My wife has a million names for our GCC, Orrin. We agreed to stop calling the bird Orrin if we discovered that he was actually a she—we thought she was a he before the dna test—and, in accordance with the terms of the informal, oral agreement between husband and wife, we agreed to call her Orry (instead of Orrin) if we found out the bird was actually female. Well, I confess: I breached that contract, because my wife’s name is Lori: Lori, Orry, Lori, Orry. Too much potential for confusion, even though I ordinarily call my wife babe. So I still call her Orrin. And my wife has a plethora of names for Orry.
Lori calls Orrin Orry, when she isn’t calling her a list of other names, depending upon her mood, including, but not limited to:
1. Scootcha
2. Scadoodle hoppper
3. Freddy Foo Foo
4. Stinker
5. Little Stink
6. Goo
7. Googly bird
8. Skirch
9. Princess Petunia
10. Chicken bird
11. Kapooch
12. Skircha
13. Skircha, skircha, skircha!
I have a few pet names for Orrin too. When she puts her wings up, I tremble with fear and call her a “tough bird.” Delicately, I put her wings down. There is no need for that! Or, when she does her war dance, I call her “chief crazy feather.”
Moral of the story. Although I am by far NOT an expert, being a first time bird owner myself, I’m not sure that pet names matter as much as the bond between parront and pet. Our GCC, Orrin (aka see list) responds to the sound of our voices, not necessarily the words we use. When words have an important context—such as command words—that is of course a different story. We use consistent command words. I realize that my opinion on this subject is probably the minority view. My opinion is that pet names aren’t as important as we may think, and that what’s really important is the bond between parront and pet. I may be wrong, of course, but that is my two cents.
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