Top 10 Ways to Name Your New Alpaca
People are always asking me how we choose the names for our new baby alpacas (called cria). Here are the top ten ways we do it.
1. Look at the cria and see if he or she is just “looks” like a certain name or if the situation calls for something special. For example, when “George” and “Martha” presented themselves unexpectedly on President’s Day, that seemed a no-brainer.
2. Let your children choose the name. This can leave you with a herd where most of the alpacas are named “Fluffy”, “Brownie” or “Pickachu”, but you can call their offspring “Fluffachu”, “Pickabrown”, and no one will care. Or you can go the fancier route and go with “Fluffy II” or my favorite “Fluffy 2.o”.
3. No? Give the kids some options and let the public vote. (Check out our “name that alpaca” post for example.)
4. Where do you get these names? Scour baby name books.
5. Keep a list of names that your spouse said “no” to when you were having children. Mine is a mile long.
6. Keep a list with you, perhaps on your phone or computer, and every time you like a name from a book or a movie that you think would work for an alpaca, make a note.
7. Name the alpaca the same initial as his/her dam. For example Adele’s cria would be Abby, or Abel. Callista’s cria would be Calliope, or Checkerboard.
8. Visit the internet for pet naming sites like Cat Names Meow where you can find the purrrfect cat name.
9. Combine the names of your cria’s ancestors. For example, I’m considering “Magnum’s Brown Mesquite” for the little guy in the picture above. His sire is our herdsire, SCA Peruvian Magnum, and his grandsire is Peruvian Black Mesquite.
10. Follow your heart. But use your head too. Will people want to buy an alpaca named “Chaos” or “Paris Hilton”? The fun part is – it’s up to you to name your cria. Have fun with it!
Got any good alpaca naming stories? Any unique names or naming techniques you’d like to share? Let us hear about them!
January 16th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
When we were starting out in alpacas we were both reading the Diana Gabaldon series of historical novels. We loved the series so decided to name our alpaca farm the same as the home farm in Outlander (Lallybroch) and all of our cria are named from characters in the series. It means there is a never ending supply of names available and farm visitors often react with a laugh when they recognise the names. Another series that I think would work well for this is the Jean Auel books as they have such unique names.
January 17th, 2012 at 1:32 am
OH MY!! That is the cutest baby alpaca, such a beautiful color. Sometimes you just look at a new baby and a name comes to you and other times nothing suits them, I try to have a list of all the names I like and when we have a new baby I go check the list.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
We also keep a running list of names that we like, but I think we’ve only used one name from that list so far.
We most often name for a person, place or event but not after that person, place or event.
For example, Eduardo was born during Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy’s funeral and Apple was named because her birth (happily) fouled my plans to make and can applesauce that day.
BTW, That’s a whole lotta crimp on that little guy… but I have to say that the top knot in the first photo reminds me of Lucille Ball.
January 19th, 2012 at 1:44 pm
One of our crias was born the day my mother died. Ruth Eileen didn’t seem like a good cria name, especially since he’s a boy! During the funeral, I kept saying my mother was a “Force of Nature” – my sister suggested we use that as his name.
January 20th, 2012 at 3:01 pm
LOL, I just came across this site. I love animals. I am studying animal science in school right now. Alpacas are beautiful creatures. They must make great pets for some like you to have such a site devoted to them. What a cute little baby! What are their personalities like? Are they smart?
January 20th, 2012 at 4:46 pm
When I was raising Percherons, I loved the Greek and Roman names. I had Julius, Cleopatra, Phaedra…and Chloe/Patrius died with his/her mama four months from birth. The ponies the children named. We had Dotty(her sire was a paint and she had…dots on her rump) and Molly, Mousie(guess what color she was?). Naming sometimes is spontaneous and sometimes take long thought.
February 6th, 2012 at 5:59 pm
She is the sweetest baby ever. Melting my heart!
February 11th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
I totally agree. Naming is kinda an art form. One any of us can do!
February 11th, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Yes, Jasmine. Alpacas are smart!