Mitzi just ain't gonna cut it.

December 30, 2005 5:42 PM

Looking for foreign words for something akin to sock(s), glove(s), mitten(s), shoe(s), etc. I'm (apparently) adopting this sweet girl tomorrow morning, and am considering names for her. Given her markings, something like this may work, so long as it would make a good dog name.

I don't want some Ralph Wiggum-esque "My cat's name is mittens" name, but I'd like to explore some different foreign words that mean the same thing that might make a good dog name. I've got Spanish down, and frankly, calcetin nor guante do much for me. Thanks in advance.

posted by Ufez Jones to pets & animals (28 comments total)

zapatos?

running those four words through babelfish in a variety of languages, that's the closest thing, which came up, to a euphonic word.
posted by 3.2.3 at 5:48 PM on December 30, 2005

Tabi are a kind of Japanese socks, but I anticipate too many questions of the "Why is your dog named Tabby?" sort.
posted by Jeanne at 5:54 PM on December 30, 2005

Well, if you're a White Sox fan, you could call her Nelly Fox...
posted by scody at 6:19 PM on December 30, 2005

կոշիկի - koshik or goshig is Armenian for shoe
ձեռնոց - dztrnots is Armenian for mitten

Neither is very catchy. Sorry.
posted by k8t at 6:20 PM on December 30, 2005

Check this out...first you choose what language you want to hear. When you mouse over each link, it gives the category name (e.g. men's clothing, women's clothing) in English. When you click on one of the clothing links, it has pictures of various articles of clothing, including gloves, socks, stockings, etc. Mouse over an item to hear the name pronounced in whatever language you've chosen.

This'll all make sense if you go to the site, I promise!
posted by feathermeat at 6:24 PM on December 30, 2005

ik or ig in Armenian is pronounced "eek" or "eeg" which is sort of cute.

My cat is named Bachig - "bah-cheek" is the way it is said. It means kiss.
posted by k8t at 6:24 PM on December 30, 2005

This site may be useful. It shows all the translations for an entered word, far easier than one language at a time. (Example: mitten)
posted by SpookyFish at 6:35 PM on December 30, 2005

Scots Gaelic has possibilities: brogan - shoes mogan - slippers, bonnagan - stockings but you might like to check with someone that I have the plurals right as I'm a learner.
posted by Flitcraft at 6:39 PM on December 30, 2005

calzini, guanti, pattini (italian)
socks, gloves, shoes

even better if prefixed with "the Amazing". (eg: <DrumRoll> the Amazing Calzini!)
posted by blue_beetle at 6:55 PM on December 30, 2005

Swedish: sockan = the sock, vanten = the mitten, tassen = the paw. The a's should be pronounced as if they were u's.

The best word I could find in Estonian, German and French was "chaussettes" (French for "socks").
posted by martinrebas at 7:00 PM on December 30, 2005

The Amazing Calzini is pretty awesome. She'll sound like either a trapeze artist or a delicious foodstuff.
posted by scody at 7:22 PM on December 30, 2005

from SpookyFish's cool translator:
- Soket (Turkish for "anklet")
- Halhal (Turkish for "anklet bracelet")
- Socquette (French for "anklet")
from my fevered brain:
- Booté
- Spats
- Flash or Alex (as in "Flashdance" y'know, umm, legwarmers?)
... or just "Bobby"
posted by rob511 at 7:45 PM on December 30, 2005

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but Bengali for "long scarf" is "urna" - that might work.
posted by divabat at 7:48 PM on December 30, 2005

Name her "stay" so you can call her by saying "come here, stay!" and mess with her little canine mind.

Or "Poca mierda" because that's what you'll be thinking when she pisses on the rug.

Congrats, Ufez! She's adorable.
posted by terrapin at 8:14 PM on December 30, 2005

Um, Boots. Duh.
posted by awesomebrad at 10:34 PM on December 30, 2005

Hmm...transliterating Russian gets you noski (socks), tufli (shoes), sapogi (boots), perchatki (gloves). Tufli (TOO-flee) would probably be the best of the bunch, and it passes the ultimate test of dog naming: that is, you can holler it to call the dog and not sound like a twit.

