A Bear By Any Other Name

What’s in a name?: Ask Google

I hadn’t realized quite what a responsibility choosing a name would be until I tried it! Honestly, I spent hours scrolling through name after name on site after site, till they all were swimming in front of my eyes. 

It’s not as if there weren’t any good ones. There were lots of them. Hundreds of them - thousands, probably. What there wasn’t was a really great one, that would immediately call to mind the delightful little pal who needed one, and seeing no-one has bothered to give him a name before it seemed especially important that he should be happy with it.

I went through every family name that I could think of. I tried the name of probably every friend that any of us had ever had. I tried historical characters. Places. Character qualities. People in the Bible. Folks next door. 

Ladies and Gentlebears: Meet Alfie! 

Still nothing. And all the time, two eager little dark brown eyes were peering over my shoulder at the iPad screen. 

Finally, I did what I should have done in the first place. I turned to Twitter. And Twitter pals, of course, came to the rescue. Suddenly I had lots of suggestions to choose from. All of them were excellent, but one stood out above the others.    

His eyes lit up as he read the tweet from @MallyWolfe: Alfie! 

He immediately started running around the room, shaking paws with everyone in sight and telling them, “I’m very pleased to meet you - my name’s Alfie!” He said it to me, he said it to the humans, and he even said it to the TV! 

I’m very grateful to the Twitter pals who helped, especially @MallyWolfe and @TravelMonk2, and also for the very kind welcome and birthday greetings, with which Alfie is thoroughly delighted. He says that now he has a name he feels official, so I think all the effort that went into looking for one was well worth while, so thanks again to everyfur who helped, and... please meet Alfie!