# How'd your betta get it's name?



## carzz (Mar 8, 2011)

That's the third question I'm always asked after I give people the quick break down of my bettas.
1: How many do you have?
2: What's their names?
_*3: How'd you come up with those names?!*_

I just laugh, cause that story gets long! I have ten fish, and so a short story for each? Don't get me wrong, I love telling it, but they don't always stick around till the end....... hehehe

ANYWAY!!! I want to know how you came up with the names for your darlings!
Most of mine are not based upon color relations, however, the color did affect the choice. 

So here's mine real quick! 
BOYS!

Benny (Blue/black VT): There isn't much of a reason. It's just an adorible name. He's my little bennz, benji, benjamin, or benny! Sometimes I'll call him Ben, but Benny is my favorite name for it. Plus, he just looks like a Benny 

LeRoy (Orange CT): I had the song that goes, 'brown, brown, Leroy brown, baddest man in the whole damn town. meaner then a junkyard dog........' Stuck in my head while I was at Petco. And I had never seen an orange betta before, I had to have him! And in the check of line, it hit me. That would be his name!! LeRoy!!! 

Nick (Red/little teal DT): I fell in love with nick, the moment I saw him. So beautiful, and healthy. He is an award winning fish!  Anyway, on the way home, I was listening to Nickleback on the radio. I was singing along and he kept bumping into the side, and it felt like a little heart. (I had my hand on top of his cup, for obvious reasons.) The song ended, he stopped. Another song came on by nickleback, and he did it again. I felt it was a sign.  

Vinny (Purple DT Plakat): Vinny.... lol. My sister and I were on our way home, trying to get a name. Since he is purple, I said the first purple thing we saw would be his name! But I had the power to veto anything. Well, we started rhyming things, and I rhymed things with my last name. Vince, which is his real name, rhymes with my last name. And I liked the name Vince a lot  so I call him Vinny. 

Sykes (Red/white butterfly VT): It was the first thing that came to mind when I rescued him from walmart. And then the second thing was how they should be banned from selling bettas, unless they come up with a system like Petco. But, Sykes.  He matches his name. 
But I tried to rename his to Clifford, and Cliff for short. It never happened. 

GIRLS!

Lady (Grey VT): She was the very first female betta I'd ever owned. Naturally, it fit!  And I like to think of her as very lady like. 

Rosie (Black/Pink VT): Rosie or Rose has pink fins.... haha so shoot me, the color worked!!! She has a black body and pink fins, and is very nice. 

Kalifa (Yellow/black CT): My sister picked her out, and started singing, 'black and yellow black and yellow.... YEAH!!! you know what it is! Black and yellow black and yellow!' She then named her Kalifa, after Wiz Khalifa, the singer of the song, 'black and yellow'. XD

Luna (Cello VT): Luna got her name after Luna Lovegood, from Harry Potter. She's kinda koo koo, and VERY white. hehehehe 

Cindy (Teal VT): My dad and I were talking about Cyndi Lauper earlier in the day. And I guess I just had the name Cindy stuck in my head. Hahaha

NOW YOU KNOW MY REASONS FOR MY NAMES, LETS HEAR YOURS!!


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## baylee767 (Nov 5, 2010)

Just one guy right now, but I'll explain the name of my Betta who died. (they're both guys)

Neon: Well, he used to be in a tank with neon gravel/neon silk plants. And if he just rested on a neon plant I woudn't be able to find him until he moved, so he was named for his camoflauge.

Velvet: When I first got him I dropped him on the floor. He looked like blue velvet, the first word that popped into my mind when I got him was velvet. Also, I thought he had velvet when I first got him because he had a gold tint. He didn't, but the name stuck....


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## carzz (Mar 8, 2011)

That's cool! I dropped Benny today when cleaning his tank.... or sorta. I keep the betta cup they come in, so I put clean water in that and put them in the cup, while cleaning the bowl. Anyway, when i went to get him out, he did this weirdo clip over the side of my net, and landed on the side of the cup and slide out onto the counter.  I felt bad


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## BlakbirdxGyarados (Feb 10, 2011)

Well, let's see...

