Nationwide celebrates funniest cat and dog names with Wacky Pet Names contest
Public voting is open April 4-9
Choosing a name for your pet calls for careful consideration and creativity. When picking a meaningful moniker, some pet parents play with puns or choose a name that honors a favorite person, place or thing while others make up something amusingly nonsensical. The entries among this year’s finalists for Nationwide’s® Wacky Pet Names contest run that gamut.
The nation’s pet health protection leader is hosting a public vote to decide the most imaginative names among its roster of more than 1.1 million dogs and cats. Voting is open April 4-9, 2022 at petinsurance.com/wackypetnames. The top vote-getters in each category will be announced on Monday, April 11, 2022.
Below are the finalists with links to their personal profiles:
Tips for choosing a pet’s name
Taking into account the science behind how pets hear and respond to different sounds, keep these naming tips in mind.
- Use hard consonants and vowels. These are easier for pets to hear and respond to.
- Consider a nickname for any names longer than one or two syllables.
- Avoid names that sound like commands. Subtle differences in sounds confuse pets.
- Test it out first to make sure you’re comfortable saying the name loudly in public.
The first name in pet insurance
If the name Lassie sounds familiar, you might think of the fictional dog that starred in several movies and television series, but a little-known fact is the role Lassie played in Nationwide’s history. On April 8, 1982, Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI, which later became part of Nationwide) issued the first pet health insurance policy in the United States to the famous collie. Now 40 years later, Nationwide protects more than 1.1 million pets.
To explore pet health insurance coverage for dogs, cats and many avian or exotic pets, visit petinsurance.com.