I thought this might be a fun chance for everyone to share the meanings and stories behind their kennel names. Was it created in part by a......

Family name combination?
Geographic location?
Local landmark?
First Labrador?
Or some unique concoction or inside story?


Thanks for sharing

Kennel Names: Nimloth is from a tree in the 'Lord of the Rings' stories. It is the tree that died when the king (Arathorn) was slain and bloomed again when his son (Aragorn) returned to the throne. To me, the image stood for tradition and heritage that spanned many lifetimes, lasting devotion and the ability to endure in spite of the bad times. My logo is a flowering tree - you can see it on my webpage.

Elkens is my name and my husband kens put together. Although my husband did want his name first. Since he has never ran a dog around the ring and I take care of them all, my name is first :) Plus Kenels just did not sound right at all to me!

Eleonore
ELKENS Labradors

My grandparents started using the Mar-Jo prefix back in the 1950's. Along with my mother they bred and showed Morgan Horses. I grew up showing horses and living next door to the farm. We haven't shown horses since the 70's, but we still have one Mar-Jo horse on the property. He's 28.

Judy and I went through a bunch of names when trying to decide on our kennel name, but none sounded more right to us than Mar-Jo. Like many others, it is a play on names. My grandmother's name was Marie, and my mother's name is JoAnn.

Mike

My husband came up with our kennel name. Our names combined Debi & Kenny Debkens. Kendeb didn't sound as good!!

I lived in the foothills in Kanarraville UT which was named after the Indian Chief, Chief Kanarra. So hence the name Kanarra Hills. I've just moved to CO so the name is not quite as relevent as it was, but the name is there to stay now.

My kennel name is my middle name , Deborah Shalane , an odd name but at least nobody else had it before me.

My Kennel name MILAJE was made up by myself using the 1st two letters of the three dogs my parents had at the time
Maltese Minstrel (MI)
Labby Laird (LA)
German Shepherd Jedda (JE)

We had been plum creek (as that is the creek running through our property). However after using it for two litters we tried registering it and someone in Colorado who had just started using it. I got a nasty letter from them and we decided to change it.
We went through quite a few ideas (Spring Hill, Lone Oak, all related to our property) that were taken and had gotten to a standstill. Then my hubby was talking and said, with the kids and dogs and cows, we never rest. And I said that's it!! Nothing too special here! But I love it!

Our name was a combination of Laurie & Ken, but Lauken and lorken were already in use.

I live on Cape Cod and am surrounded by beautiful pine woods so my kennel name is Capewood.

My kennel name: "Candyheart Retrievers" comes from the first Golden I bred who's name is "Freya's Candy Heart." She was given this name as her birthday is Feb 14th. The Retrievers part comes from the fact that I raise both Golden and Labrador Retrievers.

Celtia. I pronounce it as Keltia not Seltia. I have always been more drawn to Irish/Scottish stories, names,& places...... So that is why i went with that, and my dogs generally have the same type of name. (Connor, Morgan, Isolde, Gwenhwyfar...)
I wanted to spell it with a K but when i checked with AKC they said no.

We live alongside Bridge Creek (our dogs would prefer to actually live in it!) and so the name fit perfectly. Bridgecreek Labs.

At my first PSLRA banquet, two different people stood up and said--"I'm so-and-so kennel, and I breed the best Labradors in the world." At the time they really did, but I was thinking that must be a hard status to maintain. I remembered a line from everyone's favorite childhood book (if you're a horse-crazy girl), My Friend Flicka, something about it was nip and tuck as to whether the foal would live. Maybe it was from the sequel, Thunderhead. Anyway, I thought--that's it. A kennel name that reflects what we do, full of ups and downs. So I made it Nipntuck, that was in 1984. Then the Puget Sound area became full of .com millionaires, plastic surgery became very popular, and my kennel name gained a whole new meaning! I've actually considered changing it because of that, but it's a bit late now. :-/

My kennel name has two parts - Devan came from my Morgan horse's stable name (the owner was Merle D. Evan) - the stable has been defunct since the mid 80s. The "ley" came from the last part of my first Lab's name - Barkley. Barkley passed away at age 5 from a very aggressive form of lymphnoma - which is how I got introduced to this forum. When he fell deathly ill, I turned to this forum for help while he was in ICU at the vets. I will forever be grateful for the kindness and support I received from this forum 4 years ago.

I felt it was a wonderful tribute for my horse that lived to be one month shy of his 38th birthday and to my first Lab who had an incredibly short life. Both animals had made me who I am today.

My kennel name is also a rather obscure reference from a book called "Islandia", a eutopian novel in which society is much more non-materialistic and everyone has strong ties to the land. The author made up a language to go with his imaginary country, and "amia" was the word for friendship. "Lin" was a modifier meaning "strong", so "linamia" is the kind of friendship that lasts a lifetime, which is what I want for all my dogs and what I know they feel for their people.

I used to be "Locust Grove" for 25 years while in German Shepherds. It was because my farm had a grove of black locust trees on it. Everyone always referred to it as "Locust Grove Farm". However, when I applied to AKC to have it registered as my kennel prefix - they refused - said someone else back east was using it - they hadn't bothered to register it - but I still couldn't have it. So I went with my email and website address which is just a simple combination of my name JonValer.

Oh and Becky.... in 1981 we registered a black bitch with your prefix "Nip-n-tuck Chrissy" she wasn't related to any of your dogs - we didn't even know who you were back then - we just liked the name.

