Naming Cria at Hum Sweet Hum

All five cria have been birthed and doing well at Alpacas at Hum Sweet Hum.  Such a relief to have them on the ground and doing so good.  I keep a list of names going but I like to wait until they are born to see what their personalities are like before naming babies.  Three names came quickly and none of the names were on my list.  Those names just didn't seem to fit. 

The first baby born is Miss Marple.  She stood up in less than 10 minutes after birth and went straight to mom's milk source and got it in two tries of finding it.  She was running around by four hours old and checking everything out all around her.  She is a light beige multi and cute as can be.  She comes over and gives me kisses and snuffles my face all the time all the while talking away to me.  She has no fear and just into everything.  She reminds me of fudge marble ice cream and playing with that name and her personality of being so inquisitive, the name Miss Marple came out and I knew that was a fit immediately. 

Miss Marple (left), Jujube (front right), Sputnik (back right)

 The second baby born took me a little longer to find a good name for him.  He was two weeks early but he was strong and needed no extra care.  Windsong, his mom, was very protective of him though so I had to wait a few days to get a feel for his personality better.  He is a small little tyke compared to the others.  He was good size for a premature baby (15 lbs) but compared to the others born this year, he is a peewee.  At first I was thinking of names that might go with Miss Marple.  I like to do trends and most of the names I have picked have a musical theme to go with them to match my farm name of Hum Sweet Hum.  He was so pink when he was born that I thought about naming him Clouseau after the Pink Panther movies and fitting with the investigative theme to go with Miss Marple.  But he just wasn't that curious of a baby like Miss Marple.  I also thought of Sherlock which I thought cute since he is a suri and has some nice locks coming in.  But those names just didn't fit his personality.  One night I sat at my computer and went over names while texting my friend Carrie to try them out on her.  We bounced all sorts of ideas back and forth.  I went through some of my various backgrounds and areas of interests to see if I would find something that might trigger a good name.  I have my undergrad degree in Aerospace Engineering and have a love of space travel.  Looking up the various names of astronauts and spacecraft, I came across the name of Sputnik, the first Russian satellite put into orbit.  As soon as I came across that name it was a fit. 

The name for Sputnik was work but the next baby's name came pretty fast and easy.  Sweet Bell's cria is a multi color too similar to Miss Marple but she is a suri.  This cria has dots all over her legs.  She is the one I wrote about in a previous blog that crashed on me after a few hours.  It was a frightening few hours while we worked on her and got her going again.  Another friend of mine suggested the name JuBellation since we were so jubilant that she made it and it goes with mom's name.  It's also a bad pun which I'm quite known for so that was a good fit.  She reminds me of jujube candy that I used to love as a child so her barn name is Jujube.

My next two cria were very late in arriving.  They were my first ones due and the last ones to be born.  My first due was actually my last to deliver!  These two cria are so exquisite.  Naomi's cria is the best baby born to Hum Sweet Hum so far.  Her fleece is amazing.  Dove's little boy is pretty spectacular as well so I wanted to name them a bit classier names.  These names did not come easily at all.  I tried on lots of names and none fitted.  It was like me going shopping and trying on outfits (which I hate!).  Nothing fit.  I spent nights at the computer and Wikipedia searching various topics and ideas.  I tried Latin translations, I pulled out my name book, I tried all my various interests and names that I liked but none fitted their spirit and quality.  Finally, while raking the other day, I came up with the name Calvin for  Dove's boy.  To class it up a bit I put Lord in front so his name is Lord Calvin.  I really like the cartoon strip Calvin and Hobbes.  It took a few days for his personality to start coming out and I could see that little cartoon boy impishness coming out.  I debated on that or Lord Kelvin but he got himself into mischief getting into the wrong pasture and both his mom and I were looking down at him wondering how he got there and I could have sworn he said, "Hobbes made me do it!"  But to make sure a name fits, I like to try it out on them to see if they react.  Alpacas learn their names and I have had babies react immediately to a name and ignore others.  Whether it is a coincidence or not, who knows but I take that as a sign if they react.  So that evening after chores, I sat down on my bench near where Calvin and his mom were.  I called his name and his ears perked up.  I then asked him to come to me and he walked right over to me and snuffled my face all over.  He hadn't done that before so I took that as a good sign that his name should be Lord Calvin.

Lord Calvin

 The last cria has been the hardest.  She is so lovely and exquisite.  I want just the right name for her.  She is pure white with crimp down to her skin and so incredibly fine.  If her fiber is over 16 or 17 micron I will be shocked and I bet she is closer to 15 micron.  She is so soft you don't even feel it.  There are lots of good names for her but many that I liked so did a lot of others.  When doing my research, I can go onto the Alpaca Registry database and look up how many have that name.  I don't like to have too common a name unless I'm pretty sure it will be a fiber male.  Many names I would finally find and like, I'd go on the registry and see that there were pages of them.  Back to the drawing board I'd go.  It took me a week but I finally have narrowed it down to two names.  I came up with Lenox but how I got there was because I was humming an Annie Lenox song in my head so it fits with my theme of music and it is very class china too.  I liked it but there were a good dozen names that she would share with it.  The other name I came up with from a similar vane is Royal Doulton which there is only one in the registry and I could call her Dolly.  I haven't decided which one fits her best or perhaps a better name will come to me.  She is very shy and doesn't come to me much and mom keeps her away so that has been part of the reason why she has been so hard to name.  She was also a stealth baby.  Mom waited until all were gone to deliver her.  She didn't want anyone out watching.  She also wouldn't show me when she was nursing which drove me nuts.  I could tell she was getting milk because she was such a strong baby, held her head up well and so alert but I never could catch her in the act of nursing.  I would put her under mom to make sure she was getting milk and she would go straight to mom's teats if I did that and nurse well but it took me over 24 hours before I saw her finally get up on her own and go straight to mom to nurse.  I found a name I liked that fit with the stealth theme - Nighthawk but being white, "night" doesn't quite fit but hawk does since that is the father's name.  The final decision isn't made on her yet.

Lenox? Royal Doulton?  Nighthawk?

  I suppose some would say that I spend too much time coming up with babies names but I find it fun and I have made the mistake of naming a baby with a name that they have lived up to and so I take care of finding a name that fits their personality and one that also attracts the energy that I want them to have!  It's also been fun because so many friend have participated in the process.  It's been pretty cool to see the interest and engagement of others in the naming process.  Anyone with suggestions or you have a preference on one of the names already for this baby, let me know.  She needs a really good name!