Pets get names in the strangest ways – trust me, North knows – be it from a person, place, thing, or something else entirely. Well, Veterinary Pet Insurance (the country's largest and oldest provider), recently took tally of their 477,000 registered pets to see how many shared surnames with US presidents. After taking out ones that could double as fairly traditional human names – like Madison and Jackson – they counted up the number of dogs, cats, birds, and other exotic pets that had names in common with presidents. Find out who tops this list (then vote for your favorite) in this slideshow.
A survey from the European dating site Smartdate found that a Laura, Cassandra, or Julia in France has a far more active sex life than an Anaïs, Colette, or Nicole.
While the average French woman reports 4.4 sex partners, women whose names end in "A" were more likely to have around nine. A big difference for one letter.
It all sounds trivial until you look at why. Traditional French names rarely end in "A," so those that do are usually from another language or culture, giving them an exotic allure. I still don't believe a name could make a nearly five sex-partner difference, though.
Smartdate concedes that female names ending in "A" are overrepresented on its site, which is odd for a country that underrepresents them. Maybe it should look at how many nonnatives (could be a more promiscuous population?) use Smartdate. Surely, they're more likely to turn to the Internet to meet people than those born and raised there, especially in a country so notoriously introverted.
Source: Flickr User Leo Reynolds
Or, at least, a couple thousand Facebook fans! This adorable baby dolphin at the Minnesota Zoo has been having an identity crisis since her birth in July, but luckily, the zoo’s Facebook fans stepped in and submitted their votes to give the bottlenose calf a name. Taijah, the winning name with 37 percent of the votes, is four feet long and 60 pounds — some baby! — and the zoo describes her as "spunky, inquisitive, bold, and sassy."
Check out more photos of Taijah after the break!
Nom de plume, pen names, pseudonym — author aliases go by various labels. For National Novel Writing Month, let's play a little trivia! See if you can match the made-up identity to the author's legal name. And don't forget to check out our Guess Who's a Celebrity Author game.
Source: Flickr User Tom Banwell
In my mind, the pet or name debate rivals the chicken and egg one: what comes first? While catching up on some TV after North's photoshoot, I picked up on a funny scene from the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother.
The sometimes neurotic Ted dreamed about his doomed future without Cindy (guest spot by real-life animal lover, Rachel Bilson), saying “Bye bye, triplet schnauzers ‘Frank,’ ‘Lloyd’ and ‘Wright.’” Not only was it a silly dramatic thought, it got me thinking about pets with matching names. Since I'm in no rush to add to my family . . . even for a pup named South, I'm asking have you (or would you) ever name pets as a group?
Source: Flickr User BC Taiwan
Could this be an extension of Twilight mania?! Hard to say for sure but, for the first time in years, Bella has replaced Max as the most popular dog name from 2009.
Like they've done in year's past, Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) crunched numbers for all their insured pets — more than 475,000! — finding that Bella beat out the number two by over 400 dogs. (Note: Edward and Jacob are still nowhere to be found in the top 10.)
See the top 10 lists for both dogs and cats from 2009 when you read more
With its huge online database of adoptable animals, Petfinder has over 300,000 pets available and they've taken a look at those pets to see which names are most common. Now it makes sense that there's some overlap with the other list we've seen, especially since shelters may not take the time to get super creative for creatures they're trying to re-home elsewhere.
Holding the top spot for dogs is Buddy while Lucy reigns supreme for cats — see the full lists when you read more
Coming up with a name that's just right is a tough process! Some of us one day dream of owning a pet with a particular moniker while others wait until we meet an animal before starting the naming process. I planned on calling North "Piper" until I picked him up and decided that simply didn't fit and a community member enlisted our help to come up with a name for this precious face — how did the process work for you?
(See more of the super adorable Brody James here.)
Celebrities may be born with perfect looks, but they're not always born with perfect names. See if you can spot the celeb and her given name.
