I've never really thought about naming the fish in my freshwater tank, but decided I would when I bought my first Betta. I mean they really are a different type of pet. Fish don't come when you call them by name like dogs do. I've found it does give fish some personality though.
Near the end of the post I'll show you how to pick a pet fish name for your new friend.
My first Betta, I named Sam because I wasn't sure if the fish was a male or female Betta. The next fish I gave a name to was Pat (the Crowntail Betta to the right). I made it to the pet store recently and picked up another fish for the second hanging wall tank. He's to the left above.
Now it's decision time. The first two names I gave my pet fish are fairly common names for a boy or girl. This time I'd like something cool. Like Nemo. Now there's a cool name for a boy fish. I could try naming him something funny too. I feel like I'm playing that game... name that fish! I'd like a name that's more unique than popular for the fish though.
Ok. How do you pick a pet fish name? I want to point out that my pet is a fish, so the name should have something to do with water or fish. I pulled up the handy thesaurus and looked up... water. A few names popped out at me. Aqua and bubble. One of those could be the first part.
How about a boy fish name? Bill, Bob, Jake, Henry. Those are all good fish names for a boy fish, but I want something unique.
Lets combine Bubble and Bob to get Bubblebob. That's funny. How about Aquabob? That's a cool name. This Betta has an attitude. I chose the fish name Aquabob for my new pet. Let's hope he likes it. Choosing a name for your fish can be fun. Just pull out the thesaurus and choose names that are similar to something about your pet. Do you like the name I chose?
Thanks for popping by, it’s given me the chance to discover your site, which by the way is fantastic, i shall be popping over regularly.
Anyway Aquabob is a cool name for your betta, and of the fish i have only three have names my severum is called Seve Ballesteros, my flowerhorn is called Petal and my Sajica pair are called Mr+Mrs T.
Hi Paul,
Hey. Thanks for checking out my site. Fun way too combine a couple of hobbies. Like your use of names. T for the T-Bar cichlids. I’ve never tried cichlids. Will have to give it a whirl one of these days.
Mike
Haha! That’s awesome. I didn’t do anything like that, but I’d like to think that my betta has a semi-unique name. His name is Icabod!
Like the name! That is unique.
took some thinking and i decided on naming my Betta Atari;)
Atari. Kewl name!
The way you make up names is really cool! I like the name BuubleBob. I have 2 female bettas. I called one Marina and Lilly. They r both really cool,like Lilly because she does a little happy dance when i come over and Marina cause she can jump 10cm into the air! I was thinking on what names u could think of for my fish.
Do u like the name Raplish or Rapalishus?
Hey Liv-o!
You do a great job at pickin’ names. They mean something to you. I wudda never come up with Rapalishus… Like it!
I just bought a new betta and wanted a unique name for it now that I found your site I am going to choose a cool name AquaBob is kind of funny
Hi Jade,
Thanks for stopping by, and Good Luck with your betta!
I have a fish named Gillagin, after my friends fish who’s names is Finnagin. I’m going to get another but I’m out of ideas for a name. This site is helpful. I think I’ll go look in the thesaurus! =D
I’m thinking of calling her Algea. Not very unqique but that doesn’t matter right now… Aquabob’s a weird name but I like it. =P
Jaclyn,
Aquabob says thanks for the compliment. He is kind of weird.
hey I am a 11 year old girl and I just my own fish at a Walmart supercenter .I named my fish Naturally Sadie becuase that is one of the shows that I love to watch and the girls name in the show is Sadie I am not sure how to tell if a fish is a boy or a girl if you have any tips for me can you please send them? cool name for your fish !
Hi Cally,
Good luck with the new fish. I like the name Sadie.
As for figuring out if a fish is male or female.. it often depends on the type of fish. Usually one of the fins is shaped different.
Mike
i have a female i named her Penalope.
I had a 1 year old Betta named Patriot, who recently died. I currently have Blossom, my female Betta. She is a very young blue-purple Betta i recently purchased. So i think the name fits.
