As much as I miss my dear dog, Augusta National or Gus, in consideration of my two sons and as a tribute to Gus, my husband and I decided to get a puppy as soon as we could - which ended up being Wednesday evening. At my one son's suggestion and at my husband's request, we named him Stanley, as in The Stanley Cup. Actually his full, AKC-registered name is Lord Stanley Valentino Payne (Valentino because he was born on Valentine's Day). I, myself, am not quite the sports fan that the rest of my family is, so when they said the name would be Lord Stanley, I thought they added the title Lord just to make him sound cooler. Little did I know that The Stanley Cup is named after Lord Stanley, the Earl of Preston and Governor General of Canada.I guess, if you think about it, it seems obvious that The Stanley Cup and numerous other sports awards are named after people. However, being that I am not a huge sports fan, I never really thought about it.
Here are a few:
Baseball - Cy Young Award, after Cy Young
Football - Heisman Trophy, after John Heisman.
Football - Vince Lombardi Trophy (Super Bowl trophy), after Vince Lombardi
Basketball - Naismith Award, after James Naismith
Golf - Ryder Cup, after Samuel Ryder
Tennis - Davis Cup, after Dwight F. Davis
By the way, many of these names provide great inspiration for naming a pet. And even though the meaning of certain names may not be obvious to all, when a person chooses a name that means something to them, they know the meaning and that is the semantics of names.