In Order of Acquirement:

_Leliia_ got her name out of randomosity. I don't like common pet names like "Buddy" or "Fillet" (lol) but I don't like names that're personifying (ex. John, Annie, Kevin)
I play Pokemon games, and usually I pick three or four random letters when I nickname my Pokemon...
Example: sjb
Now I just stick random vowels in until it sounds good. And I just came up with Sijiber. Weird, but hey! I like it, lol.

_Jade_ got his name from, well, Jade (the rock mineral).
I'm Thai (born and raised in America, so lol, I speak no Thai ) and I've learned from my grama that Jade is a well-beloved rock used in all kinds of jewelry. (I'm no jewelry-wearer, though.) Jade, when I got him, was all white with touches of blue and white... he reminded me of the Thai flag. So he's one of the few fish with a full name of Jade Siam Warner.
Of course, as luck would have it, he turned out to be a marble and is now colored exactly like the Thai flag.

_Uncle _got his name literally as soon as I saw him. I didn't plan on getting him (at first), but he looked like the oldest one there. He had some weird colors that I've never seen on a betta (like a red and yellow striped head, peach body with purple sparkles... what the heck). His fins curled, wrinkled... So I guess he got his name from being so tattered-looking. Like that one uncle a person has that gets in trouble with the cops but is still the greatest guy you could ever look up to. 
I dunno, lol.

_มาลี (Mali) _was the only betta I actually did research on in getting a name. I wanted a Thai name, badly, but they don't list a lot of those online, and heck if I would be able to read the Thai sites' suggestions.
Then I really wanted to name her after the Jasmine flower. Finally I settled on Mali, which was the closest name that meant "jasmine".

_Eli "Dragonfly"_ was actually named by Luimeril. (I still thank her so much for that.)
I called him Dragonfly as a nickname before, just because of how fast his hand-fins fluttered when he would stare at me. 
Luimeril came up with the name because we found out our two white HMPK bettas were basically twins. They're both even handicapped.  (Both are half-blind.) Her betta was named after Theodore from a game called Persona (I'm not sure which... 3 maybe?) He was a white haired character. And the only male... so Lui' chose the white-haired female character Elizabeth for Eli's name, just because hers was the easiest name to convert to a male's name.

_Revenant_ was my dream betta fish. I really hated to see him go (he jumped out of the QT vase I had him in, thank you White Dog the cat for taking the lid off and scaring him out of there while I was out of the house). But before he got to the 'States I knew I wanted a ghostly name for the cellophane HM. At first, I thought "Pokemon... Haunter, Gengar, Ghastly, Misdrevous" but nah, Pokemon names didn't suit him. So I looked up synonyms for 'ghost' on dictionary.com and came across Revenant, which didn't sound too bad as a name.
Ironically, he's my first betta out of my current batch to become a revenant.

_Ninja_ isn't here yet. He and Avalantic will head to the USA on the 17th.
He got his name thanks to another betta I saw on Aquabid.com... The mask on that betta's face looked just like a ninja's mask. Unfortunately I missed getting him... so I traded that one's name for Original Ninja, and now the "Ninja" name belongs to the strikingly similar betta with the same kind of mask.

_Avalantic_ is really a simple name.
Firstly, she's a replacement betta. The seller reported to me that Painter, the original female I picked, jumped out of her tank and died... Her scale patterns looked like she was brushed over with thick white house paint, thus the name.
The replacement girl's scale patterns reminded me of my dog, who would roll around in the snow like crazy and come inside the house with it all stuck on his fur.
Avalantic looked the same way, what with how her scale pattern came out. 
So...
Snow + roll = snowball... rolling down a mountain... becomes an avalanche...
But I don't want to name her Avalanche.
Hey! How about Avalantic!

And there we have it.


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## BlakbirdxGyarados (Feb 10, 2011)

Wow, have I got quite a post.... lol


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

So I'm currently trying to come up with names for my next betta be it he or she...But here are the names and meanings behind it for the betta's I've owned and are owning.

