WoW Petopia Community

So I've been wondering of late, and since I finally registered after all these years, I can go ahead and ask.....

....when naming your newly tamed friend, I notice pretty much everyone chooses their own new names. I myself did as well for a long long time (my Hunter has been my main and basicly only since early Vanilla).

But of late I've started to feel differently about Pet names. And I've started naming my new pets with whatever name they carried in the wild (for named rares, spirit beasts, etc) and only choose a new name for any "generic" pets, like my standard-issue-blue-crab or Zul Gurub Blue Cobra.

It seems to me that rare/elite named tamables, like the spirit beasts or Nuramoc, are specific individuals who already have established names, and that taming/partnering them would not change who and what they are (yes, pet taming metaphysics debate, gotta love it). When I tame say, Skoll, I tamed Skoll, the mighty lightning worg.....not "joewolf" some random never heard of lighting worg.

As such, I named him....Skoll.

Sure, it's not creative (and I value creativity alot tbh, part of why I always used my own names), but it seems more appropriate and respectful to the individual animal I've tamed, or convinced to partner with me if you view pets that way, to allow them to keep their own names. They were, after all, around long before I was (RP alert!).

Now, for random anonamous common-spawn pets, like say, a random "Ironhide Devilsaur", I would name him whatever struck my fancy (mine is named Gutripper, which used to be my characters name, long story to be told another day).

Thoughts?

I am not likely to keep a pet's given name. The way I envision it, it's not like the beast and I exactly introduce ourselves. The way it plays out in my head, yy character come across a beast that catches her eye for whatever reason and she bonds with it. When she chooses a name for it, the name is based on her impression of the beast, her bond with it, her experience working alongside it. The name is carefully chosen to reflect her and her newfound ally.

I would never suggest that keeping the given name is wrong, it just doesn't work for me. To each their own.

Warfish wrote:
It seems to me that rare/elite named tamables, like the spirit beasts or Nuramoc, are specific individuals who already have established names, and that taming/partnering them would not change who and what they are (yes, pet taming metaphysics debate, gotta love it). When I tame say, Skoll, I tamed Skoll, the mighty lightning worg.....not "joewolf" some random never heard of lighting worg.

I've always felt that way and so have pretty much always kept my pets the same name they had in the wild. It started with Humar, when I tamed him he ran around "cat" for a while because I didn't like the name Humar but couldn't bring myself to think of him as anything else. That trend has stayed and just like you. The only exception is Loque. That bugger was such a headache to get I swore I'd call him Migraine when I finally landed him and I did. His "Migraine" title is more of a term of endearment than a Name. I still call him Loque when I speak of him and expect that his name will be ownership scrolled to Loque at some point in the future.

mascarecrow wrote:

Warfish wrote:
It seems to me that rare/elite named tamables, like the spirit beasts or Nuramoc, are specific individuals who already have established names, and that taming/partnering them would not change who and what they are (yes, pet taming metaphysics debate, gotta love it). When I tame say, Skoll, I tamed Skoll, the mighty lightning worg.....not "joewolf" some random never heard of lighting worg.

I've always felt that way and so have pretty much always kept my pets the same name they had in the wild. It started with Humar, when I tamed him he ran around "cat" for a while because I didn't like the name Humar but couldn't bring myself to think of him as anything else. That trend has stayed and just like you. The only exception is Loque. That bugger was such a headache to get I swore I'd call him Migraine when I finally landed him and I did. His "Migraine" title is more of a term of endearment than a Name. I still call him Loque when I speak of him and expect that his name will be ownership scrolled to Loque at some point in the future.

This is exactly what I am struggling with at the moment. I just got Loque recently and have yet to name him.

I am intrigued by the idea of naming the Spirit beasts thier given name. I have all four now and really do not like the names I have given a couple of them.

I recently got King Krush also and named him "Krush" for this very same reason. I am struggling between naming Loque
Loquenahak or "Koda" which is Sioux for "friend"

What is this "ownership scroll" you speak of ? Is this something you can purchase/make to rename pets?

