What's in a name?

I'm sure many of you are wondering how our dogs got their names. The stories are all quite funny. "Hal" is short for "Halbo", which is short for Hallelujah. I wanted to name him "Starbuck", or "Jedi" or something with pop to it. When we were riding back to our house in Greensboro with him, Karen and I kept trying out names. At one point, Karen had shared some good news with me (which I can't recall), and I said aloud, "hallelujah". Halbo perked right up, and began wagging his tail. We tried other names to elicit the same response, and got nothing. I said "hallelujah" again, and Hal wagged away. The rest, is history.

Otis' full name is Otis Javier Lopez Holland, which is amusing in and of itself. Otis was given his name from the breeder, and named after the Otis from the Andy Griffith show (the local drunk). The name seems to fit him perfectly, so we kept it for our family. The middle name is a bit more exotic, I guess. Otis was born on Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican day of Independence (May 5th). We wanted his middle name to have some Latino spice, but couldn't decide on the name. We thought about Helio Castroneves (the Indy-car driver & Dancing with the Stars champ), but settled on one of our favorite Atlanta Braves of all time, Javy Lopez. And so, Otis Javier Lopez Holland was born.

Alexis was also given her name by her breeder, Big Momma, and we kept it too, if for no other reason than the way "Otis and Alexis" sounded together when shouted! Her middle name was given to her by one of our star baby-sitters, Becca Wood. The first day Becca met Alexis, she agreed we should keep her first name, and then suggested her middle name be Shar-Pay for two reasons. Primarily, Alexis was acting like a real diva that day, and put Otis in his place rather quickly. Secondly, the name is also a tribute to Hallelujah, who is a Chinese Shar-Pei. It all fit so beautifully, and Alexis Shar-Pay Holland was settled. By the way, we chose the "High School Musical" spelling of "Shar-Pay" in honor of our own little diva, Caroline.

The More You Know...