Hello, My Name Is...

Abby (Abigail)
father is rejoicing

I needed a names beginning with A for Millie's twin girls and Abby is a name I really like. I chose this spelling, rather than Abbie, so it wasn't so similar to her sister's name, Annie.



Annie
gracious, full of grace

Again, I needed a female name beginning with A! It's one of those things, sometimes names just work - I didn't have to think much about which lamb got which name. I couldn't imagine them swapped now.



Bob (Robert)
fame, bright

Bob is in fact named after Bob Odinkirk as I had been binging Better Call Saul around the time I got him. It's also a perfect example of how I name male sheep versus how I name female sheep. Girls get names that are traditional, elegant... and boys get names that are a bit silly, because boy sheep in general are a bit sillier than girl sheep. A man called Bob is normal, but a sheep called Bob is just automatically funny to me.



Cilla (Cecilia)
blind, dim-sighted

Cilla is far from blind or dim-sighted - she's actually named after legendary English entertainer, and fixture of my childhood Saturday nights at my granny's house, Cilla Black. Because Cilla the sheep is a black sheep. I make myself laugh, at least.



Esther
disputed; myrtle or star

I'm always on the lookout for names that would suit lambs and when I came across someone called Esther, who was really very lovely, I decided to steal her name. Last year I was giving Mule pet lambs names based on plants, but I liked the name Esther enough to break the pattern. I'm glad I did.



Flora
flower

Not technically a specific flower, so I'd already slightly broken my rule of Mules having names based on plants. Flora is named after all of the flowers! Where I'd actually gotten the idea for using the name on a lamb was from watching an episode of Doctor Who where a very minor character had the name. There's the Flora butter of course, so maybe she's named after that...



Heather
heather, plants of the heath family

Heather is exactly the sort of name I was aiming for when I was trying to name Mules after pets. She's named after the aunt of my friend whose funeral I had attended the previous January. She was a beautiful person whose name was also beautiful, so I called my prettiest pet lamb Heather in her honour.



Jim (James)
supplanting, seizing by the heel

Jim is the only sheep here that was named so he would match with another. I knew I was getting Sunny who was also a Zwartbles, so to make them a pair in more than appearance, I called this tip lamb Jim. Together they are SunnyJim.




Liz (Elizabeth)
God is my oath

Liz is named after a pet lamb I had back in 2009 - a beautiful Suffolk/Texel cross. Liz sadly died when she was around six months old and I swore I would name my next Suffolk pet lamb after her. I had to wait nine years but here she is! She also shares her name with me, as Elizabeth is my middle name.



Lois
unknown

Lois, like Esther, is named after a dear Internet friend of mine. Because the human Lois is so nice and kind, I associate that name with those qualities - and now I also associate that name with a slightly moody Hampshire Down.



Maggie (Margaret)
a pearl

Speaking of moody Hampshire Downs, there's the even moodier Maggie. Her name is just one I have liked for many years, and I thought she would suit it - and she does.



Millie (Mildred)
gentle strength

Millie was originally named Missy by my friend Emma, but I don't live in the Wild West so I modified it to the much more palatable Millie.



Morag
disputed; moor, great, sun or star of the sea

Morag is my one remaining little Scottish Blackface ewe and I am very fond of her. Look how short and chubby! Of course, being a Scottish breed, I wanted a good Scottish name. One of the carers that came to help care for my granny in her final 18 months was a very nice woman called Morag. And yes, you guessed it, I stole her name too.



Olive
a tree of the olive family

Every year, usually in the summer or autumn, a name will pop into my head for the first of the pet lambs in the spring. Penny was the first of these, Olive the second, and last summer the name Leslie sprang to mind. There could be a Leslie yet...



Penny (Penelope)
thread on a bobbin

In the autumn of 2016, the name Penny for a pet lamb popped into my head. I don't quite know where it came from - maybe I'd caught a repeat of The Big Bang Theory, a programme I don't even watch. Wherever it came from, Penny was the perfect name for Gloria's little, abandoned child come January.



Rosie (Rosalie)
rose

Rosie was name by Emma's mum, Ann, on the same day as Millie was. I liked the name very much, and it's of special significance because my granny's name middle name was Rosalie. It's a sweet name for a sweet sheep.



Sunny
sunny day

Sunny was already named when I got him. While his sisters got elegant, feminine names, Sunny was named after the beautiful sunny day he was born on.