Oh and BTW , first time poster and long time lurker

It might seem pretentious, but I have my own little system worked out: if the pet isn't rare, I'll give it a unique name. If the pet is rare and has a unique skin, I'll give it a unique name. But if the pet is a rare spawn and doesn't have a unique skin, I'll keep its given name, just as an indication of the trouble I went through to obtain it, despite its common appearance.

For example, I named my Gondria Escher, but kept my Vultros' in-game name.

In my mind, my "Nuramoc" is not just some random chimera named Nuramoc, he's an EPIC THUNDER-SPITTING DRAGON named Odin (and not Thor. ) Arcturis, on the other hand, became Arccy, mostly because every day for days I would go...
"God I need to name Arccy. What should I call Arccy?" To me, Paranoia is not an old guy who jumps off cliffs, he's a nervous wreck of a wolf who gets groomed so much that he's definitely in better condition than all of your wolves (because he's so nicely groomed).

To me, taming them DOES change who they are. I mean, honestly, Para's met OCJ (a random fluke). Nearly killed his former self! D: That would not be possible if that was him.

Certificate of Ownership is an item made by scribes that allows you to rename a pet. You can usually find some on the Auction House.


As for naming, I don't generally keep the names that rares/uniques have in the wild. I just...prefer my own ones.

I veiw the name's as kinda like those given to legends, which they are

the name wasn't given to them at birth it's more of a title earned from local lore, sitings, and events that happen later on I mean billy wasn't always called 'the kid' was he?, like my Loque, I named Hoshi, because he deserved a proper name versus one that 'the locals' call him so to speak

I mean I'm def not naming my terror spinner terror spinner

Yeah, I agree with Isaba. The spirit beast's names seem to be more what they're called by the locals. My loque's are named Iontas and Zaskari(two different hunters, iontas is male and Zaskari is female. I view them more as grown-up harkoa/loque kittens). Iontas is very special to me, and is now my main pet on Antonietta. His name means 'surprise', and a huge surprise he was for my little lvl 76 hunter. I found him completely by accident when I was flying through shola to go quest, and just took my normal route out of habit. He had already been cached in npcscan too...I just happened to mouse over his name in my minimap and there he was, waiting for me. Personally I prefer original names, since they add variety and bring their own story to the table; but I don't mind if other people name rares their normal names.

I go both ways when naming my pets. I really couldn't think of a better name for King Krush than simply "Krush". And no matter how much I consider renaming him to something else, he will always be Krush to me.

Taming Loque was such a Roleplay-heavy thing for my hunter, it took me days to find the perfect name for him. I came up with an elaborate backstory for Loque'nahak explaining his name and origins, his connection with Har'koa in Zul Drak and why he chose to become Tanin's spirit guide. In choosing to leave the jungle, Loque'nahak left behind that identity and that name. His name became TanAlarion, a Zandalari name that loosely translates to "Guardian of Tanin". Loque'nahak was something people called him in the jungle because they didn't really understand who he was.

Sad to say, RP notwithstanding, my decision to NOT name rare spawns their "wild" name also has a lot to do with NPCScan. I have a bad habit of forgetting to put my spirit beast away when working in Sholazar Basin. If I'd named him Loquenahak and had accidentally set off someone's addon...I'd feel worse than if Tsorovan the spirit beast set it off. Just seems...cruel...to get people's hopes up like that, even if it is an accident, you know?

As Isaba said, I'd probably consider most named's names to be less "their REAL name" and more "what the locals happen to call them". Regardless, I'm firm on thinking up new names for everything that comes my way, whether it happened to have a distinct reference beforehand or not.

I certainly don't begrudge people naming their pets whatever their Rarespawn name was, though! That's one less pet named something terrible like "GreenYoshii" or "Carpetmuncher." (Yes, I have seen pets with those names. On an RP server.)

people agreeing with me makes me feel smart :3