# Let's talk herd names



## Angelknitter12

How did you chose your herd name? What special meaning does it have?

I am at the point where I need to chose a herd name. My business name is "Spin A Good Yarn Shop." I would like to tie them in together, but better represent my goats. Any suggestions are welcome. 

I have only been in goats for three years, and so far I have ridden under my friends herd name.


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## smithurmonds

Whatever you chose, it is good to keep in mind that ADGA limits names to 30 letters. A long herd name can be problematic. Your business name is cute as a button- something like SPIN*A*YARN would be very cute.


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## swgoats

You can use initials with ADGA. I picked Still Waters Farm cause our first farm had a pond (2nd has a creek - our requisite water), and we feel our farm is a refuge. With ADGA we are just SWF, which I don't mind since it gives us plenty of room for names. Our ADGA tattoo is longer than our herd name, lol. SAGYS might be cute (like Saggy's).


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## Horsehair Braider

I love music, play the piano a bit, so I chose "Ragtime". It's short enough that I can put pretty long names if I need to. It also gives me a nice theme for names. 

In other registries, I've used my initials as a herdname and that worked out well. I think you just have to decide what works for you. I know one thing, I did NOT want to use my first name. I did NOT want animals named "Jacquee's Fuzzy" or something!!!


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## Angelknitter12

I like the SAGYS idea.it describes me well in my mother if five years. Lol

How fun to hear about the herd names. Thank you for all the info. I hope more people reply.


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## NubianSoaps.com

I stole mine from the movie Lonesome Dove....  Vicki


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## buckrun

We tried to get our biz name Buck Run (pottery) as our herd name as well but it was taken a dozen times over and we would have to be Buck Run 12 or some such...no thanks. So we named the herd for the no longer extant original town where we our farm is. New Rocky Comfort. It was always an evocative name and I wondered why the new town has some boring person's name rather than such a picture making name. It is rather long but we always try to just do a call name as name anyway. I believe the limit is 35 letters and spaces. It's not like we are a big breeder and want people to know dam and sire and champs in the lineage lol.
Have fun with it cuz it will be with you awhile. 
Lee


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## smithurmonds

Mine originated from mine & my husbands last names.


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## Greylady

My husband named our farm. LOL He is having fun with it. Lottadoe Farms. We have a lotta does. Or you could say it takes a lotta dough to run the farm. We get asked about the name a lot.


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## Fiberaddict

Ours is named for our dogs: Barker Glen. Kinda evokes our Scottish heritage, too.


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## H Diamond Farms

Ours is our brand (H Diamond) just added farms to the end. Our herd name is HDF because you can't make a new herd name with the word Diamond, lol.


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## goatkid

Mine is Zirngibl, our last name. Hubby told me if I used it, he'd pay half the fee to register the name. This way, all goats born here have our family name.


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## Xtra

I wanted something FUN....didn't want to use our name or location. So I wanted our name to be our goal, our mission. We want extraordinary goats so with a little play on spelling......VIOLA, our herd name was born. *XTRAORDINDAIRY*

*ex·traor·di·nar·y*

* adjective *

1.beyond what is usual, ordinary, regular, or established: extraordinary costs. 
2.exceptional in character, amount, extent, degree, etc.; noteworthy; remarkable: extraordinary speed; an extraordinary man.


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## Caprine Beings

We debated on several and came down to two different ones to choose from. Linds and I both liked Rolling Goats (as Linds is in a wheelchair/ just a great suggestion from Vicki  ) but Caprine Beings just had this ring to it. Goat people can be used as the goats are people or that we are goat people  So Caprine Beings became our herd name. It has served us well and we still love the name.

I think you have to take into effect the length allowed by ADGA and what fits or feels right to you.
Tam


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## SherrieC

think Long term too, Spin*A*Yarn is cute, if your herd ever got very popular in 5 years when you decide to get serious with your Dairy goats. Do you want someone looking at your website, saying your girls have that Saggy Udder look? Lol


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## Goat Town

My herd name originates from the time I first started in goats. We were living on a piece of property that fronted a road so we put up a little "goat sized" western town facade. There was a bank, saloon, general store, and jail. It fronted the road and the goats could wander in and out of the doors and peek out the windows. In short it was an advertising gimmick.


