Well, here's my story: My male , who I adopted from BRAT, was named 'Ollie' when I got him. So all I did was change the spelling to 'Ali' to reflect his African heritage. My new member of the family, a B/W female who I'm picking up this Saturday, I've named 'Aja'. It means 'high priestess of Mecca'. It's also a great Steely Dan song!!!:D
Seti is named after an Egyptian pharaoh (he was the father of Ramesses II). Everyone always thinks we named him after the acronym SETI "Search For Extra Terrestrials"…that could be more fitting perhaps...
Everyone's stories are wonderful!
Basenji owners - it's true that we are as unique as our dogs. I take pride in the fact we are not littered with "Sugars, Fluffys, and Spots" 
My little girl got her name with a mispronunciation.. I loved the name "Lecia" which can translate close to 'joy/happiness' (ie Felecia etc) … it should be pronounced Le-sha ... but being a American, my first attempt at pronouncing it was Lee-c-ah. The moment I said it - her ears pricked, and I knew I had a winner. I did change the spelling so my fellow country ppls could actually pronounce it correctly - so she is "Lycia" on paper and the Frenchies get it fine. 
Which for me was much easier to pronounce from her registered name of "Hajomi" (lovely as it is.)
my dogs call names are Spencer and Chloe. I just like the names… Their AKC names are quite different though.
Shango here got his name from African mythology. Shango was a highly respected God that the Yoruba people worshipped. He's known as the God of Thunder so Shango has a little lightning bolt on his collar!
Plus, I just think Shango is a cool name and he responds to it well! 
My puppy was named after a beach in Australia- 'Cronulla' so we just took the last part 'Nulla' and that is her name. My boyfriend is from that area and we loved it immediately.
Robby named him Congo because europeans first saw the dogs around Congo, Africa, also in Congo they are known as the "dogs of the bush" so he thought it would be a fitting name for him.
Tucker's name may seem lame by comparison to what I've read here… He had his name when I adopted him and had had it for upwards of 3.5 years. I figured it wasn't the greatest of ideas to change it since Tucker also happens to be the little city on the outskirts of Atlanta that I grew up in. Good ole hometown Tucker, Ga and good old Tucker the dog... AND, it rymes with something I've come to refer to him as on quite a few more occasions than just once when he misbehaves...
"good old Tucker the dog… AND, it rymes with something I've come to refer to him as on quite a few more occasions than just once when he misbehaves.."
Bwaha ha ha ha ha 
Booger… we were researching basenjis, looking for breeders, talking about what color we hoped to get, etc etc for a couple of months. One night, frustrated at our stymied attempts to get in touch with local breeders with available puppies, Andrew suddenly turned to me and said, "We should name him Booger." We have no idea why that popped into his head right then, but I immediately agreed. A few weeks later we found the puppy to fit the name. And it fits perfectly.
Lola... our breeder told us she was expecting another litter and we expressed interest. Immediately, I started thinking, researching African names, etc. When I asked the children I babysit, their mom told me all of the dog's on her childhood street were named after flowers and she always liked Sweetpea. So originally her name was Sweetpea, but around 4 months old we realized she is going to be faster than Booger. So we thought of the movie Run Lola Run & decided Lola would be a better grown up name.
Spooky... an all black cat named Spooky because I love Halloween & black cats & its a good cutesy name.
Kiki... a stray I found who has always been skittish. She wasn't intended to be a pet, but rather, I had her fixed, got her shots & let her be outside where she was happier. I never gave her a real name because she wasn't supposed to be a pet, but Andrew started calling her Kiki after a scene from the CKY videos (precursor to the show JackA** on MTV) where they are feeding a cat treats & calling it Kiki. I picked up the habit of calling her that & it stuck.
Earlier today I was thinking of naming one in the future SheRa... I think its great somebody else already named their b that. haha.
my little Zumi got his name from the infamous B-500. I came in the door one day to him zipping through the house like a chicken with its head cut off, and he didn't even realize I came in so I hunkered down and was joking around with mom and yelled "ZOOMIES!!" He stopped in his tracks! when he pounced over to me I told him " your a little zoomie aren't you?" well, the name stuck, so I made it unique in spelling so I have my little Zumi, named after his basenji zoomies.
~Char
Our male's litter was british comedy particularly the show keeping up appearances. We kept the british comedy theme and named him Monty, we are big Python fans. Our girl's litter was desserts. since she is a tri the dessert we decided on was a cream puff as they have all the colors in a tri. So she is mystic cream puff otherwise known as Misty
Shadow was named because he continually followed me around-so my DH named him Shadow. His reg name is Sherwood's Black Tie Affair. Sugar was named because she was so sweet I thought she was a little bit of Sugar. Her Reg name is Sherwood's Something Sweet. Damisi is Dalji's Damisi Dhata A Duara-so I just kept Damisi. Zina was already named and because of all she had been through (warrior princess and all (but different spelling)) I kept it. Calli was named for Callisto.-Don't ask why!
