What’s in a name? If you buy a pedigree dog, in France, there are certain conventions surrounding the name you select. It all started, in 1926, when the government decided that all dogs born in the same year would have a name beginning with the same letter.
The letter “Z” was excluded due to the lack of names beginning with that letter. In the seventies, the letters K, Q, W, X and Y, were omitted for the same reason.
Therefore, if you want to register your dog with the S.C.C. (Société Centrale Canine) you need to follow the rules. However, if you’re not bothered about your dog being listed as a ‘Chien de race’ (purebred or pedigree dog), then this rule does not concern you!
The letter for 2018 was ‘O’. I did some ‘sleuthing’ and found this list of suggestions, courtesy of Plum Creek Kennels: http://french-brittany.com/plumcreek.htm This is an American Kennels where they breed Brittany Spaniels. They provided a list of possible names beginning with O!
Some of my readers might find this rather a random post but my friends know that, alongside France, I also love dogs! I grew up with dogs and my boys have inherited my love for – usually – big dogs.
One of our last family dogs was a most beautiful Flat-coated Retriever, called Cassie. She was named after ‘Cassis,’ the blackcurrant liqueur….!
A rescue dog called Brillo then joined us. He had already been named when we got him and we thought it was a brilliant name for him, so we kept it!
How and why have you named your pets? I’d love to know!
Fancying France 
How funny to regulate that for pedigrees! Kind of cute. Would be curious to hear what kind of names people give their dog, too.
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How funny! Kind of cute to imagine a whole country of dogs with the same first letter names. Curious to know what kind of names they give their dogs, too!
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Our cats are all French and are all have names with the correct letter year for their birth … Foggy, Fumée, Firkin and Moo. Both our dogs were rescues and came with names. Saari (correct spelling) is well out of synch with the year but Morgan is just a month or so out! Our vet hands out leaflets each year with name suggestions for the letter in question. Maybe I’ll write a blog post one day on how all our other animals got their names – they were not year related. A lovely post to add to #AnimalTales
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Love the cat names. That’s interesting to know that your vet hands out leaflets with name suggestions. I think a blog post about how all your animals got their names would be fascinating!
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I’ve read about this before but I thought it applied to all dogs not just breeds. Our dog is Bob, because I call everything a Bob, you know the bob for the tv, the bobbins (looking for car keys) Bob’s your Uncle etc. SO when asked what I was going to call the dog, it was the first thing that flew out my mouth #animaltales
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Haha – brilliant answer. Love it!
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We rescued a dog from the dogs trust, he was already named Jake, at first my husband wanted to change it but I convinced him to keep it as he already knew that name #animaltales@_karendennis
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It’s always heart warming to know that lots of people are taking on rescue dogs. Jake is a great name! Thanks for commenting #AnimalTales
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We have found it harder to name pets than our children haha. Imagine if that letter of the alphabet idea was applied to children too. I think that would be really funny 🙂
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😂 I agree; interesting concept!
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My dogs are always rescue mutts! Fidget was named by my daughter as he arrived as a companion to our aging old girl Widget. My daughter said the name Fidget would always remind us of Widge when she was gone! From the mouths of babes.. #AnimalTales
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What great names!
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