Akira - (Don't tell my parents) He's named after Akira Touya from Hikaru No Go. He was a very smart and active boy trying to fight the other boys in their cups. I also kept going back to him as if he was playing a game with my head...I refused to name him until he was mine all nice and payed for. He's a Wal-Mart rescue at that. So I'm sitting at the table in the attatched Mcdonalds inside the store because it was a cold day and my mom was pulling the car around so I wouldn't have to walk much...I sat there staring into his cup talking to him quietly probably looking insane. I kept trying to give him a unique name and Akira Touya kept flashing into my head whenever I looked at him trying hard to name him and this couple passed by and gave him a few compliments. I gave my thanks and said I was having a tough time naming him. She gave me good advice to wait for his personality to show. And boy did it show once he got into his tank. So as we tried to name him...I finally just decided as Akira would keep popping into my mind whenever I looked at him that it had to be his name....

Kalona - Before I even got Kalona I had his name selected because I'm a major House of Night fangirl and his name was from one of the characters whom was a dark angel. After finding Kalona I knew just what his name had to be. Sadly he also managed to disappear a lot and well...Yeah. RIP my little HM.

Kaida - I was stumped on names for the second betta we would be getting. I searched Japanese names and Kaida meant Little Dragon. Betta's to me look like dragons so his name stuck. I loved him so much as well as Kalona. I miss them both but I know they at least lived a good life.


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

seven right now.xD

Cup: because the poor boy had to stay in his cup for a few days, while we tried to make the 10 gallon fish-safe. >.> we had the brilliant idea to put the two tetras and catfish in Cup's 1 gallon for a day or two.

Lulu: because she's big, and black, like the final fantasy X character, Lulu. :3 Lulu(from X) is... er... >.> big in certain areas, and rather goth-styled.

Zidane: named after the Final Fantasy 9 main character, in an attempt to give him a strong character's name. of course, Zi ended up being the OPPOSITE of his namesake. while the character's flirty, outgoing, and cheerful, Zi's shy. but, at least he's a lady's man, with his amazing bubble nests! 

Chappy Belle: i wasn't sure of her gender when i got her as a month-old fry, so i had two names picked out: Chappy Belle, after Japanse Rock star Kamui Gack's late doggie, or Cloud, after the Final Fantasy 7 main character. she ended up being a girl, so she's Chappy Belle! 

Caroline: named after the main character in an anime called Paradise Kiss, because of her love for the camera, like the character's, who's a model. 

Theodore: i wasn't prepared for a white betta, so i had to search for a name for Theo. finally, i went to an image hosting site and typed in the tags "white hair", "male", and "solo", and searched the characters that came up, for one that caught my eye. it ended up being Theodore, from the video game Persona 3 Portable. not that i mind one bit! i adore both Theodore's! 

Ichi: >3> i've told this story many times. i got Ichi, when i thought a close Japanese friend of mine died in the tsunami. the news broke my spirit. i was in a depressed slump for days, neglecting myself, my chores, and worst of all, my bettas. if it weren't for Caroline, looking up at me from the bottom of her tank, looking so miserable, i don't know how long that slump would have lasted. i had to do something, to help me get over his passing, and a friend suggested i name something after him. i didn't want to get corny, and name a plushie or Pokemon after him, so i decided on a betta. when i was finally able to get down to the pet store, the betta that would soon be Ichi, seemed to call to me. they had all kinds of beautiful boys there that day, even some blue-scaled dragons, and orange dalmatians. but, Ichi was the one. i named him Ichi, which means 'one' in japanese. but, first, i looked up the meaning of my friend's name, and chose the alternate. instead of "Kazu" meaning "True", i chose the meaning of "One". thus, Kazu=one=Ichi. :d

i've many more bettas that have passed, and many more stories, but, this is it for now. >3>


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## fleetfish (Jun 29, 2010)

*puts on moustache/nose glasses*

The name 'Namazu', according to Japanese myth, is the name of a giant catfish that causes earthquakes when he gets angry. He appears in many stories under many guises and is not always a harbinger of doom, for he provides much humour and comic relief as well. So Namazu is my HM boy, you can see him in my avatar. 

