# Herdnames...............



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

So why did you pick your herdname?
Do you still love it?
What advice do you have for new folks about herd names?

(Tim asked this question in another thread thought it would make a good thread since we have so many new folks on the forum).

Lonesome Doe is obviously stollen from the mini series Lonesome Dove 
Yes I still like it...
My advice is to keep it short and don't let your children pick your herd name that you may have for yourself 20+ years later...and if you have something like Lonesome Doe, also buy Lonesome Dove because unless you are big named breeder they will give others herd names that are one letter away from yours even though their are rules about it  Vicki


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Our herd name popped up out of the blue. We were discussing different ideas and out came Caprine Beings. We are goat people and they are literally goat people. So the name certianly fit. I haven't seen any like ours which makes it unique in its own. And yes we still love our herd name We are proud to be Caprine Beings!
Tam


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## Odeon (Oct 26, 2007)

My original hername when I was a kid was "Gentle-Winds". When I came out in 1995 I figured I needed to make some major changes. I went with a dear friend, Shirley Hooper (formerly Lubov LaManchas) for beer and anchovy pizza, and we went through TONS of books, dictionaries, etc and came accross "Odeon" which refers to somthing small, yet grande, such as a theatre or Symphony hall. I am (was) a classical violilinist so it was a perfect fit. I still love it to this day!

My 2nd herdname for my individual ADGA acct (Needed when I ran for Director) was selected by my partner Steve.... as a joke...

When Broke Back Mountain came out, Steve jokingly said, "Hey, you should change your herdname to Broke Goat Mountain! So since I had my seperate ADGA ID... I did! ;0)

Ken

Odeon Nigerian
Broke Goat Mtn. Nubians


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## Tim Pruitt (Oct 26, 2007)

Well Pruittville is a name I chose back in the early 1970's and registered it with ADGA for my Nubian herd. I live in a community of family members and have 4 brothers and their children also (a total of 13 homes) who live close by. I live off of J.O. Pruitt Rd on Pruittville Dr and the next road west of here is Jim Pruitt Rd. I am still happy with the name. We also registered Pruittville as a herd name with AMZA - American Miniature Zebu Asc. as we also are breeders of Zebu miniature cattle.


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

Well I picked my herd name A2Z as I had various breeds and figured that would cover just abt anything  It is also short and sweet.


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## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

My husband, me and our older son are all Geminis as are my 3 best friends. So as I sat one night at the kitchen table drinking coffee with my friend she said, "How about Gemini Goats?" Well.....the name stuck.


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## megan (Nov 10, 2008)

I racked my brain and since I am not creative at all I couldn't come up with anything good.

I wanted to use the word blue in my name because I also raise blue cattle and wanted to tie everything togeter.

my first step was checking to see if the names I wanted were availalbe as a .com address and nothing I tried was so I wimped out and just went with my last name - nobody was going to have that!! it isn't very common.

it works but I wish I had something cooler and cuter. but oh well.....

good topic!!


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

I live on a limestone hill. I wanted Stoney Hill, but that was taken. I racked my brain to come up with another appropriate name that had the initials "SH". We don't live in a Hollow, so that wouldn't work... Heights fits and it wasn't taken. All of our children (Samuel, Shiphrah, Solomon, and now Shiloh) have those initials, and we thought keeping that for our farm would be a neat way of dedicating our farm to them. I do still love it, even if "Heights" sounds a bit pretentious...  Now, I intend to drop the "Farm" off my herdname, so I can have more space for goat names.


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## Odeon (Oct 26, 2007)

I forgot to share my suggestions when selecting a herdname.. As Vicki mentioned, be careful of "cutesey" herdnames, especially if you are a youth member. You may like "strawberry shortcake farm" when you are 12, but when you turn 40 you may not find it as appealing".

A simple, consise hername really works well. Think about what your life is like outside of goats (ok, that could be a strech) but we all have things we enjoy, be it writing,sports, hunting, church, knitting, etc... if you tie in another aspect of your life when choosing a herdname, you will like it that much more.