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## SherrieC

What a cute Idea


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## swgoats

I wanted to do that at my old place. Good for you making it happen!


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## fmg

My herdname is FMG, but it stands for Frosted Mini Goats (which is way too long ). When I lived in Jackson Hole, I got my first goats, Nigerian dwarf, and a co-worker and good friend told me they were going to be "frosted mini goats", and that was the birth of the name.  They really were frosted sometimes (had frost on their backs in the morning).


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## tlcnubians

Ours is a transposition of the initials of our names - Tom and Caroline Lawson/TLC Farms. Also a play on how all our animals are treated with tender loving care.


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## swgoats

You all really lucked out with your initials. I think that's one of my favorites


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## hmcintosh

My herd name came from what I feel when I am out taking care of my girls Peace Lovn Goats. I dropped the word goats this year since it took up to much space and I like to name 
my goats with long names I guess (like peace lovn mr I am titanium AKA titan). So now it is just Peace Lovn but I still like it. At the bottom of my bill of sale I have a little saying
Hope you receive much peace and love! From your goats of course.


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## SolsticeSun

my husband wanted to name our farm Solstice Sun, so we were looking for a herdname that went with that. So we submitted Solstice Sun, Solstice Farm and Estival and the ADGA sent us back Estiv al (with the weird space). So I guess we are going with that. Estival means "of summer" in Spanish


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## OKDoeK

*Spin A Tail or Story Tails*

I know my goats like to jump and play a lot. What about Spin A Tail (or Spinning Tails) as an offshoot to Spin-A-Yarn? Another is Story Tails?

Our herd name is OKDoeK - I'm from Oklahoma and my first name starts with K.


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## Odeon

My original herdname was Gentle Winds, but after a major life change, I wanted a new herdname. I had dinner with a dear friend, Shirley Mullen Hooper (formerly Lubov LaManchas) and after Beer and Anchovy Pizza, we started thumbing through various books looking at names.

In a previous life I was a concert violinist, and music has always been a large part of my life. We came across "Odeon" which means something Grande, yet small and intimate, such as a theatre or small concert hall. It was PERFECT! Odeon it was!

Ken


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## MF-Alpines

Our farm name is Mulberry Farm, but that, or a derivative thereof, was already taken. We have mulberry trees that are the bane of my husband's existence. Hates them. Hard to chop down, hard to get rid of (needed to cut some to clear some acreage). We still have quite a few. Thus, Mulberry Farm. Went with MFA (Mulberry Farm Alpines) as our herd name AND our tattoo designation. Easy to remember, but very original. I wish we thought more about it. And here on the forum, I am MF-Alpines. The MF stands for Mulberry Farm, but sometimes it can stand for something else!


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## happy vagabonds

Our name originated as a spin from Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, if I remember correctly. (My husband remembers better than I do how we came up with Happy Vagabonds...) We started using this name when we did a lot of Geocaching years ago. Then we started using it for cooking competitions. It just seemed natural that our farm would be called Happy Vagabonds Farm. 

Our herd designation is PLUR which is an acronym for Peace, Love, Unity & Respect... a term that I picked up many years ago and something that I try to live my life by. It feels beautiful to me that we can tattoo our goats with this and pass it on...


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## dinastevenson

*herd name*

Mine are Pan's Field Kinders @ Pan's Field Farm. We call the big field on our property "Pan's Field" thus Pan's Field Farm and Pan's Field Kinders. We name our goats names from Greek mythology or inspired by things Pan. (I have a little goat named Panic, for example)

Dina


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## lonestrchic23

I'm awful with choosing names.... But I started up a blog several years ago based on a town I moved to....

Took my herd name after the name I chose for my blog which is Noodleville's. 

A lil odd I suppose, but at least I didn't have to worry that someone else had it already


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## peppersmom

we've been discussing herd names lately....my mom my sis and i are getting into goats again and my mom suggested MOTHERS N DAUGHTERS like the ADGA show class.....i haven't looked into it but i like it.


