German Naming Convention for GSD's - Totally Confused!! - Page 1

I am totally confused regarding the proper way to name my male GSD.  Von, Vom, Van; and then there is "der" in some of the names?  Surely there must be an article out there that explains all of this. 

I see many male dogs are named after the dam, why is this?  What if I want to name my dog after the sire?  Let's say the reason I want to do this is because the sire is the champion SV dog of the world, while the mother has only achieved minimal success in competition. 

To give an example of a male being named after the sire (I have seen this in the database), lets say the dog in question is named Joe von der Johnson (or maybe its "van" or "vom", I don't know).

Then I look in the database and see that Joe's father's name is Jack von der Johnson.   Thus, Joe is named after his father, but the "Jack" is omitted and we are left with Joe von der Johnson.  

One question would be, is "von der Johnson" Jack's mother, or could it also be his mother?

Anyway, any help would greatly be appreciated. 

Dogs are typically named after the kennel responsible for the breeding.  Whether vom of von is used depends (or should) on what is grammatically correct in the German language. 

There must be millions of GSD's out there not named after the kennel.  Anybody else out there have some real information?

"Jake vom (von, van) der you" simply mean s "jake of the you"(you kennels or breeder) in english. The dutch: germany, netherlands etc have their own "vom"(of) which could be "van", "von". Note: i may not be correct as i'm no linguist or speak german, but this is my undestanding of the words.

Always thought "vom" was "from" and "von" was "of"... then "der" is "the". Usually German dogs are named after their kennel, so say you buy (just picking a random dog from the VA list) Remo vom Fichtenschlag. Remo is the dogs everyday name. Then "vom" is "from", and "Fichtenschlag" is the kennel who bred him. From what I've learned, the litter is named after the kennel that bred it... so if the kennel bred the dam, then the pups would have the same kennel name in their names. And then if the kennel bred the sire, and then purchased or leased the dam from another kennel, then yeah, you would see the litter inheriting the sires kennel name.

Now if you are dealing with American GSD's, you'll see names like "Kismet's Sight for Sore Eyes" (he's my personal favorite). I believe Kismet is the kennel that bred him. Then sometimes you'll see dogs like "Pinebuck's Myra of Kismet"... Kismet was the sire's kennel, and then Pinebuck the dams.

The way I see it, its sort of like advertising. Instead of just naming your dog Fluffy and calling it good, you get Fluffy vom Fancykennelnamehere... so if Fluffy becomes a universal seiger, that took home 12 VA's, 32 SchH 3's, etc. etc., even if Fancykennelnamehere doesn't own the dog anymore, they can still say "Hey, we bred that awesome dog, come buy a puppy from us and it just might be as good!" So the kennel can get a bit of prestige through their dogs... I guess is where I'm going with that.

Real information?

The dog's name depends (or not) on the breeder you bought the dog from. If it is a kennel that is producing pups with the future in mind, they tend to adhere to a more traditional naming style. For example if my last name was Smith, I could use my name as part of the kennel name like von Smith Haus. Or if I had a particular German thing I liked (a folk tale) I could use that or if my home were by a river I could use a german term for by the river, whatever. Then once the kennel has chosen their kennel name they generally follow an alphabetical naming sequence, the first litter is the A litter, so you could have Adolf vom Smith Haus, Anna vom Smith Haus, etc. Second litter would be B litter and so on.

Whoever owns the female is usually listed as the breeder so their kennel name is the one on the papers. Whether it is vom, von, von der, or whatever is a grammatical thing, whichever is correct for the term used is what the kennel name uses. A kennel doesn't change the prefix from litter to litter, so whatever term they use is part of the kennel name.
Occasionally the female may be leased by another kennel for the purpose of producing the litter, in that case the kennel who has leased the female puts their kennel name on the paperwork. 
If you bought your pup from a kennel who is trying to produce pups to benefit the breed and establish their breeding program then the breeder will make sure you understand how the naming works and what letter to use and how their kennel name fits in. Or, they could also just name and register the pup themselves and then give you the paperwork to transfer into your name as owner. Either way you can call the dog whatever you want.
The above applies to GSDs bred in Europe or in North America generally for working line kennels or German showline kennels.

Breeders who breed for the American show ring don't tend to follow the above naming scheme. They may or may not do alphabetical, but they will also do "theme" litters. For example all pups in a litter could be named after famous gunfighters and then they would have their kennel name(first or last, depends on the kennel). So if the kennel was Sunnyside, you could have Sunnyside Annie Oakley or Sunnyside Billy the Kid.

If you got your pup from a BYB, they probably don't have a kennel name and assuming you have papers to fill out you can call the dog Twinkle Toes von Bellyflopper if you want, as long as it fits on the paperwork and isn't considered obscene they will take it.

It's not a good idea to name your dog Vom Famouskennel unles he was actually bred by Famouskennel.  So in the OP's original example, if the Sire's name was John von Jackshaus, but the breeder was NOT Jackshaus, you wouldn't name your dog Fido von Jackshaus just because that was the sire's "last name."  If Jackshaus is a registered kennel name they won't allow you to name your dog that and your paperwork will be returned to you, but either way it's claiming a kennel name that doesn't really belong to you.  

Emoore, would they even let you do that? I guess I just couldn't imagine that happening.

Jimmy, you are thinking of the naming process in the wrong context. 

In Europe almost all breeders name all the puppies in the litters they raise.  Litters are named alphabetically.  Traditionally a breeder's first litter is the A litter, second litter is the B litter and so on until the alphabet runs out and they start it over again.  
Vom, von, der, etc. are just forms of prepositions.  They are not necessary in the naming of a dog.  Their use seems to be based largely on the region the breeder is located in.  Some breeders don't use prepositions at all, instead choosing their kennel name to act as a surname (last name) for the dog. 

The naming of dogs is not patriarchal or matriarchal like in humans.  European dogs are not named after their dam.  They are named for the kennel that bred the litter they came from.  Sometimes kennels will co-breed a litter and split the pups in the litter, in this case some puppies will carry the name of one kennel and the other puppies will carry the name of the other kennel.

In all of the American canine registries (including AKC) the owner of the dog is allowed to name the dog.  It is courtesy to include the name of the kennel that bred the dog in the dog's official name. 

It is considered deceptive and wrong to include the name of a kennel in a dog's official name if that kennel did not breed or own that dog.  If your dog came from kennel X, but had a famous kennel in his pedigree, like Anrebri.  It would be like lying to name the dog with the Anrebri name.  This is telling people that the dog came from Anrebri breeding when it did not.  This is dishonoring to the kennel who did breed the dog and dishonoring to the kennel whose name was used but did not breed the dog. 

So name your dog with your own family or kennel name, or name your dog with the kennel name that he came from.  But do not name your dog for a kennel that he did not come from, even if it's the name of one or both of his parents.  The name of the sire and dam have no bearing on the name of the dog itself, only the name of the kennel who bred that dog. 

As has been said above, German dogs are named for the kennel that bred them. Von and vom both mean 'from' [kennel name]. The spelling changes depending on the case of the noun (in this case, the kennel name) that follows the word. German nouns are always masculine, feminine or neuter, and there must be an article (English equivalent would be 'the' or 'a') in front of them.  When you combine the article with 'von', it becomes difficult to say, so the article is combined with the preposition to create 'von' (von die) and 'vom' (von der or von dem)

Okay, trying to remember my high school German grammar, and what I said above may not be 100% correct. Hopefully, one of the native German speakers on the board will step in and correct any goofs I've made! But what I've said above is the basics of how it works.


Van also means 'from' but it is Dutch, not German.