The Uniqueness of Names

To put it mildly, the names Shelly and I saddle our pets with are far from common. There's an interesting story in the Des Moines Register this morning about pet names in Des Moines.

Apparently, the city of Des Moines has spent the last four years collecting the names of its residents pets. It should come as no surprise that I found not a single "Mister Tanaka" or "Fat Choy" in the entire city (though "Ernie" was the 66th most common name for a cat and the 92nd most common name for a dog).

But "Max," Brad and Laura's cat, has the sixth most common cat name in Des Moines, with 125 feline Maxes in the city. Max's self-esteem is probably better than Fat Choy's: He doesn't get teased about his name by the neighborhood birds and squirrels.