Naming your cows...
 

whats your method?

I've heard some named after chocolate candies now, and some named after ice cream brands and flavors....

so you just pick somethin and run with the 'series' of names?

Well, we have done a little of everything. Our first Jersey we got when I was 7, was named Ginger. Her daughters were all named spices. Apple Pie Spice. Pumpkin Pie Spice. Nutmeg....there were more but I've forgotten them now. She only had heifers. :)
When Ginger was sold, we kept her daughter, Pumpkin Pie Spice(AKA Pumpkin). Pumpkin had Blossom(Pumpkin Blossom), Blossom had another Ginger(out of respect for her great-grandmother, the original Ginger), Ginger had Gingersnap, Gingersnap had Snickerdoodle(aka "Snickers"). Snickers is the cow we now have for sale.
And some years we just go by what we feel like. The year Joan, April and Bobbie were born, we just felt like using real names. :shrug:
All our freezer beeves get food names.
Blossom is still here at going on 17 years old.....bred to calve late this fall.

A Dgs Named The First Name We Used - Tickles The Bull.
His Little Brother Resumed The Naming Later On - Max The Little Bull, Then When Asked What To Name No. 17's Expected Baby - He Said Jack Frost.. So The Next Two Calves Were Named Jack And Frostee[heifer], Then In Jack's Pasture Jill Was Born. At The River Cindy And Jimmy Were Born To Join Frostee, Then Sara Was Born There. Meanwhile Jack Dies Of Blackleg And All Get Vac's. Spanky Is Born To Be With Jill. Cindy And Jimmy Go To Live With Spanky And Them. So Does Max & Ben A Yearling Bull.

Back At The Home Base Checkers And Brownie Are Born. Then Funnyface Cow Has A Calf And It Has A 1/2 Sister They Are Yet Un-named. But Jimmy's Crazy-cow Mommie Lives Up Here Now From The River. ------ Lost Her First Full Term Baby On Dec 3. So She Is The Baby Sitter Cow At Home Base While The Others Go A Grazing.

But It Does Help To Name Them.....helps Remember Who Their Mom Is For Cattle Records.

i go with something i can hollar over the field and they will come too

daizeeeeeeeee

rosieeeeeee

dottieeeee

crazzeeee

hersheee, frankie glory( see they here the eeeeeee and all come up)

but we ran out of names so its usually what ever pops in my head when i see them

rosie was red, crazee looks crazy hershey is cocoa and white, sunnee was born on the only sunny day in feb, bug looks like a bug :shrug:

knutters and butters are twins, butters was the one born in the creek and we put a heater on her and she got warm as butter, the other one was a nut soooo

we bought three long horns, one was supposed to be a steer, but wasnt so she is Mystery,,,(ms. steery)

freezer bound is always fun last one was phillip( fill up the freezer)

We name our heifers using names from the Bible.

On the ones for butcher, we are more creative. For example last spring we had a set of twins born. We named them Bonnie and Clyde due to the fact they are exciting to watch, but will die in the end.

I'm sorry to say, most of my beef cows have names that I can't repeat on a polite forum like this. They were all named in the heat of the moment. :flame:

I was thinking of Jezebel and Delilah and some of those old testament names... and for a bull calf that we raise for meat, we'll definitely go for Tbone or Ribeye or KC (masterpiece bbq)

Cute names and fun to hear how ya'll come up with them.

I name my animals greek names, with meanings. I have named many, and some of the names include.

Sophia - Holstein
Isis - Holstein
Psykhe - Holstein
Alexis - Beefer then a Holstein
Athena - Jersey
Aphrodite - Beefer
Arcadia - Holstein
Sera - Red Holstein (Sera means "burning one")
Antheia - Beefer
Artemis - Jersey
Alexandria - Beefer
Aquarius - Beefer
Zeus - Beefer
Titus - Angus
Aquila - HOlstein
Kallipso - Holstein

with more to come..

Herd bulls have themes for daughters. Everything else...well...very few themes. lol
Though Baka ("stupid") had Bakatu who had Bakatutu (Tutu), then there was Bakatrey. Bakatrey had Elisif (Norwegian...out of El Tigre our Norwegian Red cross herd bull).
Some cow lines belong to family members and they name the animals in the line. Hannah's had Annabelle, Acorn, Princess Jasmine, Rocky Mountain, Atilla, Belle, Space Cadet Toby (Essie), Dasha (another herd bull daughter-Jason), Nicolass, and Cassandra. There may be others....they all started with Annabelle.
Mine were Eureka, who had Precious (herd bull daughter-Pearl), who had Petunia, who had Lily of the Valley (Lily O'), who had Frosh (born my freshman year of high school) and Adeleine. Unfortunately, that is as far as my line ever made it. I lost Adeleine about three winters ago. Though, Petunia had a bull calf 10 years ago and he is a ten year old Ox named Niagara. The last of my line still living..lol
We have had a Disney movie line and other various themed lines, but not every line is themed.