Penalope, Patriot, and Blossom. Cute names!
Hey, i just got a male beta fish yesterday and im stummped for a name. at the moment we just call him beta. any name suggestions?
Hi Whitney,
What’s your favorite actor or singers name? Use that.
I think ziggy
cookie monster
elmo
fish
junior
etc would be pretty cool names for fish
Hey JibJib,
I like ‘em!
For our goldfish, I pretty much thought of names from the top of my head.
+ I named the silver goldfish Termite [because silverfish are super nasty-looking].
+ Spot is covered in spots
+ Raccoon has a black ‘mask’
+ Lefty is missing his right fin
+ Niki Jr. is my dog’s personal fish, so we named it after him
+ Nippy keeps nipping at our ghost shrimp
+ Anchor nearly always sits at the bottom of the tank, except at feeding time
I also named our 2 swordtails, Wiatt and Phoebe, after characters on the TV show “Charmed”
The shrimp we named after spring-related things [Breeze, Dewdrop, Rosebud, Flower Pedal, and Sky]
Hi there Emikah…
I love your names! You really took some time thinking about them.
My fav has gotta be “Lefty”.
Mike
hey
I’m getting a fish and i don’t know what to names her
please help me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chelsea,
How can you name a fish you haven’t seen yet? Write down the first three you think of, and then choose your favorite.
Dear Cally
Im turning 11 this year.I love the name sadie. Many people ask the same question ? This is the answer for siamese fighting fish: Most Males Have long Fins and are much prettier then the females. Females are less prettier,they are also smaller than the males and they have short fins. It also depends on what sort of breed it is you can research that. I hope that helps a bit
Xox Alix
I’m naming mine Boo
i just got a beta today and i named it strawberry since it’s a girl and it’s red
i got a pet fish yesturday at my cousins wedding reception. they had betas on the tables and told people to take them so my mom let me. i was so happy. i named it sam. i just gave it that name because it poped into my head. then today i wondered if it was a boy or a girl. so i did research and it turned out to be a boy. today my mom took me to get him a bigger bowl and some marbles and a little scene thing he can go through. it was fun i think he likes it. he is red top layer colored and his bottom color is purpleish-blue. really handsom.
hey!!
I own 2 fighting fish…
One is red and named Freddy. (don’t know why-cute name)
And I don’t know what to name the other one….
He is really mischievious and feisty/active.
Can you help me?
how do these sound:
Dancing Imp
Ocean Dancer
Dancing Rascal
Bubble Dancer
Sky Dancer
Dancing Mischief
???
Excellent names iheartfish… Mike
Very cute way of coming up with the names I have a random question for you if I may where did you get your wall hanging tanks these are way too cool looking I would love to look at getting one myself with my fishing keep habits I am slowly starting to run out of tank space. Also how big is it, it look about 1 or 2 gallons.
I Have two goldfish i named one Gizmo and i dont no wat to name the other
please help me!!
=]
Sarah,
I’ve just started a sister site where funfishtank readers can access fish supplies at discounted auction prices. You asked, so you get a sneak peek. Here’s a section offering the betta bowl hanging tank.
http://www.funfishtank.com/aquarium-supplies/hanging-betta-bowls/
Nadia,
Gizmo is a great name. I bet you can come up with another name. Name it something related to food… like Pepperoni, or your favorite color.. I once had a blue Gourami I simply called “Blue”. Keep thinking
i have a pet fish that i just bought and i don’t know what to name it. it is orange in the middle,white on the bottom and it has a black spot on the top.he really wants to get out of it tank, i don’t know if it is a boy or girl so any name will help me
it also has a white nose
nevermind it died
now i have six hermite crabs
I got a betta and I dont know what to name it HELP!!!!!!!!!!!! Hes very fiesty
i have a Betta and my sister got a goldfish and when the Betta see the goldfish it start to fight. but the died
i just got new goldfishes today i want to know if it is a girl and a boy i will be happy if it is
harlee is the fish a boy
hey i got 3 new fish because my other one died recently i dont know what to call them got any ideas?