Hi
I named my girl Kaycee, simply because they are her initials. Just changed the spelling so it looked a bit more girly on paper.
My basenji's answers to the name Seren Jane, short for Serengetti Girl. She is 6 yrs. old and has my husband and I both trained. There were times when she was younger we thought of giving her away because she kept chewing up the furniture. We could never cage trainer for she chewed all her baby teeth out. But with some professional training and lots of patients she has become the love of our lives.
I joined this forum to find out about her black spots on her belly. She continues to get more and they have become larger. Is this a natural occurence in all basenji's or only in certain colors? She is red w/white markings.
I am not sure if the spots are normal or not, maybe someone else can chime in…my dog, Tosca, is red and white as well, and she has spots on her belly, and they have increased over time, but they are not black. They are more reddish/brownish, and look like a birthmark. I am not sure if they are the same thing or not, but from what I have heard about what Tosca has, its harmless, hopefully yours is as well
It is common in some family of basenjis. Three of my four do not have these spots, one does.
As a breeder who has been "in Basenjis" for "a while", I have named quite a few. (No all of these do not currently live with me but did at one time.)
Ever since I was a kid I wanted a red/white female Basenji named Keiko so when I finally got the Basenji as an adult, Keiko she was. I have no idea why I wanted Keiko, I just liked the way it sounded.
Houston and Dallas - Named for cities. A third pup from that litter was Denver.
Logan - I wanted a "manly sounding" name.
Baron - When he was born, he was very plainly marked with no white collar, just a small spot on the back of his neck. I called him Spot as his "baby name" but when I decided to keep him, I changed it to Baron.
Luna - Owner named her. Her registered name is Sherwood's Red Moon Rising. Luna, Baron, and Logan are littermates and all have "red" in their registered names.
Cassie - Sherwood's New Year Party, born New Year's Day. All pups in this litter have New Year in their registered names.
Pippin - One of my "Brady Bunch", 3 boys, 3 girls with the "baby names" Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan, and Cindy. I used the "TIme" theme for registering this litter. Greg became Lisa's Nicky. Jan became Pippin. I had a real hard time coming up with a name for her (I wasn't keeping the name Jan). I kept calling her the "little pipsqueak" and it turned into Pippin from there. Her nicknames are Squeaky-britches and Termite. Pippin has proudly passed along her chewing abilities to her offspring. sighs Pippin is registered Sherwood's Timeswept Promises because she showed so much "promise" as a youngster and I hoped that her contibution to my breeding program would stand over the course of time.
Clipper - Registered name Sherwood's Eclipse Of The Moon, son of Luna. This litter were all registered with the "moon" theme in honor of their mother. Lisa's Rally was from this litter. An odd thing about his name was that when he was born, the co-breeder and I came up with the registered name AND call name at the exact same time!
Plum - Sherwood's Visions Of Sugarplums, born Christmas eve. Whole litter were registered in a Christmas theme. Plum's brother is Topper, Sherwood's Up On The Rooftop.
Locket - Loved the name so came up with Sherwood's Southern Charm. Litter all had "southern" in their registered names.
George - George and Fred named for the mischievious red-headed twins in Harry Potter.
Bindi - Got the name from the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's daughter.
Cory - Pat's Sherwood's Little Red Corvette. Litter was registered with the "cars" theme. Two are called Chevy and Lexus.
Jayden - Another of Pat's pooches. I just liked the name. Litter was registered using the "secret" theme. Jayden is Sherwood's Secret Keeper derived from Harry Potter.
Jozie - Sherwood's Secret Legacy in hopes that through her the legacy of Sherwood will continue.
My current cats all have weird names :p
Moxie is Moxie T. Scooterbuns
Sherman is Sherman Purrsalot Pouncing Moose
Gypsy is Gypsy Lynn Flycatcher
TUK is The Unnamed Kitty
Willie has spots that are very light during the cold months, but once it gets warm, he sunbathes and they all pop out. They're pretty dark in the summer.
Rose has absolutely none.
As a breeder who has been "in Basenjis" for "a while", I have named quite a few. (No all of these do not currently live with me but did at one time.)
Ever since I was a kid I wanted a red/white female Basenji named Keiko so when I finally got the Basenji as an adult, Keiko she was. I have no idea why I wanted Keiko, I just liked the way it sounded.
My current cats all have weird names :p
Moxie is Moxie T. Scooterbuns
Sherman is Sherman Purrsalot Pouncing Moose
Gypsy is Gypsy Lynn Flycatcher
TUK is The Unnamed Kitty
I STILL want a boy named Satchemo to go with my Jazzy…but if I ever got another dog I know it'll be a female so.... sigh. Oh well.
Weird cat names? Try a boy named Ginger and a girl named Nerfnuzzle!
