The dogs tell us their name! Or really the name just comes to us. My husband mostly does the naming. We just had a little, old toy fox terrier come into rescue. They called him "dinkus". My old Greman Great grandmother used the word to mean idiot or ass wipe. I'm sure as hell won't be calling some sweet old dog ass wipe in Greman! So I showed him to my Husband and said "What's his name" and he said "Larry!" And he's been Larry ever since and loving it!