Ooo fun!!
I am ashamed to say most of my names have little meaning to them, they are just names that popped into my head or felt right. I'm going to do just the rats over the past year; I could go on for quite some time I think if I did all of them.
Well... Mikey (RIP) was named Mikey automatically. It just fit somehow, and I actually am not a fan of the name at all. But it fit so well I couldn't fight it. And it suited him rather well.
Denny was named Denny because when I got him, he didn't have a name for a month! Just nothing fit him. I was at my sister's at the time, and she tried to help and came up with the worst names ever. So to avoid having to hear any more of her suggestions, I just blurted out Denny. We were going on one of our Grey's Anatomy marathons and had just watched one with a character named Denny (my favorite recurring guest star ever!) and it just happened. That's what started my (almost) theme!
Izzie is pretty self explanitory if you know me. I love Katherine Heigl. I love Grey's Anatomy. Katherine Heigl plays Izzie on Grey's Anatomy. Therefore... Izzie. Plus when he was little he looked like a girl SO much. So it just fit! Plus I had Denny... I had to have his soul mate!
Denny and Izzie on the show were an item and were spectacular.
Preston's name also came from Grey's Anatomy. Now, I know, there are far more central characters than Preston Burke, but none of the other names fit him. Preston, though, fits him perfectly! As another character says on the show "A guy named Preston is going to get his butt kicked by a squirrel" and that's pretty much Preston's attitude. LOL
Andi my sister named as he was supposed to be "her" rat. Right.
After Andy Warhol, I believe. Why the 'I' I don't know. It fits, though, amazingly enough... And she hadn't even met him when she named him.
Tip was also named by my sister for the same reason as Andi. It's short for Tiffany. And he's a boy, yes. So I have two boys with girl names.
But again... It so fits! He is such a girly rat, he is whiny and needy and just reminds me of a prissy girl.
Rubin and Norrin came with their names.
And they are older so I never even thought about changing theirs.
I helped naming the girls, too. First there was Maude and Iris. John is a HUGE Judd Apatow buff (as am I!) and his two daughters are named Maude and Iris. So John, fancying himself a Judd Apatow prodigy, named his "daughters" Maude and Iris. Also, they (the human Maude and Iris) were in our favorite movie "Knocked Up" which starred... you guessed it, Katherine Heigl. Then Maude 1 died, John got Maude 2. Maude 2 died. And he's on a wait list for Maude 3. He's persistent.
Then little Harlow... I don't know how she got her name, it just happened. We looked at her and it was like... "Well, you're Harlow." And that was it! I hate thinking so, but I'm pretty sure I heard it when Nicole Ritchie named her daughter that, and it must have been stuck in the recesses of my mind and just came out when we saw that pretty little baby rat.