A Rose By Any Other Name...

People are often curious as to how I come up with the names for my dogs... Registered names are a joy for me to figure out, but I often buy working Border Collie puppies and am faced with the challenge of 15 letters/spaces allowed by the working registry. My kennel name comes from King Arthur lore, of which, I am a big fan. Applegarth was the estate that Arthur gave to Merlin for retirement. Since then, I have tried to name the dogs Arthurian names...
Kastle... Applegarth's Joyous Garde... Lancelot's castle
Duncan... Applegarth's Chivalrous... always a gentleman
Zoe... Ivyrose's Milady Applegarth
Lyric... Merlynn's Ballad Of Applegarth
Piper... Applegarth's Wandering Minstrel... aka Bagpiper
Seeker... Applegarth's Quest For The Grail

Jessie was simply that... as she was a glorious mix of Sheltie/Border Collie and Golden Retriever...
Ceilidh is EyeSpy Ceilidh because none of the other Border Collie registries were active when she came along and her parents were not AKC registered.
Gage was named when I changed careers after my Dad decided he was going to retire and sell his business. Culleymont's FF/PM Johnny Gage came to be after my childhood hero from the Emergency! TV show from the 70's.
Now comes Gem... Handhills Jewel will be her registered name with ABCA as well as AKC. Her call name will be Gem. As I have to register her with AKC via the Open Registration process and no other BC registries exist any longer, The Crown Jewel will be implied. AKC does not allow name changes from the Open Registry or so they told me. You think they would given their stand on money. ;-) So Handhills The Crown Jewel will only exist in my head.

Call names come a little bit harder at times. But then like Piper, Gem's name came to me and I'm sticking with it... Piper was Piper from the day I knew we were getting him. And then there was Zoe... my Scottish Border Collie with her Greek name courtesy of my Mom. It, however, fit her perfectly. Sometimes my call names have nothing whatsoever to do with Arthurian legend, but that's okay. Ceilidh's name suits her... Ceilidh means celebration or party in Gaelic. She certainly is a lively, party kind of girl... So we'll see if I have chosen well with Gem's name... I am truly hoping that she is most definitely, a crown jewel...