On Names…

So for this week’s writing challenge, we were asked to delve into the power of a name.  This reminds me of Elizabeth Haydon’s Symphony of Ages.  This saga is about a woman named Rhapsody who is a Singer who wants to reach the status of a Namer.  A Namer knows the true name of every plant, animal, and being in their world.  Knowing these names means power.

So whose name shall I delve into? I decided to talk about the name that gains the most compliments:

My dog Abner.

Abner at the Vet

Several years ago I was looking at names for the guinea pig I had at the time.  Her name was Cuy (little side note: Cuy means male guinea pig…..but it also means the dish of cooked Guinea Pig.  It was a joke in my family that I got her, but she was never eaten).

Anyway….I was looking at names and I saw the name Abner.  I was immediately taken back to my childhood.  I loved the Indiana Jones movies and it’s the mark of a good fan who knew the correlation between Abner and our favorite archeologist:

Abner Ravenwood (Marion’s father from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’) was Indiana’s mentor.

As soon as I saw that name I had a light bulb moment: if I ever had a boy pug, I would name him Abner.  It then became my goal: I wanted to own a pug and name him Abner.  It is a name you never hear anymore and even when you do (or at least I do) you would imagine a feeble old man with his cane.  Of course a pug has the face of a little old man so the name just seemed to click together.  All I needed now was the dog.

Several months later, I was in a Delilah’s Pet Shop in Bloomington, Indiana (a store that only deals with breeders) and I met this adorable little baby:

Baby Abner – I was in love.

He’ll be five in May and he’s the love of my life.