Your pet is part of the family, and consequently, you’ll be saying their name a lot. Why not choose a name that aligns with the language you’re learning? Then, if you’re really adventurous, you can raise your pet bilingual and teach them tricks using that language. After all, there’s no reason you have to stick to English while speaking to your pet. The two of you can learn a new language together.
But before you can do that, you’ll need to give them a good name. For inspiration, check out our list of popular pet names around the world:
Germany
Dogs
Cora, Susi, Trixi, Luna and Bella are all popular names to give female dogs in Germany. For male dogs, try Bello, Hasso or Struppi. The popularity of Struppi is owed to the comic The Adventures of Tintin, which in German is called Tim und Struppi, with Struppi translating to shaggy, fuzzy or unkempt.
Waldi is a popular name for a Dachshund. Why specifically for Dachshunds? The mascot for the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics Games was an illustrated Dachshund named Waldi. It was also the first year the Olympics had an official mascot. The Dachshund was chosen because it’s a popular German breed, and because it reflected the qualities of a great athlete: resistance, tenacity and agility.
Cats
Felix is a common name for male cats, and for female cats, Minka and Luna are popular. Finally, Krümel, which means crumb, is a popular cat name for either gender.
Sweden
Dogs
For female dogs, the names Molly, Wilma and Bella are all popular. For male dogs, it’s Ludde, Sigge and Bamse. Bamse is the name of a popular Swedish children’s cartoon, and also the name of a famous St. Bernard who became a mascot for the Norwegian Navy during WWII, reportedly saving the lives of two Norwegian sailors.
Cats
Common male cat names are Nisse, Sixten and Findus, which is the name of a cat in a series of Swedish children’s books, Pettson and Findus. Popular female cat names are Maja and Selma. Just like in Germany, Crumb is a popular name for a cat, which in Swedish is Smulan.
Spain
In the Spanish region of Catalonia, some of the most popular pet names for dogs and cats include Thor, Zeus, Venus and Luna. More traditional names include Kira, Nina and Lola. For some people, sports allegiances play a role in their pets’ names. Catalonia’s veterinary association reports that 701 pets have been named Messi after the Argentinian soccer player Lionel Messi, who plays for FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team.
France
For purebred dogs, France has a naming convention that may come as a surprise. Each year is given a corresponding letter, and each dog born that year is given a name that begins with that letter (not including the letters K, Q, W, X, Y and Z, which are difficult to find names for). In 2017, the letter is N. If you’re looking for a French name for your puppy, you might want to consider Nadine, Natalie, Nell, Nicolas or Noel.
Japan
Dogs
When it comes to naming dogs, Japan has a sweet tooth. According to Anicom Insurance, a Tokyo-based pet insurance company, Coco topped the list of female dog names, and was the seventh most popular name for male dogs. Other favorite names for female dogs were Hana, Momo and Sakura. For male dogs, Leo, Kotaro and Sora also made the top ten.
Cats
For female cats, popular names include Fuku, meaning lucky, Chibi, a slang word roughly translating to small or short, and Hime, the Japanese word for princess. For male cats, there’s Tora, which means Tiger, Tama, meaning ball, and — for a black cat — Koru, which translates to black.