What’s in a name? By which we call a pooch
Dog owners in Boston put care into monikers
Before chew toys or even a leash and collar, a dog’s first gift is often a name.
Some come just like that, with a look in the pooch’s eyes or a quick measure of its waggle. Others adhere to carefully prescribed rules about certain number of syllables or a historical or pop-culture theme.
The dogs of Boston are no exception, according to a Herald review of the city’s dog registry that shows the names of the 8,615 registered canines run the gamut.
The 3,276 different names trot through the traditional — Max, Sadie, Jack and Cooper, all in the top dozen — while 2,232 names are unique, belonging to just one pooch a piece.
That brings us to Mary Todd Lincoln.
Justin Labelle of South Boston said he and his wife were scouring for a historical name for their Boston terrier, now 2 in human years. Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t fit, but Mary Todd — or just MTL as some refer to her — had a nice ring to it.“I can’t tell you why we did that,” Labelle said. “But if we get another dog, we’ll stick to the historical route.”
Avon Barksdale — a tribute to a drug-dealing character in HBO’s gritty series “The Wire” — trots regularly around West Roxbury. Owner Than Taylor settled on the name long before the French bulldog entered his life; he pledged the name when the show first aired in 2002.
“I was an original fan. My wife hasn’t seen it. She refuses to see it because she doesn’t want the character to stain the dog,” Taylor said — as his wife, Kristen Taylor, exclaimed she gets naming rights for dog No. 2.
The city requires owners of dogs older then 6 months to register the pets. It costs $15 for a spayed or neutered dog, or $30 for an “intact”
pup. Get caught without registering the pooch and it’s a $50 fine — the same amount levied on “pooper scooper” scofflaws.
The city has eight Labrador retrievers named Bella — the most common breed and name in Boston — 17 with Labrador-mixed breeds included. One, in Lower Mills, traces its namesake to the lead of the 2008 movie “Twilight” — which also catapulted the name to No. 1 for humans in 2009 and 2010.
Another Bella, a black Lab in Roslindale, started
her life on a farm in New Hampshire.
Her owner, Jay Bernasconi, said he took his 7-yearold daughter to the Granite State breeder after his family had just put down their Lab-German shepherd mix, Betty. On the drive home,
his daughter settled on
Bella.
“First thing it did when we let her in the front door is it took a dump on the floor,” he said. “It is a good-natured dog other than pooping on people’s floors.”
Now 12 and graying, Bella keeps up with the rest of the Rozzy pack on her daily walks.
“In her later life, it’s almost like a hobby, she likes to sniff,” Bernasconi said. “She’ll spend three minutes on a pole. She reads