In case you’re a fan of Malevich, this post is not about how a dog can paint with its tail or ears. Malevich had a donkey paint with its tail for one of the exhibitions, but the story is very different here.
A family acquaintance is planning to take in a puppy. Before “she” was born, it was assumed her name would have to start with “A”. A prospective owner wanted to give a name of a Greek goddess, and I instantly came up with Arthemis, which she thoroughly liked. We added two extra names, Chiara and Maxima, so Arthemis Chiara Maxima was waiting to come to this world to embrace her beautiful, if extraordinary, name.
The story has just taken a different turn because the puppy has to assume a name that starts with “x”. The owner still loves Chiara and Maxima for second names, but the first name has to be dealt with quickly, and the owner still wants a Greek name. I suggested Xenobia, Xanthe, Xanthippe. She was kind of mesmerised by the name Harita, as it starts with the sound [kh] in Russian, yet sadly in English the name begins with “H”. She came up with the name [khrisia], but I suspect it will begin with “ch”, not “x” in Latin spelling.
There are names like Xaviera, Ximena, and Xiang that could suit the dog. Just so you know, it is a Rodesian Ridgeback. As a matter of fact, there’s a wonderful blog dedicated to a Ridgeback called Rufus who lives in Luxembourg, and the photo in the post was found there.
As to the point of this post… As I understand now, after naming two cats and two dogs, I am almost a professional pet name giver. A special kind of copywriter, if you like, trading in churning out intricate sobriquets for the man’s best friends. Still, though, if you know any names that start with “X” and that could suit Chiara and Maxima, the future Ridgeback owner would be over the Moon. Needless to say, so would I.
Nahuatl has many girl names that start with X: Xochitl, Xocoyotl, Xipil, Xiloxoch, &c.
Paul, thanks a lot! How do you pronounce “X” in these names?
ʃ—English “sh” as in “ship”.