OC HIGH / Student News and Views : OC High asks: How did your pet get its name?

“I named my cat Pantyhose because it sleeps in my pantyhose drawer.”

Maya Zutler, 16

sophomore, Brea Olinda

“My mom calls my fish the Brady Bunch because there are eight of them, but I don’t like that name because it’s not tough enough.”

Manuel Doblado, 17

junior, Villa Park

“My dog’s name is Dasher because every time you greet him from a distance, he dashes right toward you.”

Susan Chu, 16

junior, Saddleback

“My cat’s named Mikey because the first time I saw him was at the door with my friend Mike. He was a stray, and he just walked up to my door--the cat, not my friend.”

Amanda Miller, 17

junior, El Dorado

“My parents got the cat the day K-2 was climbed, so they called it K-2.”

Ben Le Roy, 15

freshman, Los Alamitos

“My sister was in Girl Scouts, so she calls our cat Scout.”

Josh Miles, 15

freshman, Los Alamitos

“My cat Max got its name because he has the design of an M in his fur on his forehead.”

Jessica Calkins, 15

freshman, Huntington Beach

“I named my cat after Snowbelle in ‘Stuart Little’ because that’s what I was reading when I got her.”

Shay McAfee, 16

junior, Mater Dei

“From the play ‘Cats,’ after the really fat one.”

Devyn Alexander, 17

junior, Dana Hills

“My dog is kind of a brandy color, so we were going to name him Brandy. But my dad’s name is Randy, so it would be too close. My cat’s name is Tequila, so we just named the dog Whiskey.”

Jessica Poladian, 16

junior, Fountain Valley

“My cat was unfortunate enough to have long hair. So we gave her the most original name on the planet, Fluffy.”

Mandy Kiroshima, 15

sophomore, Trabuco Hills

“First we named our cat Quick. The cat was fast--hence the name. Then we renamed it after the sound crickets make: Kee-ka-ree.”

Nancy Troia, 18

senior, Capistrano Valley

“I named my dog B.C. because it stands for Bad Cocker, and he is a bad cocker spaniel.”

Jed Smith, 18

senior, Los Amigos

“My dog’s name is Lucky because we claimed him at the pound before he went in. He was lucky he didn’t go to the pound.”

Eric Solomon, 15

freshman, Sonora

“My pet was named after its predecessor, who had been accidentally killed.”

Dana Kilian, 16

sophomore, Woodbridge

“We had an exchange student from Japan staying with us, and she said that suki means special, so we decided to name our dog Suki.”

Jenny Eighmy, 17

senior, Cypress High

“We found her, and she answered to the name Lady. But we didn’t like that name, so we named her Katie, because it rhymed.”

Stephanie Jebbia, 16

junior, Dana Hills

“When my brother’s friend gave me a kitten, we thought it was a girl. Since my brother’s friend’s name was Simon, we named the kitten Symone. The name stuck even when we found out that it was a boy.”

Marcia Tovar, 18

senior, Fountain Valley

“When I first saw my puppy at the pet store, he was . . . relieving himself. We named him Brownie.”

Steve Tran, 17

senior, Los Amigos

“We named our cat after Garfield’s teddy bear, Pookey.”

Nicole Morra, 14

freshman, Trabuco Hills

“We nominated names and wrote them on a blackboard. Then, the whole family voted for the name they liked.”

Mary Rose, 17

senior, Capistrano Valley

“I named my cat Ziggy because we used to have a dog named Marley.”

Bryan Morris, 18

senior, Los Amigos

“I named my dog Minnie because she was so small she looked like a little mouse.”

Jaimy Dupleich, 17

junior, Villa Park

“Chewbacca, because he’s a big, hairy thing that grunts a lot--and so does my dog.”

Denis Long, 15

sophomore, Brea Olinda

“My pet got its name, Kiko, because my little brother wanted to say the dog was little in Spanish, which is chico, and he didn’t know how to say it--so he said kiko .”

Mariella Cuellar, 14

freshman, Sonora

“When I got my aquarium last year, I got a lot of pairs of fish. I named them in pairs, like Rain and Sun, and Pot and Pan. I got two angel fish, one all white and the other black and white. So I named the first Salt and the other Pepper. Pepper is the only fish I have left.”

Raina Chavez, 17

senior, El Dorado

“I named my rabbit Thumper, because that’s when ‘Bambi’ came out. He was a Thumper look-alike, who could have been his long-lost twin. He even acted like him.”

Ann Ngo, 16

junior, Woodbridge

“One of my cats is named Riff-Raff, from the cartoon Heathcliff--one of the cat’s names was Riff-Raff, and it’s the servant’s name in the movie ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show.’ I also have another cat, Ralphy, named after the little boy in the movie ‘A Christmas Story.’ ”

Sara Knox, 15

sophomore, Huntington Beach

“My cat’s name is Sheeba named after the cat in the [cat food] commercial because they look so identical.”

Jonathan Roy, 16

junior, Saddleback

Responses gathered by Lindsey Blenkhorn, Dana Hills; Tricia Michels, Fountain Valley; Samantha Wood, Trabuco Hills; Joslin Gemsch, Capistrano Valley; Linda Dao, Los Amigos; Roxeanne McGraw, Cypress; Michelle Tran, Saddleback; Andrea Garcia, Villa Park; Amy Chen, Brea Olinda; Michael Steinberger, El Dorado; Elaine Park, Woodbridge; Amber Pierce, Los Alamitos; Amy Woo, Huntington Beach; Jason Foo, Mater Dei.