Zindeku…..we just call him Deek...means "protective charm" is Swahili.
My other two came with names. Gracie and Britches...we call her Britty.
Dash got his name for his speed and it was when the movie the incredibles came out so my son wanted to name him Dash.
Sissy (beagle) was a rescue and was named for her skittish personality.
Gizmo (cat) was named when I got him, but he does look like Gizmo from Gremlins–before he got wet! Or whatever it was that turned them greed and ugly. Hell, I can't remember.
Amber (cat) was another rescue named before we got her. The entire group of cats were named after liquer or beer so she became AmberBach.
Susie (our foster 
was named when we got her. She doesn't respond to it and I don't think it really fits her but I will allow the new owners to name her.
Sophie came to us as DeeDee (the shelter worker renamed her that because she hated her original name of BeeBee). I figured since she had been renamed once before then another time would hurt. Princess Sophie Cat is her full name.
A friend told me a story of how a co-worker allowed her 3 year old daughter to name the new family dog. Promptly she named it "Stick". Horrified the mom explained she was thinking of a cuter name that ended in an E noise. The little girl looked around and said you mean like "Telephone Poley"? The mom then thought Stick sounded just fine. I ROFL when I heard this so we now have a dog named Good Ol' Stick. I'm pretty sure if we get another B we'll name it Telephone Poley!PS- I've always wanted to write a children's book called "The Adventures of Princess Sophie Cat and Good Ol' Stick"!!!
Cute! I kinda like 'Stick' 
well fender is really "platinum's fremont desert storm" and when i got him mary k had been calling him russell (gag). my hubby plays guitar and it is an expensive taylor(acoustic/electric); i got my puppy and named him fender, like stratocaster
Cory is "Sherwood's Little Red Corvette" from Robyn's car litter and Jayden is "Sherwood's Secret Keeper" from her secret litter. She was already calling them Cory and Jayden and we just stayed with those names. Must admit that Jayden frequently gets called "Bubba" or "Jay". Both have been called "brat face" when it has seemed appropriate!
Our two sons named our female boxer "Adrianne" because she was a boxer and Rocky was a "boxer" and Adrianne was Rocky's wife. Actually, they just wanted to be able to stand in the back yard and call out "Yo! Adrianne!"
Pat
oh, i didnt realize you had cory! how is she?
well fender is really "platinum's fremont desert storm" and when i got him mary k had been calling him russell (gag). my hubby plays guitar and it is an expensive taylor(acoustic/electric); i got my puppy and named him fender, like stratocaster
Fender is an awesome name!
My hubby plays drums…..hmmmmmm, for the next b....how do you like Zildjian as a Basenji name? 
If we can find a bass player we could have ourselves a rock n roll band!
Rascal we named because as a puppy her behavior reminded us of the characters from the Little Rascals. Manning is named for Peyton Manning since my fiance and I are huge University of Tennessee fans. All of our friends have a running joke about it, anytime the Colts are playing people ask us if Manning's tuning in to watch his godfather.
With the cats we got a little more creative. We have Freya named for a norse goddess, darwin because he was a stray we found in the animal science building at UT, and Merlin (who I think we misnamed, hes getting so fat I keep calling him Henry VIII!).
oh, i didnt realize you had cory! how is she?
Cory is doing great and pretty much rules the roost. Jayden adores her and pretty much lets her have her way and win every argument.
Pat
Well Zaire's full name is "Taji Nyonda Zaire Usharifu". Taji is her kennel name and the rest of her name means "Beloved Nobility of Zaire".
Charlie being a parson got a much more European name"Avitars Charlemagne Veritas" or "The embodyment of Charlemagne's Truth"
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.
