the NeoBoards, you may come across people who have or know the links to lists of untaken names. These lists are wonderful because they have already done the work for you. Make sure when choosing a name off this list that you give the person who created it the courtesy of letting them know that you’ve used one of the names on it, so they can remove it.

Real Life: You can find inspiration for Neopet names all over the place. Some good ones to consider are names of family members, baby naming books, magazines, novels, and movies; even the phone book can be a good source for names.

The Pound: Although you may be determined to create a new pet, a good place to search is the pound. While the chances of finding a pet with a name you like that is also the species and/or color you wanted are slim, there are always morphing potions, transmogrifications potions to alter it. You can often find Basic Non Limited Edition pets in the pound with wonderful names, perhaps even names you hadn’t previously considered. Keep the pound in mind when adding to your Neopian family.

Taken or Untaken

In order to find out if a name you like is currently being used, you need to search Neopia. How do you do that, you ask? The answer is quite simple. There are several methods, but the one I find the most effective is to copy & paste the following link into your web browser's address bar and fill in the name you are looking for at the end.

Link: //www.neopets.com/petlookup.phtml?pet=PetNameHere

Simply remove the words “PetNameHere” at the end and replace it with the name you are searching. I find this method most effective because although you can search a pet's name in the Neopets Search Bar at the side of the page, it doesn’t always show results for names of pets that belong to disabled/frozen accounts. This way, when you search the name of a pet that belongs to a disabled/frozen account a message will appear that says “Oops! Error: The owner of this Neopet has had their account frozen.” Likewise, if the name is untaken, a message will appear that says “Oops! Error: Sorry, there is no Neopet by that name in Neopia.” If you see this message you will know the name is available for you to use.

Different Letters, Same Sounds

If you already have a name in mind but the original spelling of the name is already taken, don’t fret; just change the spelling slightly. There are many combinations of letters that sound exactly the same when read. Here is a list of possible alternative lettering.

Example: Trudy

Pronounced: Troo-dee

Alternative Lettering: Troudey, Troody, Troudie, Troudea, Trudea, Trudie.

Example: Maggie

Pronounced: Mag-ee

Alternative Lettering: Magie, Magea, Magee, Magey, Maggea, Maggee, Maggey, Mhaggie (In this case, you can add a silent “h” to the name. The pronunciation remains the same but by adding the silent letter you may find an untaken version of the name.)

Example: Dawson

Pronounced: Daw-son

Alternative Spelling: Dauson, Dhawson, Dawsin, Dawsen, Dawsun, Dawsan, Dawsson (In this case one of the letters has been doubled. The pronunciation remains the same, but by doubling the letter you may find an untaken version of it.)

A Numbers Game

Occasionally, you will come across names that are very popular and thus difficult to find untaken variations of. In these cases you could consider using numbers that have the appearance of letters in place of them. Some prime examples of this would be:

Without Numbers: Olivia

With Numbers: 0livia (In this case, the letter “O” has been replaced with the number zero.)

Without Numbers: Ingrid

With Numbers: 1ngrid (In this case, the letter “I” has been replaced with the number “1”.)

Without Numbers: Emily

With Numbers: 3mily (in this case, the letter “E” has been replaced with the number “3”.)

Real Word Names

Real word names present an even bigger issue because it is often the main goal of users who like these types of names to use the correct spelling of the words. In these cases you need to be very resourceful and at times willing to compromise on either the word or the meaning in order to achieve your goal of owning a real word pet. Some good sources for these names are dictionaries, thesauruses, word of the day calendars, and encyclopedias. Keep in mind when looking for real word names that you can often find untaken real words simply by adding prefixes and suffixes to the root words. Some examples of prefixes are un-, in-, pre-, and dis-. Examples of suffixes would be –able, -ing, -ed, -es, and -er. By adding one or both of these to root words, you can change the meaning and even the tense (i.e. Past, Present, and Future tense) of the word.

Root Word: Able

The Prefix: Dis

The Suffix: Ed

New Word: Disabled

In the end what is important about a name is that you like it and that it holds meaning for you. I hope that this guide has helped you find that perfect name for your perfect pet.

Happy Naming, Neopia!

 
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