Valerie Jones

We are all so connected, in so many ways. Tarrah Labradors, Reg'd was born Tara, which means the land from the Margaret Mitchell book Gone With the Wind. Many years ago a friend constantly referred to me as "Becky, who is straight out of GWTW" because of my Irish heritage and Southern roots (or accent!). It stuck, as my favorite book and movie. The Land, the one thing Scarlett had
left at the end of the book, the land.

Peggy, my granddaughter's name is Ammi, which in Hebrew means "My People"!

For many years we were Rock Creek, but so were several others. Folks kept getting confused, so my husband and I decided to change to something more original. Every morning I start my day reading a scripture or two and in Isaiah I ran across the phrase "pride of Zion". I was reading aloud and it sounded good! So, I pondered the meaning in relation to how blessed I have always felt to work with such great "kids" and felt the name fit. So we changed it to Pridezion,it's original and nobody else has it!

Mine is self-explanatory. I started using OtterTail in 1986 and have used it as the name of our farm, our pond, and my art business as well as my kennel name. A lot of the people who buy my Lab art do not get the connection, so it seems strange to them.

Gotta love the twizzle !

Amy

I chose Galway Labradors because of my husband's Irish Heritage and my personal love of Ireland.
County Galway is where his relatives still live on the same piece of land that has been in the family for the past 500 years.
The name Galway makes me think of a beautiful land with welcoming folks and the stunning Labs I met there.

Sorry, probably not the most creative here, but our name "Kinderwood" is a combination of our city's name Kindred and Wood.

Fairly easy one for me - I was going to concentrate on chocolate girls which brought me to Ladies of Godiva and then just Godiva. Works perfectly for my brownies. I have noticed that someone on the east coast as recently stated using it as well.

My hometown is Lewisporte Newfoundland. As a child I spent many summers visiting my grandparents on Bell Island, Newfoundland. I have fond memories with them that I will cherish forever. To get to Bell Island you had to cross over on a ferry from Portugal Cove. The water way is called the “Tickle” which means a narrow salt-water strait often difficult or treacherous to navigate because of the tides. The Bell island tickle was often impossible go through because of the ice in the spring. 

My desire to protect the Labrador breed is compared to “crossing the tickle”. I will do all I can for my dogs no matter the obstacles.



What I wanted was a kennel name that would reflect what a Labrador means to me. So, I started by writing down a lot of words that I thought pertained to their temperament, intelligence, etc. I consider a Lab to be very honorable so honor was one of those words. Bright can mean so many things like intelligent,shining, cheerful, etc. so it was another of those words. I put the two words together to represent my thoughts of what describes a Lab and came up with Honorbright Labradors.

Mine is very simple. I took the first 3 letters of my last name,"Wil" combined with what a good hunting retriever should do well,"mark".

Mine is not very creative but kind of followed a tradition.
We started registering our Angus herds under Sampson Family Farms, it just seemed natural to use it for the labs as well.
I do regret the fact that I can not register the kennel name that I have been using for 20 years, because it is a name.

Branchwater a city in New foundland

Mine, Sunrize, is a mispelling of my husbands home area of Michigan- Oscoda. They call it the sunrise side of Michigan. Labs have such sunny dispositions that is seems to fit twice!

our first lab was Hawke, short for ladyhawke and a pun on the spenser for hire series, we had a cat spenser and hawke is spenser's big black friend....

then we got kestrel, she was a little hawk

so we became raptor labs, birds of prey, and a nice acronym for what our dogs do
R rally
A agility
P Pet
T therapy
O obedience
R retrieving....

so we are raptor labs...

barb

Wow, so many great stories here!!
It's really nice to read how you all came up with your kennel names!!

Mine was taken from the registered name of my first horse, King's Startop.
He was the love of my life and it was only right that he became the namesake of my kennel, which has become my passion, Startop Labradors.
Star passed just 8 years ago at the ripe old age of 32.

I have answered this same thread a few months ago. I wanted desperately to have a child and after visiting many Dr.s in London my only recourse was to have IVF or a test tube baby. Dr. Edwards and Steptoe run the large Bournhall Clinic for test tube babies in Cambridge, England. I spent 2 months and 2 trips there to accomplish this miracle but it did not take. Dr. Steptoe brought the 1st Test Tube baby in the world Louise Brown and it was heartbreaking and exciting to meet all the other women there. It was extremely expensive and emotional for me.

Hence, since my new babies would be Labs and be born with me and my Kennel then Bournhall is what is most appropriate for me and is very significant to carry on with these wonderful Labs.

Mine is a combination of the end part of my maiden name and the first part of my married name. Since my husband has always taken the stance that the dogs are "my thing", I kind of left him out of it.

Didn't put my kennel name in my last post...duh! My kennel name is Linro.

Weren't you chased out of NJ after a cease and desist and dropped the name hobby horse? Isn't this your kennel? http://www.njcapsa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=32

I am a newbie but started using Stonecoast as a name. I am from Maine and live in Maine, and one of the things that Maine is known for oceanographically or geographically is it's harsh rocky coastline. Hence Stonecoast.
(Before anyone tries to flame me about it being too close to Stonecrest, I sent Mrs. White-Petersen an email, and she gave her blessings.)
This is a fun thread! :)

If you call moving "chased". I highly doubt anyone could actually "chase" anyone out of anywhere.
Bite me.

I looked at a map of Labrador Canada and there was a place named Red Bay. Hence, Redbae.

We had the name "Rocky Peak" when we lived in Ventura County because we all liked the trail up to the peak in the Santa Susanna Mountains.
When we moved to Central California the name wasn't as relevant, so we talked and talked and wrote down lists of names, and the one that kept coming up was "Dreamtail.' Love those tails!!!