Ken


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

We have always named everything Buck Run because we built our house in the middle of one and caught it big time from the local hunters but when we tried to do that with the goats they wanted to assign us a number at the end because there were already so many with that name or some form of it. I was thinking they should have limited it to one herd with that name. Not BuckRun9 or whatever it was going to be. Seems rather a recipe for confusion so we declined and submitted the historical name of the town that does not exist here any more instead. Maybe location or history could be an interesting part.
Lee


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## goatkid (Oct 26, 2007)

I discussed several ideas for a herd name with my hubby when I decided to join ADGA. He said that if I'd use our last name, he'd help pay the cost of registering our herd name and tattoo. It's not the most exciting name in the world, but it's short enough that I can be creative with the goats' names if I want to. Also, the goats officially have the family name as part of theirs. Kathie


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## LaManchaPaul (Jun 2, 2008)

LaCabra Farm because the English version had been taken "The Goat Farm" 
Yea, I still like it, but it is still new for me.


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## mill-valley (Feb 22, 2008)

I picked my herdname because....the farm is located on Mill Rd (we will be moving there someday) and there is a huge ravine running through the pasture. Plus I was already familiar with Pearl Valley and Alpine Valleys who also raise Alpines :blush. I do still like it but maybe wish it was a little more original...but it's short, easy to recognize/remember and won't ever embarrass me. 

Tips for new folks....make it easy to say and spell. Don't make it breed-specific.


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## Narrow Chance (Oct 29, 2007)

Our herd name sort of came with me when I married my husband. It was what I called where I lived.. sort of like Tara in Gone With The Wind. 
My dad actually gave me the idea. 
I had just moved with my very young son onto some acreage my parents had given all the children. After moving a mobile home onto the property, I began to clear. You would have had to see this scrubby wooded area! It was a nightmare! 
My dad came by one day and ask Sissy.. what are you planning on doing? You have a yard big enough already. I told him that I was going to fence in an area.. put in a chicken yard.. and build some sort of barn. I was going to farm at last!! 
After he got through laughing his head off.. he said.. If you turn this wilderness into a farm.. it'll be by a narra' chance. I told him it may be narrow.. but I'd take that chance. So.. I named the 'farm' Narrow Chance. My dad and I used to laugh about it.. but he did get to see calves, cows, chickens and a few hogs on the place before he died. 
When I married my husband ohhh.. some 12 years ago, we bought where we live now.
When we drove in the drive for the first time.. my dad's words came back.. if we get this place under control it will be by a narrow chance. So.. we named this place Narrow Chance also. When we started with ADGA.. we originally had Narrow Chance Farm.. but dropped the 'farm' before registering any animals.. for longer names.


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

I live in Texas the Lone Star state, my doe came from Lucky Star herd and I shortened it down to Bella Star after the outlaw queen :biggrin


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

My first milker, Brook-Trails Harmony, was nice enough to never give me any doe kids, so for 7 years I didn't even need a herd name  But when we started out 'again' after she died we agonized for a year searching for a herd name. I thought of Gilmore's, as that is what my mom calls my children, and it was supposed to be their herd, but it was taken.

My sister has a minor in Sanskrit. She was sick & tired of being drug into the herd name debate, so she told me she liked Aja-Sammati. Aja is goat. Sammati is Harmony. 'Goat Harmony' seemed appropriate as it paid tribute to the goat that began our passion, paid tribute to our love of music, and was definitely available  So many we liked were not!

I still like my herd name, though it has drawbacks. It is unpronouncable for one. People don't know what Sanskrit _is_, lol. People think that the Aja is all capitalized, like initials. I use my herd name as my farm for my soap- customers love the meaning, but can't even start to say it. I was careful to take the advice of more experienced breeders and did not put Farm on my name, though it is on my DBA, to keep the character count down. I always tell people to pick a name that has a story or meaning for them, keep it short (mine at 12 is almost too long), and imagine how embarassing it could be to have that funny name if you ever make it big time...

My name has advantages- like having meaning to our herd. It can be applied to every part of our farm- I can be Aja-Sammati even if I raise turkeys or watermelon, which wouldn't work as well if I had a goat specific name. A real plus is it is individual, which will be handy when I am a famous breeder :rofl


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I am in the process of submitting our paperwork for our herd name as we speak (write?). We went around and around about names for our farm when we moved out here and since we a fans of St. Therese of Lisieux, we ended up calling our farm The Little Flower Farm. (The Little Flower is St. Therese's nickname, if you will.) So our herd name, I hope, is going to be Little Flower.


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## Qvrfullmidwife (Oct 25, 2007)

Swede Farm is named after a relative whose nicname was "Swede".

We'd better like it as it is not only our herd name but also the family business!

About the only downside is people who come up to us and speak swedish to us at farmers markets. I just tell them hey, *I* am Irish! And direct them to the webpage that gives Swede's bio. Oh, and some think upon hearing it that it is "sweet" farm.

