Official BYC Poll: How do you name your pet chickens?

How do you name your pet chickens?

  • We donā€™t name our chickens!

    Votes: 33 7.2%
  • We let the kids name them.

    Votes: 77 16.8%
  • We give them old-fashioned names (Flora, Prissy, Hazel, etc.).

    Votes: 81 17.7%
  • We start their names with the same letter (Bailey, Barb, Beatrice, etc.).

    Votes: 11 2.4%
  • We name them by personality (Sassy, Gabby, Bossy, etc.).

    Votes: 112 24.5%
  • We name them after food (Peanut, Nugget, etc.).

    Votes: 78 17.1%
  • We donā€™t have a special system.

    Votes: 162 35.4%
  • We name them by appearance (Red, Fluffy, Lavender, etc.).

    Votes: 145 31.7%
  • Other (elaborate in a reply below)

    Votes: 150 32.8%

  • Total voters
    457
I LOVE naming things (pets, kids, chickens, my little side hustles) I'm not even sure how we came up with the names for some of our chickens. Some were for sure the kids, my husband claimed one to name (she's a barred rock and her name is Rocky, very original šŸ˜‚). I tend to like old fashioned and nature themed names, also characters from books or movies I like or I have a few with names based on their breeds or the origin country of the breed, and a few named because of their color. I'll just list all of them because I like them and this is all about names, so I have an excuse!!
Oh, and any name changes are due to us thinking/hoping for more girls and getting a ton of cockerels! ā˜¹ļø

Original flock hatched this spring:
Sally Henny Penny (became Sammy Henry Penry)
Ebony
Ivory
(became Ivor and later Obo because he was so loud)
Alice
Cecily Parsley (later Cecil)
Sunshine (aka Beardo)
Moonshine (one of only 2 of our original cockerels that we kept and didn't end up in a soup!)
Flora (became Mr. Peck when he's around the chicks or Silver when he's being nice) he is also still with us and gets along great with his brother, they are both lavender Orpingtons.
Fauna
Smalls (she was once the smallest in the flock)
Shadow
Midnight

River
Tigerlily
(Later Tiger)
Dotty (became Mr. Dotty)

Then I hatched another 9 chicks and ended up with:
Rocky, Pepper and Granite (all barred rocks)
Hazel, Olive, Willow, Flower (those 4 are all looking like boys now too!)
Koko Kodiak (she looked like a fluffy bear as a chick and had huge cheeks), and Chickmonk, also had fluffy cheeks.
I also bought 3 supposed pullets we named Opal, Onyx and Ruby (now Ruben and Onyx both looking like boys)
And THEN I bought 9 laying hens because I was tired of getting roosters and waiting for pullets to start laying.
Ended up with Buttercup, Maple Blondie and Goldilocks (all Buff orps), Salt (another barred rock), Sapphire (lays blue eggs), Flax, and three Swedish Flower Hens I just had to name Swedish names so they are Tuva, Ingeburg and Svenska. šŸ˜‚
 
(I apologize in advance for the long post! :oops: )
There are many factors that aid in helping name my chickens!
Most of the time, I base them off on TV series or movie characters.
I have a pullet named Yuzu, (meaning citrus), and her name is that of a character from a favorite manga (comic series) of mine! Or my little white bantam Cochin hen Hylia, (based on the white goddess from the Legend of Zelda series)

Some have more natural names or names based on their colors/personalities, like my EE hen Alpine, or my first rooster (he passed away a few years ago) who was a Black Australorp, and his name was Licorice! Some have simpler names like Angel, another EE hen (she is almost 8 years old!)

One of our many hens is named Marshmallow (A white Oliver egger hen), another mixed hen we bred, (white with some lighter tan patterning), is named Jumper, because she was a jumper. :lau

My baby boy, (a young Bantam cochin X Buff Brahma mixed cockerel) Bootsie, is named after my great grandmother's little blond bantam hen Bootsie/Bootsy

And as a special mention, our possibly 10-11-year-old SLW hen, Granny! Obviously, she gained that name because she is the oldest and the last remaining hen from our original flock. ( The previous owners left them (The original flock) with us)
 
I don't name my chickens. With my Australorps being black, and my Buff Orpingtons being yellow, it's kind of hard to tell them apart.
Oh yeah, my sister calls the ones who go broody "Cranky chicken."
All I have to say is, "Here chick, chick, chick," and they come running!
 
Whatever I feel like! Some are named by appearance, some by personality, some after food...

Toasty is a brown EE. I named her "twin" Bernice (you know, like BURNt toast).
Snowflake, Snowdrop, Snowball, and Flurry are/were white chickens. Some food names we've had are Twinkie, Candy Corn, Danish, Mango, and Banana.

I keep a list of most of the chickens we've named and the years they were hatched and when they died.
 

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Most of my chickens are named. It basically just pops in my head and I'm like, "Yep, thats your name now."
All the named ones are usually keepers.
Pearl of the Moon, or Pearl for short, usually called Squeaky because she squeaks
Hazel Has a black muff so hence the name
Calvin, Asher, Sid, Bracq, Griffin, Blaze, and Blizzard. All boys, and I feel horrible about getting rid of them.
Cinder , Cinde short. RIR with black lacing on her neck, hence the name.
Alantis brother named her
Blackadorable, or Blackie, Miss old grumpy girl, 7-8ish now, so I was really young when naming her
Threadadorre Was watching Hamilton when she was named
Graymoon and Lavender theyre both lavender/gray color
Rascal because she is
Daisy Tiny little fragile thing
Valhalla, or Val
And 50 others, sorry, but I'm not going to type them all out right now. It takes forever.
 
It is extremely rewarding to name your chickens, transforming them from just egg-laying machines to house pets.

Despite the fact that there is no shortage of human names, you might want to give your chickens a more creative name. As with people, each chicken has their own unique personality. Chickens also have fine memories. Whenever you call out their names, they will come running, particularly if it is because food is in sight.

So we would like to find out: How do you name your pet chickens?

Place your vote above, and please elaborate in a reply below if you chose "Other". And feel free to share your chickens' names with us as well.

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(Check out more exciting Official BYC Polls HERE!)
My first chickens were named after female singers: Adele, Tina, Amy etc. My current ones are named after characters from the L Word: Tina, Alex, Red and Big Boo.
 

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Some are named their breed/color, some groups are themed (ex. I have Hamilton, Eliza, Angelica and Mrs. Reynolds for a Leghorn group and Bones, Booth, Zach, Cam and Angela for a mosaic group), my mom names her favorites (like Culpepper from Turn: Washington's Spies). Some just have names that speak to them (Omelette, Ratched, Cromwell).

And then there's Crispy Critter, Crispy for short, named because she feels like a mummified deer named that that I found as a child (sshes a frazzle, so her feathers are kinda crispy)
 

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