Do Animals Care if we Change Their Names?

Do Animals Care if we Change Their Names? 

This is a question I get asked a lot as an animal communicator. The answer is not a simple yes or no, the answer is… it depends. 

Every animal is unique. Every situation is unique. 

Consider the stray dog found in the middle of their lives on the street - they are often given a name by whoever finds them, odds are they had a name before that. 

Consider the horse pulled out of an auction with only a number to go by - they are given a name by the humans who find them. 

Consider the life of a human, and the many nicknames we are given by those who love us or those who judge us. 

This is what the animals have taught me - 

1. Get to know them for a bit before assigning a title to them that is going to mean something to them and everyone who meets them. When we change their name there is intention and thought behind it - energy flows where attention goes, so as you are naming your animal you are also calling in lessons, experiences, and vibrational matches to the name and what it means to you. 

2. Changing the name is not the first thing they’d like us to do when they come into our lives. Sometimes the energy that comes with changing their name immediately is “I want to give you a fresh start, you now belong to me.” What we are sometimes saying energetically is - I am not willing to hold space for your past, or to consider what it means to you, I am going to assign my own meaning to our relationship and my perceptions of your past…. While animals will ‘go’ with this, consider that they appreciate their past being honored, even the hard parts, as it was a necessary part of their own souls’ evolution. 

3. The meaning behind the name matters - not the true meaning, but how you feel about it when you assign it to them. What’s in your heart. 

4. Sometimes… they just don’t like the names we choose. If you keep forgetting the name, end up calling them something else, or find yourself wanting to create a multitude of variations around it, your animal might be energetically encouraging you to search for something more fitting to their energy. Alternatively, if you keep trying to change their name and going back to the old one, consider that a sign that they might be trying to hold on to it. If their behavior changes drastically after changing their name, also something to pay attention to.

5. It’s not bad luck to change their name - those who think this are most likely either trying to honor the story and the past of the animal, or have a fear that changing the name will change aspects of who they are, but those aspects will shift anyway due to the new environment they’re in. 

PS: For people who are thinking, “This is all good and fun, but my dog will respond to anything I call him if I use the right tone”… 

It’s fascinating to me that the first thought isn’t, “Wow my dog is incredible, he has made such strong associations with what I am asking, he recognizes my tone and inflection, patterns of behavior, body language, and my intentions behind it” .. Instead people often say, “My dog isn’t that smart because he will come to anything I say.” 

The name is not irrelevant, this just goes to show you the power of thought and unspoken language, and the environment we create for them. 

There’s so much more I could say on this subject but this feels good for now :)