But other than that, I like it. Not too long for registering goats, not many have anything similar. Has personal meaning to us. I think It's a keeper.


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

Mia Bella is an Italian phrase meaning "My Beautiful"...a very good friend of mine who was born in Italy moved to the USA when he was 12 and taught me a few phrases. He also used to call me Mia Bella Michelle...My Beautiful Michelle.

Well, most people that come out to our farm say, "You have a beautiful place here".

My very good friend passed away at the young age of 39 from Pancreatitis, and even though I already named my farm prior to his passing I am very glad I did as it reminds me of him daily and is sort of a tribute to him. 
RIP Emidio :down

I still love my herd name and the advice I would give to a new person is to pick a name that means something to "YOU" because it will be yours forever!


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## laughter777 (Jun 16, 2008)

Our farm/ranch is Lucky L Ranch. We were married on July 7th, 2007 at 7:07 so lots of Lucky 7s...L is for our last name. Well Lucky L was taken, so we went with Laughter for our herd name. actually I think it is Laughter's not sure if I wanna leave the 's at the end...

Oh and it sounds like Lotter not Laugh (ter)


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I love reading all these stories. Good idea, Vicki. 
In 2006, I had been wracking my brain trying to come up with a herd name. My husband suggested Fertility Acres because that year we had three cats have kittens, my Spanish goat had quintuplets and we had three grandchildren in the span of 18 months. I passed on that name! However as I was coming home one evening just before dusk, there was a double rainbow directly over my house. It was beautiful and I decided to make my herd name Doublebow.


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## Tracy in Idaho (Oct 26, 2007)

I live at the base of Soldier Mountain ;-)

-- actually a bit west of it now that we are at the ranch, but it's what I look out the front window at every day.

Tracy


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## ourark (Jul 9, 2009)

OURARK Dairy Goats. While trying to come up with a name for us to geocache, I looked on the wall and I had embroidered a wall hanging the has the ark on it with a bunch of animals all over. Around the ark it says Welcome to the Evans Ark. OURARK was born... We love it.


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## Sunny Daze (Jan 14, 2008)

When I was about 16 I was at a horse show and there was a horse I was competing against named Sunny Daze. I thought that was kind of cute and clever. I was training horses before I got into goats and I would usually name them after 60's and 70's songs or something kind of sunny and cheerful. I had Feelin' Groovy, Mr. Mojo Rising, and Sunny Side Up at that time. (My mom says I was born in the wrong era!) Then I started getting more into the goats and needed a herd name. Sunny Daze popped into my head as I always liked that name, and it just seemed to fit me and my laid back attitude and lifestyle. Every one that knew me thought it was a perfect fit! One day a couple years later I woke up and was looking out my bedroom window at my doe pen. All the goats were doing their morning ritual of standing in a daze in the sun, soaking up the morning rays


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## 4hmomwyo (Mar 25, 2009)

My daughter's herd name is Buxom Belles because:
the definition of Buxom is: full-bosomed (and synonyms are: bosomy, busty, curvaceous, curvy)
and the definition of Belles is: a woman or girl admired for her beauty and charm, the most beautiful, charming, or engaging woman or girl 

Since we want beautiful dairy goats with nice full udders, it seemed the perfect name. 
On a side note, my daughter and I are also fairly curvy, so the name fits us too!

Laura


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## wheytogosaanens (Oct 26, 2007)

We live on 20 acres in N. Idaho and mostly we named our ranch because our children are all redheads (Copper Pennies) and that is really and truly what we are raising here. So Copper Penny Ranch. Our Boers and Pyrenees are both Copper Penny. BUT, someone else had Copper Penny with ADGA and we couldn't have it. (Later they revived it somehow, but it was too late, we had already had our current name for 2 or 3 years).

Anyway, Whey-to-Go is a play on "Way to Go, Idaho!" from Toy Story (when the little boy gets a Mrs. Potato Head for Christmas, which is what Mr. Potato Head was hoping for). We still really like it - but it would have been simpler if we could have had everything Copper Penny.