Mojito: Because he's mojito coloured, so vibrantly turquoise. I call him Mojo though 

Mars: He has the colours of an Ancient Roman soldier, and Mars is the God of War. He sure acts like his name! Mars has so many nicknames: Marzipan is my favourite :-D

Rooibos: He's a red butterfly, and I was drinking rooibos tea when I was thinking of a name for him. His name was right in front of me. He's called Roo.

Chili: He's my red CT. He has the most fiery temper of the guys. And he's red. So he named himself sort of! Nicknames are Chili-Billy, Chilz,Chi, etc. 

Sakura: Well, he's a light cherry blossom pink, and his fins were ripped and tattered. The Japan quake was still rattling around in my head and he sort of named himself. 

Lemon: Because he's my yellow guy. My neice named him Lemony Snicket, then it was just Lemony. I sometimes call him Snicks.

The Girls

'Frigga' is my new CT girl. The name 'Frigga' is that of the Norse Goddess, who is Odin's wife. She is the goddess of motherhood, marriage, and managing the household. The day of the week that is named after Frigga is Friday. I just thought it was a really cute name for her too.

Astarte: She is the Mesopotamian equivalent of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek Goddess of Luvmakin'  

The other girls are named after characters from Middle Earth. Eowyn, Elwing, Arwen, and Indis are all strong female characters in JRR Tolkien's mythology.


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## LittleNibbles93 (Feb 7, 2011)

I have two right now.

Cici, I got her at a little country fish shop that'd just opened. I used to live there and was visiting a friend, we went to the bookstore and I walked over to the petshop, I found her and fell inlove. I was alittle nervous in getting her though, my friend came into the shop and supported me in the act of getting her. My friends name is Ciara, so I named my fish Cici, which is also my friends nickname! :3 

Sunkiss, I WAS going to name him Leo...but someone on here suggested Sunkiss, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. And it eventually just stuck! :3


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## monroe0704 (Nov 17, 2010)

I have way too many bettas, past and present to go through each name. First I did the classic gods/goddess theme... but it was too typical for me.. so then I named them after artists, like Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh. Most recently I've created a thread under betta pics that shows how I've based the name of the fish on a butterfly that coincides with them. I LOVE butterflies and it seemed fitting since for breeding and business I use "Bettafly"


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## Burd (Apr 10, 2011)

Jabu-Jabu got his name because I'm a gamer nerd chick who loves the Legend of Zelda series. Lord Jabu-Jabu is the patron diety of the zoras, an aquatic race of fish-like anthro humans. He's portrayed as a giant whale with an ornate headdress. In the game you have to explore inside his body to defeat the electric barnacle monster that's causing him to act weird/evil.

I should also note that ALL of my pets have names from the Legend of Zelda series, especially Ocarina of time. I also have two female cats named Navi (a black short hair) named after the obnoxious little fairy that follows the main character, Link, around and goes "HEY! LISTEN!" and Nayru (a grey tabby mix) who is named after the goddess of wisdom who helped to create Hyrule, the land in which the game takes place.

Heeeee.... I'm a dork. :3


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## luluo (Apr 6, 2011)

I only have one Betta.

His name is D'Argo.

He is named after a character on one of my favorite shows, Farscape.


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## AngelicScars (May 5, 2009)

Marcos-When I watched him in his tank that is the name that kept calling to me. It's not a name I hear often or anything, it's just what popped into my head when I looked at him.


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## Twilight Storm (Apr 14, 2011)

Hi, I am new to Betta fish, I found this site looking for help with my mom's fish so at the moment I only have one.

I named him Twilight Storm. He's a young doubletail male. I am not sure what his color would be called but he is Grey with a redish-rust colored head, If I shine a flashlight on him he has a gold sheen on the outer parts of his fins and small black dot markings. (beautiful to me, although my friends and family are wondering why I didn't get a "colorful" fish. As soon as I can get someone with a good digital camera I will get a pic of him up as my avatar)

The second day I had him I was giving him his pellets kind of slowly and the little guy jumped out of the water and latched onto my finger for a second lol! Between his color and his piranah moment, (lol) I came up with the name.