With over 100 years worth of names some are getting re-used...lol. Though I try to avoid that when possible.
Mostly, we wait for the name to come to us. Except when it was a child naming the animal.
Which is why there are two heifers who do not have names yet. They are both still under a year old. It's also why i don't name every doe kid born here either. There are still 15 of those that need names from this year....

Our current herd consists of (in order by descending age) Amity, Priscilla, Quaff, Mistie, Sandy, Snowdrift, Space Cadet Toby (Essie), Amistad, Carina, Dagmar, Sidsel, Inger, Juness, Crucible, Guinevere, Gadget, Gabrielle, Nicolass, Cadence, Nessie, Shaylee, Calisto, Hermaine, Calliope, Jacquee, Freedom's Song, Madelin, Twyla, Argos, Belaphron, Charlotte, Circe, Dasha, Elektra, Alpine, Sigil, Isadore, Cassandra, Cervantes (herd bull), Nala, Lucy? (not sure), Ruby, unnamed, unnamed, and Zeda

Bull lines in the past three decades. We try to start at A and move down the alphabet with each calf.
Londonderry (Ireland-had Xena, then Begorra{I think...} thru Ireland)
Bountiful (two daughters named Amity and Blessing..young half brotehr to Londonderry so not used heavily)
El Tigre (Norwegian names- Space Cadet Toby, then Amistad thru Juness..with two Fs..the twins Frida and Freya)
Jason (Jason and the Argonauts- Argos thru Elektra. Charlotte is out of him but we didn't realize that at first).
Cervantes hasn't settled anything yet, but his theme should be obvious..lol

Pearl was a herd bull back in the early 1980s. His most recent daughter (born this past September) is Ruby...so he's made it to "R" in the alphabet..lol

As kids we named our aunt's cows in pairs since she got them that wya, Cookies and Cream. PopEye and SweetPea etc. WHen I get my homestead the ones for the freezer will have meat names, the kids agree they'd hate to have one with a personable name thats emant for dinner

We only have 3 at the moment, and their names are Bessie, Rosie (who is all red) and Sweetpea, the Jersey. Previously we had Miss Moo (a registered longhorn who we sold at auction because she loved to jump over fences) and her heifer calf Millicent, also sold when we realized we needed cows with small horns or no horns at all! We called Millicent "Millie" for short, and boy do I miss her. She's probably hamburger by now, but she was so sweet and gentle. The day we loaded her for the sale, I called to her across our big pasture and she came trotting up to the loading chute :Bawling: She was a gem.

We started naming alphabetically....Alfie, Burt, Charlie, Dettweiler, Ernie, Frank, etc but after a while we ran out of names and also had so many that we couldnt keep track, so now it's just "comeaaaawwn, comeeeaaawn"

Sweet Thing (got her name as an unusually friendly calf). She is my oldest now at about 12.
Peaches (visiting young girl named her)
Sweetie (one of ST's daughters)
Dottie (spotted)
Dottie Two (also spotted)
White Butt (large white slash on tail top)
Baby (Black Jersey - she is a big baby if you have something she wants)
Angus #19
Angus #20

First bull I had was named Mr. Bull. All of the rest have just been Big Boys.

While on cattle I took the herd bull into the livestock auctions this AM. Run was less than 900 - about normal for a sale there. Apparently the TN drought sell-off may be mostly over. Didn't stay for the rest of the sale. 1,895 pounds and sold for $.64 pound.

They brought a Charlois in - over 2,500 pounds - must have been 6' at the shoulders. Biggest bull I think I have ever seen.

We have a system that helps me remember who a cow's sire is. The first letter of the cow's name is the same as the first letter of the cow's sire's name.
For example, a daughter of Durham would be Durham Darcy. A daughter of a bull called Swedmark might be Swedmark Sunny, or Swedmark Sara.
And so on.
Keep running out of P names though...Petunia, Patsy, Patina, Pumpkin, Pinata, Posy, Pokey, Patrice, Polly, Pluto, Paprika, Pancakes :)

cows and heifers -Gertie, Geri , Mama cows 1,2, and 3, Jasmine, Jewel, Speck, Pepermint patty, Lucy.

Bulls- Rudy, Chuck roast, Hamburger, Charlie Brown, Linus, and Blake

When we had our small herd we had a registered hereford bull whose name was Sherman.Our two year old granddaughter couldn't say that so it came out as Charmin!The name stuck!

We have three beef calves. they are named T-Bone, Jerky, and Chuck.

All named by my kids.

All my cattle have the same name! I call sooo cow and they prepare to move out. Here is the start of a move
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...23May07008.jpg

So you had your own home grown, "Spice Girls".

The breed association picks a letter for each year, so that helps narrow things down. We even use it to name the steers although they obviously aren't going to be registered.
Beth, the matriarch, came with her name
Majestic, beef steer, came with Beth, we renamed him Mr Tallman for William Tallman who played DA Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason, hence hamburger.
Nigel, beef steer, Beth's first
Orlando, beef steer, Beth's second
Serenity, heifer, Beth's third
Tranquility, heifer, known as Tahlia (named by DGD) Beth's fourth
Ulani, heifer, Beth's fifth

Agman, nice looking cattle there. A pleasure to see. What is the white flower in the paddock and what are the trees in the background.