(Plus, Russian lends itself well to cute diminutives, and with a sweet puppy like that, you'll need them.)
posted by Vervain at 11:42 PM on December 30, 2005

pattini -> skates, AFAIK, unless blue_beetle is referencing a dialect I'm not familar with (ie anything not Roman)

shoes -> scarpe
little shoe/s -> scarpetta/e (scarpette are also the pieces of bread you use to mop up sauce or drippings or what have you from your plate)

Auguri Ufez!
posted by romakimmy at 2:36 AM on December 31, 2005

Some Dutch for you:

sock(s): sok, sokken
glove(s): handschoen, handschoenen
mitten(s): want, wanten
shoe(s): schoen, schoenen

None of which seem right for a dog.
posted by prolific at 2:46 AM on December 31, 2005

Not exactly what you asked for, but my family had a dog with two white front paws, and we named him Socrates -- Socs for short. Can't think of any girlish equivalents off the top of my head -- other than the "Mitzi" from the title, which I would also nix. ;)

To get back to your actual question, allaatautik, amittukaaq, ammalukitaak and talluk are all Inuit words for snowshoes -- I kind of like ammalukitaak, with several possibilities for nicknames (amma, maluk, luki, kita, etc). French words for shoe include soulier and sabot (I think), and for slipper, pantoufle. (Speaking of slippers, what about Cinderella? Cendrillon in French, Zolushka in Russian, Yeh-Shen in Chinese...)
posted by alyxstarr at 6:46 AM on December 31, 2005

Russian lends itself well to cute diminutives

It does indeed, and I'll provide them for the words Vervain listed: nosochki (nuh-SOHCH-key), tufelki (TOO-fil-key), sapozhki (suh-POHSH-key), perchatochki (pir-CHAHT-ochkey)—the last is probably too long, but perchatki is itself a diminutive in form, so you could just use that.

Kolchak means 'mittens' in Turkish (where it's spelled kolçak) and I think would make a great name for a dog, but some people might think he was named after the Russian admiral who led the anti-Communist forces on the eastern front in the Civil War, and others might associate him with the Night Stalker.
posted by languagehat at 7:11 AM on December 31, 2005

Another word to consider translations for is "galoshes."
posted by kimota at 7:24 AM on December 31, 2005

But as a Darren McGavin fan, I'd go with Kolchak!
posted by kimota at 7:28 AM on December 31, 2005

fantasmini -> 'little ghosts', slang for anklet socks
posted by romakimmy at 7:56 AM on December 31, 2005

Heh, I left suggestions on the Flickr page before I saw this! Anyway, what you name a dog is one thing, and what you wind up calling her is - in my case anyway - usually something completely different. Just like my children - I only ever called them Joseph or Andrew if they were really in the shit! So I'd suggest that you start from a nickname you like, and work backwards.

And congratulations on your new best friend, Ufez!
posted by tizzie at 10:16 AM on December 31, 2005

german "söckchen" : D
posted by suni at 10:37 AM on December 31, 2005

How about Waraji?
posted by malaprohibita at 2:32 PM on December 31, 2005

Tabitha with Tabi as her nickname would work nicely. I can only think of Mukluk (sp?) and that ain't so cute (well, maybe with Luki/Lucky as a nickname).
posted by deborah at 4:29 PM on January 2, 2006

Hey everyone (or anyone that may happen to check back here). Sorry for taking so long to give an update. Thanks for all of the great links and suggestions (Kolchak is a great name indeed, but doesn't fit her personality too much, and if I ever get an Italian Greyhound, you better bet your sweet bippy I'd name him The Amazing Calzini). Unfortunately, I hemmed and hawed too much and a few days went by, and I just went with the name that I'd stowed away for her, which is Coya. You can find an update and stuff here.
posted by Ufez Jones at 4:10 PM on February 9, 2006