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## Tisia (Mar 15, 2011)

all my names are from the show "how I met your mother"
first boy I got was named swarley, a crazy coffee girl wrote it on nph's character barney's cup, and they called him it for the rest of the episode, and the snail I got was named roland, which the same crazy coffee girl mistakenly calls the character named robin. unfortunately swarley came down with ich a couple days after I got him and died >_< so before getting a new fish, I was considering the name robin sparkles, robin's teenage popstar name, but when I got my next boy, decided he wasn't quite flashy enough for the name sparkles. was trying to pick a new name, and bf and I were watching a different episode where the main character ted has to go up against a rival architect company named sven, and bf suggested that for a name, they present a giant t-rex building to barney's company, and hand him a button and tell him to "PRESS IT! PRESS IT FOR GLORRRRRRRRRRRRY!" (flames shoot out of its mouth) so I decided to make his full name be sven for glorry. my latest boy is definitely flashy enough to be a robin sparkles, and so he is, lol
I'm really not obsessed with the show or anything, just seem to be watching it when I need names and just decided to go with it, lol


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

My betta is named Scuzi, it's a slightly altered version of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCSI.
It was that or daisy chain... yes, I am a computer geek, well programmer in training.


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## PitGurl (Feb 22, 2011)

Humm, let's see.....

Damsel- She's my tiny CT female. She got her name cuz she is just so tiny and cute it seemed fitting. She's in my avatar.

Kismet- Which means "fate" is my VT female who I had my eye on and when I went to buy her I thought she was sold cuz I couldn't find her. Then a week later I went back to Petco and found her so I snatched her up.

Artoo- Is my new Yellow Multi CT from AB. He got his name cuz he's a double ray CT.

And last but not least is Wendigo who is my new Turquious BF DeT. His name comes from native american lore. A wendigo is an evil spirt.


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## Blaze54 (Apr 14, 2011)

I only have one right now and his name is blaze. When I was going to buy a Betta I decided I wanted the most unusual one that Wal-Mart had...now I know red isn't an "unusual" color,but he was the only red one they had. And his body colors kind are kind of a blend of red,yellow and orange. Therefore I named him Blaze.


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## roadrunner (Apr 3, 2010)

My current boys:
Andy (VT) albino with blue hightlights - because his colours reminds me costume of my favourite singer (andy bell)
Spot (VT) black - he has nice orange spot on his fin
Jumpy (VT) orange-brown - he jumped out on the counter when I was changing his water
Skitty (VT) pink with white hightlights - he was "skittish" when I got him (more than others0

and here are some names of my boys that passed
Blue-Louie (VT) - because he was blue 
Elbram (DT) pale with blue marble - marble backwards
Hector (VT) - my husband named him, he said he just look like hector 
Piggy (VT) red with white - my husband named him too, because he had nose that remind him of piggy nose
Sebastian (CT) pale blue/grey - he was a "runt" at walmart that nobody wanted, oddly shaped, very tiny (never grew much bigger), he reminded me boy from never ending story


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## Neil D (Apr 10, 2011)

My betta got the name Josh from my friend at school, also named Josh. So Josh(human) took this "Insane Test" on the web and it came back as 55% insane. Then my betta went berserk and took out the eye on one of the neon tetras we had! So Josh(betta) and Josh(human) are insane! Also my betta is floating in a water jug for two weeks to let the new cardinals adjust to the tank before they meet Josh(betta). [If it doesn't work out, we'll give the cardinals back.] I call the jug a mental facility, which I'm sure adds to the insanity of both Josh's. 

EDIT: Don't worry, the hurt Tetra found a nice tank at the tropical fish store to live out his days in.


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## Neil D (Apr 10, 2011)

*Careful*



Twilight Storm said:


> Hi, I am new to Betta fish, I found this site looking for help with my mom's fish so at the moment I only have one.
> 
> I named him Twilight Storm. He's a young doubletail male. I am not sure what his color would be called but he is Grey with a redish-rust colored head, If I shine a flashlight on him he has a gold sheen on the outer parts of his fins and small black dot markings. (beautiful to me, although my friends and family are wondering why I didn't get a "colorful" fish. As soon as I can get someone with a good digital camera I will get a pic of him up as my avatar)
> 
> The second day I had him I was giving him his pellets kind of slowly and the little guy jumped out of the water and latched onto my finger for a second lol! Between his color and his piranah moment, (lol) I came up with the name.