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## K-Ro

My husband and I decided to use the small community that he grew up in and we now live in Serbin and Ziegen is goats in wendish german, so we are Serbin Ziegen. 
so I also now get a lot of emails in german and this irish mutt of a girl can't understand any of it, lol


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## doublebowgoats

When I first got dairy goats, I took doublebow as a herdname and farm name because of coming up one day to see a double rainbow directly over our home. It looked neat and we called ourselves that until just recently. I am not raising minimanchas any more so wanted a different name. We thought and thought and many of the names we really liked are already taken with ADGA or were too similar to existing names, and I didn't want a herd name different from my farm name. Ended up up with a new farm and herd name of Dancin' Acorn, alluding to the dozens of post oak trees and all those acorns dancing around in the Texas breeze.


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## OKDoeK

*Tall Tails*

Don't know what kind of goats you have, but what about Tall Tails as the goat version of Spin-A-Yarn?


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## azponygirl

*herd names*

We have raised nigerian dwarfs for some time now and Snow White's Dwarfs was the obvious choice for us :biggrin
We joined ADGA later and had to take Sweet Snow White there.


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## Bella Star

HHMmm ,I like short names and so bella is because goats always beller or I thought they did ,until I found out LaManchas are quiet LOL! and star is after my Lone Star state of Texas


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## milkmaidranch

Mine is Milk Maid Ranch (MMR). I picked it for the simple reason that my husband was teasing me one morning(5am) I was headed out the door to milk, hubby was still in bed and said, "There goes my little milk maid." I started to laugh but as I was milking, it hit me. And our prefix was born.


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## smithurmonds

Bella Star said:


> HHMmm ,I like short names and so bella is because goats always beller or I thought they did ,until I found out LaManchas are quiet LOL!


So true!


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## lorit

We named our little farm Rendezvous Acres cuz my hubs has always been into the mountain man genre and we are in the foothills of the PNW coast range. Made my ADGA herd name simply Rendezvous' to save space.

But one nice thing is if we ever moved, the name is not location specific and can move with us.


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## Twillingate Farm

Welcome to the forum Melody and OKDoeK...
Our Farm was named after a garden shop my wife and I visited when we were just dating. We lived in the city at that time and agreed that when we finally got our country property we'd name it Twillingate Farm because she liked it. That's good enough for me 

ADGA gave us the farm name since no one else had even come close I guess.


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## Angelknitter12

Loving this! It is like a walk down memory lane. 

I am really tempted by "Tall Tails" and "Spin*A*Yarn" both. Decisions, decision.


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## [email protected]

Mine is kina weird. LunaMojo. When people ask what it means the closest I can explain is moon magic or moon luck. I worked in a blues bar for a few years. LOVE the stuff. Bands from all over, but some of my favorites were the zydeco players. Learned all about hoodoo, voodoo, gris-gris and mojo. OooOOooooh. LOL Well, ya'll have heard of mojo... 'Got My Mojo Workin'...good mojo, bad mojo. 
So, when I was trying to come up with a herd name I was working at a bar and have goats. Crazy hours. Milk and do chores at 2-3p before going to work and 2-3a before going to bed. One night I got out of work and it was really, REALLY cold. Set a record. We reached -23f. Well, when I got home our thermometer read -18f and I was absolutely dreading going out and doing chores. Goats, chickens, rabbits. I HATE cold. Sooo, I got everything around and got bundled up and headed out. It was freezing... but it was absolutely still and crisp and quiet and bright. There was this huge full moon and all the animals were snuggled in and seemed so content. It was so peaceful. LunaMojo. Just popped in my head.


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## hmcintosh

This has been one of my favorite threads so far. I love hearing these stories.


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## LLB101

This might be the best thread ever! So sorry I'm late to the party... 

I wish I'd found this before I had to choose my herd name... I like alliteration, its always been coincidental in my life. I live on the ridge that borders a well known geographic feature and neighborhood in Seattle, I had to register kids and couldn't come up with anything better than Ravenna Ridge at the time. I don't like it much, not sure I like to be tied to place, but its nice to see how many have place of origin names, that makes me feel a bit better. 

Its also nice to see how many have changed names over time.

I did make sure my name and tattoo was available both in MDGA and ADGA before I chose it, as I thought I would do both and joined ADGA even though I only could start with minis in my zoning. 

My herd tattoo is "RVR" which seems to be unreadable in mini mancha tails, ugh.


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