What's in a name?

As some of you may have seen on my husband's blog, we got a mini dachshund puppy this weekend. Although this may be a sign of our ever-declining mental health, it wasn't quite as impulsive as it seemed. The puppy is really for my mother (who lives with us), who had a dachshund while we were growing up and has missed it ever since.

My mother doesn't like naming things (which I don't get - naming rights are half the reason for having kids!), so she told the 5 year old he could pick the puppy's name. He took the responsibility very, very seriously, and the process took 2 days of discussion followed by one hour of intensive review of all contenders. He came up with this list of contenders (some of them suggested by others in the family and many of them created on the spot) - the notes next to some of the names indicate why the name was NOT ultimately chosen:

Crystal - his sister has a pet mouse of the same name
Angel
Diamond - the dog is not clear
Chloe
Hermione
Curious
Snow - the dog is not white
Tootsie
Sheba
Zuron - too boyish
Kaminia
Azakra
Peanut
Azalea - too purple
Clementine
Tabitha
Amelia - this was his great-grandmother's name, and he didn't want to besmirch her memory
Ashanta - this one was deemed too scary, but I can't remember why
Leia
Sacra
Lorelei
Vivian - also 'too scary', as it sounds, to the 5 year old, too much like "oblivion"
Genevieve
Bailey
Celeste
Joy
Emerald - the dog is not green
Aquamarine - the dog is not blue-green
Opal
Ruby
Sapphire - the dog is not blue
Topaz
Zeckrimiah - we really had to talk him out of this one
Mariah - a bad singer
Citlalli - a classmate, who might not have appreciated having a dog named for her
Rackimiah
Esmerelda
Flower
Blossom - the name of a friend's dog, too copy-catty
Takra
Amiah
Cherry - too edible
Strawberry - ditto
LaFawnduh - Daddy's Napoleon Dynamite inspired contribution, shot down quickly by the boy
Flash - too boyish
Jekra

Through much prodding, he narrowed this list down, first to 30, then to 11, then to 5, and finally to 1 - Hermione. We're all happy with this choice - we're all Harry Potter fans, and my mother's old dachshund was named Herman, so it's similar enough to be a tribute. Now to teach it to the dog...