You may want to make sure the sheen isn't velvet, a dangerous fish disease. Ask about it in the Betta Care or Emergency forum thing. You can only really see it with a flashlight. I'm not sure though, but better safe than sorry.


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## Arashi Takamine (Mar 3, 2011)

Well here's a funny story about when I got my new girl.

I was in Wal-Mart looking at the betta's and I spot her. Stress striped, with the most beautiful blue and rest in her tail. I picked up her cup and she swam about. I looked around more even complained to some employee's about the care of them and finally just kept going back to her. I had the song Resonence playing in my head and I kept thinking: "She's a Maka alright..." I had her name picked for her already. Maka just seemed to call to me and I knew we made our connection. My mom was a little surprised I chose a name like Maka but she said it fit her. Then..Her nickname came. Because she's such a baka (fool or idiot in Japanese) We call her Maka The Baka. I know she's got a brain in there somewhere.

But for now...She's a little baka.


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## tracyalexa (Mar 29, 2011)

Mine were initially named by my 6 yr old daughter but she kept changing her mind so finally I decided to name them all after 80s hair bands or a member of an 80s band. Lol. The only 2 that aren't are cortencia and Danny edge. Danny was a hand member in a local Boston band called kings of nuthin .... cortencia my child insisted upon.


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## DoNotDeclaw (Apr 1, 2011)

I named mine Elvis before I even bought him. As soon as I saw his picture on AB, I thought his Dorsal fin looked like Elvis's hair. lol


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## Goomba3 (Jan 20, 2011)

I have 4 boys, but I'll tell the story of the one that died last year and the one I've had for a while.

Goomba: Got him, didn't have a name. Was hanging with my friend, we had had a few drinks and were playing Mario Kart on the Wii. I hit a goomba on the track and yelled GOOMBA! She laughed and then was like "OMG name your fish that!" And it stuck. Sadly, he passed away last fall.

Cheep-Cheep: Got him not long after I got Goomba. I brought him home and was thinking of a name for him. Wanted to keep with the Mario Bros theme, people were suggesting Koopa or Bowser, but then I remember the flying fishes are called cheep-cheeps. So I named him that. He has been with me for over a year now, and quite the boy.

I love reading these stories! Keep them coming.


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## Amaya Yuy (Mar 23, 2011)

Well lets see I currently have 3 boys and 1 girl.

My girl- Hotaru, is a pretty purple thing and I'll be setting up a sorority soon so I decided I'd name all the girls after Sailor Moon characters =]. Hotaru is Sailor Saturn 

My boys:
Liam: I was posting pics of him and was like man I got to name him. Liam popped into my head and it stuck lol

Apollo: He reminded me of the sky so I chose Apollo

Helios: He reminded me of the sun so I chose Helios =]

I've only named one other fish and that is one little guy I call pinkie (I got it from pinkie and the brain =]. He lives with Apollo (who I call brain))


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## Bettalover0314 (Sep 5, 2017)

My only betta right know is named Ravenclaw, he is a boy and he has a black head and his body is blue. When I went into petco and went over to the Betta's my eyes kept going back to ravenclaw. I put my finger on his container and he went crazy! I guess it was just meant to be! I named him ravenclaw because of his color, I love Harry Potter, and I'm a ravenclaw!


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## Bettalover0314 (Sep 5, 2017)

I have just one guy at the moment and his name is ravenclaw I gave him his name because I LOVE ❤ Harry Potter and since ravenclaws hose colors are blue and bronze and my betta is blue and black I thought that would be a cool 😎 name for him I was going to name him luke Bryan my favorite country singer of all time because I'm even a bigger fan of luke Bryan than Harry Potter with is crazy cause I love Harry Potter but the name just stuck... good thing because I'm naming my donkey luke Bryan! #love luke and Harry!


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## Bettalover0314 (Sep 5, 2017)

Oops didn't realize I already posted about ravenclaw on this one... but I gave more debatable in the second one


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