Names just happen for me. A bull called Bugalugs, one called Nugget and my present one called The Ambler because that's just what he does - ambles like he had nothing to do and all day to do it in.

Splash - she jumped in the river when 10 hours old, made a huge splash and had to be rescued.
Clipper - a bully calf and I told her that if she thieved the other calves milk again I would clip 'er around the ear.
Dancer - as a calf she skipped and danced wherever she went.
Dilly - too thick to find the calfateria as a calf and I used to tell her she was a dilly.
Dolly - so little she was referred to as the dolly calf. She grew into a huge Friesian but the name stuck.
Three Jersey cows - Cardigan, Jumper and Aran.
as well as the usual assortment of Rosies, Pennys, Milos, Honeys and Goldies. I've never had a Daisy and never will - I can't stand it.

Cheers,
Ronnie

the flowers are clover... but I cant tell the trees from 'here' :D

My Jersey heifer is named "Secret" because I have an online journal, and before I picked her up, I told my journal readers, "I have a secret"... building suspense for them until we brought the calf home. My readers are mostly city folks, and they have enjoyed watching Secret grow.

We're going to pick up a buddy for her this Sunday: His name will be "Meat Loaf" for obvious reasons.

Well, when I finally get to have land/cattle, I figure I'll be pulling out my papaw's cow names...Bessie, Betsy, Daisy, etc etc

I think for those bound for the freezer, it'll likely end up being something like Roast, TBone, A-1, Sir Loin, Wimpy (I'd gladly pay you Tuesday...),

I always thought a good name for a bull would be Milk Dud (pun intended)

i dont have any stock yet. but just to keep it in perspective i'll probably go with something like, buger, roast, steak, stirfry. :hobbyhors


dean

Our registered Black Angus are named based on what line they are from, so example of 2 of our cows, Erica and then her # or Evergreen Erica and then her #. Real original, I know. But we want to keep the line name going. Oh, we have one Erica that is massive with a huge deep barrel compared to the rest of the Erica's so she is Barrel Erica.

The Belties and bottle calves are more fun:
Tiny
Tilly (Short for Matilda)
Wild Thing
Red (the Red Beltie cow)
Gimpy (the old cow with a limp)
Subway (Holstein)
Quiznos (Holstein)
Jimmy Johns
Mary-Kate
Ashley (Holstein)
Biff (Holstein)

Carisa

As cattle names go..... Our first 4 steer ever were of course freezer bound.... I was told countless times "Don't name them, you won't be able to eat them"... I have had no problem going to the freezer and grabbing parts of T-Bone (our oldest Holstien steer), Next came Sirloin, Delmonico, and Porterhouse......

Now we have Moe(our bull, he came with this name.... figuared why change it...) Then we have our heifers..... Shiner (do to a black ring around her eye), Flower (black body, with a white stipe fown her back, like the skunk from Bambi), Patchy ( she has a black patch on her white cheek), and Dipper (black tail except the end.... looks like she dipped it in white paint)...these 5 are all white faced Herefords... Then we have 3 steer, 2 jerseys... Larry & Curly (figuared we already had Moe, why not have all the 3 stooges), and then our little Brown Swiss, Chocolate( just because of his color).....

I only have one bottle calf at the time, and he is named Lightning McQueen! 3yr old son named him!

Agmantoo....glad to see you've recovered somewhat from the drought! That's good lookin pasture.

We name the steers something that will not endear them to us. Chuck (Roast) and T-Bone were the first 2. Current one is Stupid. Little guy wanted to name him mayonaisse cuz that's tasty on a roast beef sandwhich.
The girls we name whatever comes to mind. Lady, Belle and Gem.
When I was a kid we tried to keep daughters names starting with the same letter. Bea had Babe who had Bonnie... Except with 40 cows we had to reuse letters and that could get confusing.

Jennifer, now that you've said clover, I can see that they are. Anybody would think I'd never seen it before :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Ronnie

"Ginger" came with her name, and I didn't think it a good idea to give her another...she was 10 months old.

Both of her steers that we ate/are eating were meat cuts:

Ribroast and PrimeRib.

The neighbors' kids who bought her third bull from me called him "Redneck" because he had an upright, white lowercase 'r' on his left shoulder.

I'll probably keep giving the bulls meat cut names.

Maybe I'll just name the heifers...whenever Ginger produces one!...with names of spices...Rosemary, Marjie[oram], Paprika, Basil[a], Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Clove, Anisa, Cumina, Savory, Sage/Sofie/a [Greek for wisdom], ...

Spice Girls Live in WI
 

We've used Spice names since we started with Ginger, then came Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Pepper (steer), Peppermint (steer), Rosemary, Oregano, Basil, Paprika, Sassafrass (sassy), Cumin (steer), and Curry (steer).

The boys bought holstein steer for raising for next year's fair and they were already named, Mark, Henry, Ford, Dudley. Our beefer was named too, Gizelle. Can't quite get use to those names, stuck on spices.

Jen
Mom of Ten