Arie’s Name Explained: Because Naming Your Dog Sometimes Requires Explanation

Arie.

Those two syllables were finally settled on the day after Arie joined my family. I felt like one of those parents that everyone looks down on for not having their baby named by the time they leave the hospital, but dogs are different. You don’t have nine months to get to know them and think about it–You look for a pup that fits you, you bring them home, and then you figure it out.

Look at that mug. Who couldn't love that?! (NOTE: I'm not usually a pink and bling kind of girl, but when you have a WGSD, for some reason people assume they're male. I put that to a stop really quick)

Somehow, I landed on a particularly confusing name for others. Let’s start with pronunciation.

Her name is not air-ree. No, this has nothing to do with what we breathe. It’s ARR-ree; if you want to get technical about it, it would look like this: är’E.

Now, let’s go with where it came from: Arie is not named after India Arie, as is commonly expected. She was also not named for Ari Gold, who I am told is a character on “Entourage”, though I never watched the show.

Royal Tenenbaums cover via IMDB.

I tossed around plenty of names, from Evie to Abigail. I seriously looked at Aurora, but it sounded like too much for such a little pup. Eventually, that name did lead me down the path to the one I settled on, finally. Arie is, like many modern girls, (Avery, Kenley, Andy, Bailey) the bearer of a name that was originally (or could be, in some unisex names’ cases) a man’s. Enter my love of Wes Anderson movies:

I fell in love with the movie The Royal Tenenbaums when I saw it for the first time while in Yemen–Yes, Yemen. The two awkward little boys in track suits that match Ben Stiller’s? Their characters names are Ari (Aha!) and Uzi. Hence the name Arie was born.

Now, as you can see Ari is typically a man’s name. I needed to feminize it a little bit so that it fit my big girl. I slapped a more feminine (in my opinion) vowel on the end that wouldn’t interrupt the natural pronunciation of the name, and there you have it.

How did your dog come to be by their name? Are they named after a person, a beloved book or movie character, or just for their personality? Did you pick one of 2010’s most popular dog names? Here’s the breakdown so you can see.

 1.Bella      6. Buddy
2. Bailey   7. Maggie
3. Max       8. Daisy
4. Lucy      9. Charlie
5. Molly    10. Sophie

Share your dog naming story in a comment.