Puppy Post - BAHA! Nym's Name & Where it Came From

So I was checking out this website about naming your dogs and came across this:

The Self-Appointed Nobility: You will find that announcing your dog to anyone with a title, usually of royal distinction ,will get you a look followed shortly thereafter by a non-committal noise. Anyone who’s worked with dogs will tell you a dog with a self-styled title is a dog and owner combo you don’t want to deal with. Prince Foxy, Lady Dingles, Princess Mary Molly, Sir Charles and so on. Aside from the fact that you’re naming a dog, not the heir of the Luxembourgish throne, these people are typically incredibly high maintenance. They make the dog snobs look like slobs and while that’s not all that hard to do, it’s an impressive feat in micromanagement.

Well you know what dog snobs.... Our dog is the heir to the throne of STFU and was picked as one of The Daily Puppy's Daily Puppy!!!, so I'll name her how I ever loving please. Our precious little Dowager Countess Nymeria MacBattleby Logiealmond MacGold of the Easter Geddes, the Maid of Nairnshire, Baroness of Drumornie, the First of Her Name is an absolute gem... and she has a story to go with it...

Pretty freaking adorably, noble-looking... right?! 

Here's where she got her name... As JR and I drove through the Scottish countryside on our honeymoon, we were at a loss for what to call a boy puppy, if that's what the breeder had available - so we started picking up potential names as we went.

Scottish Honeysuckle - I LURVE honeysuckle. It's probably my favorite flower. 

All those names made their way into a note on his phone and as he was reading off the potentials, I thought HA those aren't names - it's a friggin' title. Which then turned into - what if we gave our dog a preposterous title for a name and attempted to enforce people to call her by the full name? What hilarity would ensue?

JR in front of Kilravock signage in Nairnshire

So we picked up Nairnshire (which happens to be where my ancestors are from) and MacBattleby Logiealmond off of road signs. We picked out Drumornie, because it was still a funny word, but a lot easier to pronounce than Drumnadrochit. I picked out the Easter Geddes, because that was a part of my family's lands back in the times of landed gentry.

My family's Castle Sign in the Nairnshire, a part of the Easter Geddes

But the reasons for the specific titles... now that's where lil Nymeria's story gets interesting. ;-)

Little Nymeria MacBattleby Logiealmond MacGold is the only daughter of the fake Laird MacBattleby Logiealmond MacGold of Nairnshire, a widower, which means all his estates will become hers upon his death... this makes her according to Scottish titles a Maid of his lands.

Her fake, late, lady mother (also an only child) died in childbirth, which bestowed her title to little Nymeria - Baroness of Drumornie.

And even before little Nymeria took her first steps, she was promised and married by proxy to the Count of the Easter Geddes... who died at the Battle of Bannockburn, in 1314... supporting the good Robert the Bruce (clearly she's very, very old for such a young puppy). That makes her the Dowager Countess of the Easter Geddes.

Hence her perfectly logical name... for all her fake lineage - The Dowager Countess Nymeria MacBattleby Logiealmond MacGold of the Easter Geddes, the Maid of Nairnshire, Baroness of Drumornie, the First of Her Name.

If you'd like to be kept abreast of all of little Nymeria's comings and goings - follow her on Twitter: @NymeriaMacGold!