I just got 4 new fish, 3 of the fish are named Marco, Polo and Einstein. the fourth one is speckled a red-orangeish color. it has a white face. I have no clue what to name it. Any one have any suggestions?
i just got a red male beta fish today and have no idea what to name it i have thought of these names:
nemo
sharky
squishy
elmo
which is your favourite?
he is really calm and well-tempered. and he is quite small compared to my other beta, Smudge.
umm . preetyy sick namess..
Quazymotto
Memphis
mr. wiggles worth
zoombini
mojo-jojo
heck yesss.. pretty sick if you want a different namee.. lol
thats why mine is quazymoto
HEY
about you naming your bettas , i should be getting two bettas soon and i am thinking of naming them hatton and calzaghe as they are my fave boxers and they are fighters like bettas lol so yh bye now xxxxx
Hi, my rat cleo is unfortunatly on her death bed and i decided i want a pet that will be simple and easy so im going to get a couple of fish
im not sure which kind i want yet but i was wondering. are remmy and shylo good names?
Hi b,
Great names! Remmy is my favorite.
Mike
just bought a betta today
i named her penny lane. the two i had before were named barbie & tallulah
Awesome. I love the Beatles song.
i just got a betta fish and idk what to name him! he is blue and green and obviously he is a boy. he is really calm most of the time. so can you help?
How about Jasper?
nevermind i named him Largo
hey XD
im really glad i found your site. i just bought my first betta and i was seriously struggling with a name. my bf wanted to call it dooey! but i dont like it. anyway i did what you said to do and i looked in the thesaurus. my fish is a beautiful blue one and so i typed in beautiful and chose my favorite word which was FOXY then i looked up blue and i got SAPHIRE. when i put them together i got FOXYPHIRE. i also got the words DAZZLING from beautiful and INDIGO from blue and put to gether it makes DAZZINDI.
so i guess i need your help to chose which one is a better betta name DOXYPHIRE or DAZZINDI???
I just got two orandas.I think ones female cause it’s smaller than the second one I just bought the names hubba and bubba came to mind LOL it combines to hubba-bubba*thank you captain obvious…*Although when I talk to them,I just call them fishies XP.I’ve also got a 4 year old fan tail who’s name I seem to change constantly.And a betta whom I’ve named shela*it’s female*I struggle when it comes up to naming new pets period.
I’m sure I can come up with something better,instead of naming them after a gum that’s been around for ages.
I just got my fish yesterday his name is ” Humperdink ” after the famous singer Engleburt Humperdink
haha.. right on.
just have fun with it… Hey if you want to change their names periodically.. go for it!
i named my two loaches zig and zag and they love each other
I just got some fish i have named three but am stuck on naming a blue and red male siemise fighter what are some goodnames
I named my betta Vincent Van Gogh because he is the exact color of the sky in Van Gogh’s Starry Night. But he goes by Vinny. He’s my dutch lover boy! I’ve had him for a year and a half! Goodluck with your babies!
Hey, nice tips
I am planning to get one near May when there is warmer weather and i just heppened to see this site on Google.
I thought of some names which 1 do you like?
Skip- if it’s a good jumper
Aero
Patriot
Soda
which 1? I will get a male
I’m not sure if my other comment was posted so i’m re-writing it.
I am planning to get a Betta for the first time (In May warmer weather) and i’m not sure which name is best what do you like
Patriot,Aero,Skip,Soda, Or Sodapop. Help Thanks-Ante
I like Aero.
Ipurchased bettas fish last yr and we love towatch him play andhe love to watch me in the kitchen cooking my food and he died last week on april 28th 2010 and we were sad andgave him a funeral.
My Crowntail is named Ghost, not so original but his body is a mixture of purple, blue and white. His tail is white with blue splots here and there. So I found it to be a little fitting and cooler then something to do with frost.
But my two old bettas that I got from breeding were named Castor and Pollux, after the Gemini constellation.