Camille


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

My first ADGA Herd Name was Mill Pond because I lived on one. That was back in 1981 and towards the late 80's, I let my membership drop along with the Herd Name. When my dairy was licensed and I had more registered goats I decided it was time to re-join the goat association and boy, wasn't I surprised to find out they had never lost me! When the card came, it had my original number from 1981. Can't hide from anyone these days. I chose not to resurrect my old Herd Name basically because I no longer lived on a Mill Pond and my life had drastically changed. So, I named my herd in honor of my herd matriarch, a Saanen/La Mancha, Agnes Ophelia who passed away last year at age 12. My Herd Name now is "Ophelia's Magic" and we have 14 bearing this name. Next year we'll have even more. I love my Herd Name and I agree with every other who has said to choose a name that fits who you are. Jennifer


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## Merry Beth (Jul 25, 2008)

We chose our herd name, Peaceful Daze, because that is what we seem to be in most of the time.  It's new, but so far, we like it.


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## Little Moon (Dec 29, 2007)

When we purchased our farm in KY we talked and talked farm names for months. We have a variety of trees on the poroperty; oak, poplar, hickory, pine along with shrubs, vines and flowers and we pieced together many possible names using these as a foundation. We came up with nothing that felt right. Then one day out of the blue we got to talking about my husband's favorite restaurant, a steak house named Little Moon. The rest is history. The goats and now the dogs will be registered as such. :biggrin

Anne


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

> Peaceful Daze, because that is what we seem to be in most of the time.


Can I have some too? 
Lee


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## Holly Govero (Mar 26, 2009)

I picked the herdnames after our last name. We have so many Govero's in our family. So we decided to add Govero Farms. Do I like it? No I dont. But it is easier for me to remember which one is my goats from. Oh well. But I did wanted to name French Village Becuz of our address. But I dont know anymore.. All of your herdname sound great!


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

I don't remember if I mentioned in my advice to people picking a herd name think about leaving off Farm/Farms/Acres/Ranch etc from your actual herd name to save space for actual goat names later. Lakeshore-Farms had to get permission from ADGA to remove the 'Farm' part...their options were restricted by the dash/space and a few more letters...just a thought.


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## Ashlee H (Aug 5, 2009)

My herd name for my meat goats (Boer and Texmaster) is - Hawkes Farm. Hawkes is my last name and that is actually the name of our farm (we grow and sell produce and other things under that name as well!) My website it also Hawkes Farm Boer Goats, as they were the very 1st registered goats I had (didn't have any dairy goats yet!) 

I wanted something different for my dairy herd name as the dairy goats were "my thing" (as my family says) and I wanted to keep the same name forever! And, if I ever get married (much later on , that is! ), my last name would no longer be Hawkes. I came up with Cross My Heart and realy like it! It is cute (but not too cute) and it describes a favorite necklace I have which is a heart with a cross in it! It is a new herd name (as I got it just this year), and I have yet to have any of my own bred kids registered under it, but should have lots next year!!!  I am trying to work up a logo for my dairy herd now with it, and have a pretty good idea of what it will look like (now to just get it made!!!)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Cross My Heart 

And a bra Ashlee  Sorry couldn't resist  Vicki


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I had that same thought. Made me think of Playtex. Probably before her time.


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Well, considering it's for DAIRY goats, it has a common theme in that regard with Buxom Belles.  and if you remember the old commercials, it might also speak to good udder attachments and does with longevity!  Teasing you, Ashlee. It is a cute name. but not too cute, of course


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

Bali... :laughcry


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Yeah, think of the doe names you could use! Olga, too!


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Hey what about Ursula!


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## Ashlee H (Aug 5, 2009)

He he - you guys are funny!!! You know, I really never even thought about that with my herd name!


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## stoneyheightsfarm (Jan 19, 2008)

Your homebred bucks you keep could be Frederick & Hanes, you could have a whole Victoria's line: Secret, Body, Pink, Angel, Intimimissimi, Glamour, Perfect, Sport, Ipex... (yeah, I had to look @ their website--haven't shopped w/them in... too long!)


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## Bil (Nov 22, 2008)

We started out as Silk Creek Alpacas. We were planning on just raising alpacas. Now we are looking to change to Silk Creek Farms to cover everything we now do and everything we might do in the future. 

Silk Creek runs across the back of our property, and we liked the sound of it. If we ever move, we'll probably keep the name even though there will not be a Silk Creek there. 

Bil


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## 2-GFarm (Dec 11, 2007)

Well I kept checking names and they were all taken. So the only thing I could come up with that was short was 2-G Farm, I raise Goats and Geese, it's used to be 3-G Farm, this was in the 80's before goats, I had guineas, they all kept running in the road playing "Chicken" :rofl and got killed after a while.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Well, the name I originally chose was not available, so we went with a variation on it...we put it in Latin. So our herd name is now officially Flos Minimus. Actually, it means Littlest Flower, instead of just Little Flower.


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