As humans we place a huge emphasis on identity, this is made very clear when naming a new member of the family which can often have massive repercussions within the wider family unit.

With humans so much information can be transfered with a name, the age of the person, the race, religion, sex, social status, cultural and language group. For example someone named Gladys Marjourie Stockton-Prowes would probably be a female aged over sixty, protestant Christian of a proud wealthy English family. Whereas Muhammad ibn Hasa would denote a Arabic or Persian, muslim male of unknown age due to the common practice in islamc countries of using common first names for the past thousand years.

As this simple example shows much can be infered just from someones name and all the prejudices of our past can be heaped on a person in the first meeting based on their name alone. having friends with muslim names I know only too well the difficulty many have when applying for jobs, just as having an Irish name would have made getting a lookin in the legal fraternity 100 years ago rather difficult.

Some also transfer that importance of name to our animal companions especially our dogs. Whilst dogs also have idiosyncratic behaviours and certain breeds and coloured dogs would have oweners prefering names which sum up that dog. For example a British Bulldog would commonly be called 'Winston' or 'Margaret' and a Greyhound 'Flash' or 'Streaky' or a Barb (black Kelpie) would often be called 'Jedda' or 'Jacky'.

Whilst for us humans naming our dog has so much to do with the character traits of the dog, however for the dog it is really only interested in having a name that is easy to understand. As a dog trainer I have come across pretty much so every name under the sun from 'Pup' to 'Captain Starlight' and 'Mr Snuffeluffougous' and its fine to call your dog what ever you like. However if you want a little help with naming your dog and want something that will assists in getting the dogs attention then its best to stick to some simple advice.

Whilst so much bagggage is associated with human names the real importance for a dog is having a name that is easy to pronounce and therefor easy to understand. Its the word that says 'stop everything, ignore everything and focus on me and what I am about to say'. In order to have this effect a dogs name is best kept short begin with a consonant and possibly end with an 'ee' or 'a' as dogs are attracked to excitement and ...well 'ee' is exciting to dogs as it raises the pitch in the human voice.

Great dog names are Jack, Jacky, Max, Bob, Buddy, Bella, Rusty, Molly, Toby, Sandy etc.They are easy to say names that are clear short and often end with the exciting 'ee' or 'a'. So the urge to give a dog a name with incredible importance that we give our human children need to be tempered with the reality that the purposefor names of the two are very different. One will live in a world of files, name badges, religion and introductions the other in one that requires you to come when called.

Keep it short keep it simple and for added excitement add an 'ee' or 'a' ending.