"Analysis of an Internet database of pets' names showed owners were more likely to give anthropomorphic names to pets living within homes than those living outside."
Bonus excerpt from the text:
"Pet names for birds were obtained from the Animal Planet website for bird adoptions.' Birds were divided into those normally living within the home (e.g., parrot, parakeet, cockatiel, lovebird) and those normally living outside (e.g., chicken, duck, dove, pigeon, goose, peacock). Each name was then compared with human names obtained from the first 200 names in the Social Security Name Index... ...There were 692 indoor birds and 126 outdoor birds. Thirty-four percent of the indoor birds, e.g., Oscar, Sammy, Ralph, had human names compared to 25% for the outdoor birds, e.g., Apollo, Nacho, Spotty. As this difference was statistically significant (Fisher test, p = .O3, two-tailed; see Table I), the result supports the hypothesis that people are more likely to give anthropomorphic names to pets that live within the home than those that live outdoors."
Related content: Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: A rose by any other name: would it smell as sweet?
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: What’s in a name? Part I: U.G.H. you're going to D.I.E.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Beauty week: Better choose that baby name wisely!
WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ
!
