The name game
September 17, 2007 – 4:48 pmThis weekend we went to Petco to try ONE LAST TIME to fill our aquarium with frolicking, colorful and most importantly LIVE fish.
We picked out three vigorous looking fellows and were on our way.
In the car we started our FAVORITE part of the fish acquiring exercise… the name game.
Me: We need to think of NAMES for these fish!
Jay: Oh boy oh boy, this is my favorite part! (he may or may not have actually said oh boy oh boy)
CJ: I think we should name them Frankie and Pierre….
Me: Um, well CJ let’s think of names that are different from the ones we’ve had before. Ok?
Jay: I think we should call the little one Junior.
Me: Really? That’s kinda boring.
CJ: I want to name him TURTLE!
Me: Well… I was thinking we could name them after designers. You know, Ralph, Calvin…
Jay: Karen…
Me: Karen? What designer is named Karen?
CJ: Carrot?
ME: Yeah, CARROT!
Jay: LOVE it!
Me: and the white one with the little orange hat?
Jay: He looks like Pierre.
Me: I know. Let’s think of a french name.
(long moment of silence)
Jay: I can’t think of a single French name.
Me: Me neither. Can you think of a French WORD?
Jay: Erm… Bon appetit!
CJ: I am thinking of a name… BUMPY!
Me & Jay (in unison): BUMPY! Yeah!!
Me: and the spotty one?
CJ: I will call him POLKA DOT FISHY SWIMMER.
Me: perfect.
Jay: Maybe PFS for short.
Me: NO! There is no shortening the name of POLKA DOT FISHY SWIMMER!
CJ: No! It’s polka dot FISHY! NOT SWIMMER!
Me: But I liked Polka Dot Fishy Swimmer…
CJ: NO!
Me: Okaaaay… How about if we call him Ranger?
CJ: YEAH! Ranger!
Me: Ok. So we have them all named. Perfect. CJ, can you remember their names?
CJ: Ranger and Bumpy and Carrot… (he pauses, thinking)… Actually, I’m not going to call him Carrot. I’m going to call him TREE.
Jay: Uh no. We decided on Carrot.
CJ: NO!! HIS NAME IS TREE!!
Me: Let’s stick with Carrot.
CJ: NO! I want to call him FISHY!
Jay: You can’t name him Fishy. That would be like if we named you Baby when you were born.
CJ: Baby! I want to call him BABY!
Me: How about Baby Carrot?
CJ: Ok….
And THAT is the story of how our new fishy friends got their names.
Related posts:
You can learn a lot from a goldfish
Goldfish 911 Emergency
Au revoir mon Pierre chéri!
***
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By Lisa on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Isn’t it a blast hearing the names kids will come up with? Cracks me up.
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By Kimberly on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
You’re such a creative family. =)
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By S on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
I let Count Dooku name our two beta’s when we got them. He came up with Pinkie and George. George went to fishy heaven 3 months ago and pinkie joined him two days ago.
That reminds me that Pinkie is still floating in the fish bowl. Whoops!
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By Summer on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Okay, that was me above. Just happened to hit enter before I typed all of my info in.h
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By Mrs. Schmitty on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Great names. I was just talking to the kids about getting some fish. I love hearing the names they come up with.
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By Misty Dawn on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
LOL - I could just hear this conversation taking place! Love the names, by the way ;-)
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By Maureen on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Hah! Love the names…. daughter is the same way. Her three goldfish are:
“Moo”
“Meow”
and “Baa”
No, I am NOT kidding….
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By Sunshine on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
We had a fish named Fishy once. Because my incredibly creative children are very NOT creative when it comes to naming pets. At least the new fish (Fishy had a toilet bowl funeral last fall) is named Neon. Slightly more interesting.
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By WorksForMom on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
I think CJ gets an A for effort on THAT task.
you 3 do seem so much alike. as in, way too creative!
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By Jenn on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
ROFL! My kids have come up with these winners: Goldfish= Goldie. Kitten= Frog. Bunny= HootMoo. Bird= Bird. I put the kibosh on naming the horse Puppy.
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By Cathy on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
I’m liking Ranger myself. Sounds very alpha.
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By Worker Mommy on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
What no fishy named bananas ?
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By Rachel on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
You guys were made for each other!
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By Mommahbear. on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
That is some brilliant dialogue! I loved every moment of it!!
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By Karen (Pediascribe) on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Very creative names. When my son set up his aquarium, we started with three zebra danios. Their names were Small, Medium, and Large.
It was easy to tell them all apart until they all matured. Then it was more like Large, Large, and Large. Although my son swore he could tell the difference.
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By Raquel on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
My mom names all of her fish (although she only has one at a time) after dictators. Presently she has one named Franco. She’s had Idi, Benito, and… uh… that’s all that I can think of.
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By Eve on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
You are all so nutty I think you should have called them Special Peanut, Very Special Peanut, and Special Little Peanut…
That’s just my opinion.
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By Annie on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Congrats on your new fish and their great names!
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By carrie on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Love it!
And my boys would surely agree, as they named their former hermit crab “Jeff”.
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By A Whole Lot of Nothing on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
My daughter named her sister’s new stuffed animal bear Doug.
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By ReesePie on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
HA!!! I nearly spit milk all over my laptop.
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By Smiling Mom on Sep 17, 2007 | Reply
Not at all about your funny post:
Last night Hubby and I had a not so friendly exchange about how my time is spent. Ironically, lately I’ve been spending way way less time blogging and reading blogs. But the ‘discussion’ ended, at one point, with, “WELL AT LEAST I KNOW THAT ABSOLUTELY BANANAS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ME!!”
1. I had to snicker at the absurdity of the comment.
2. I had to go and finish the shadow box he was upset about before the day ended.
3. Be proud that he knows about your blog.
;-)
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By nell on Sep 18, 2007 | Reply
Once again, our children seem to have some kind of psychic link. While the names are not exactly the same, Matilda’s first two fish were called Evil and Food. Guess who died first? The next too where called Orange and Bad. Evil was the last to go. And while we no longer have any fish, our cats names are Spanking Head and Fossil Face.
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By cate on Sep 18, 2007 | Reply
i can SO see having that conversation with Zander in another year or so!
great names, btw! our fave part of getting a new cat when i was growing up was the name game, too!
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By M on Sep 19, 2007 | Reply
The name game? Makes me want to run away and hide.
your fish names? Rule my world. Oh. Fantastic!
(note: your child? far more creative than i. My childhood cat, who’s still alive and kicking 18 years later(!), is named Rat Cat. Because, ya know, he was a cat. Who looked like a rat.)
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By Jo Beaufoix on Sep 20, 2007 | Reply
Fantastic names.
Does CJ stand for Carrot Junior?
It does doesn’t it.
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By kellyo75 on Sep 22, 2007 | Reply
Isn’t it great when they are so adamant about the names? Every single time my oldest son would get a new toy, he would name them. His stuffed snake was Snakey, his bear, Beary, his skunk, skunky. Yeah, he is an insanely creative child!
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