What's in a name?

I'm barely into Marley & Me, just to the point where they've picked out a name. We didn't argue when picking out a name for River, but it was quite an ordeal. In fact, it took us 3 months to pick out her name, so it's a good thing we started a month before she was born.

We had both agreed that we wanted a shorter name, one or two syllables. So I start going though lists of names and offering up suggestions of ones that appeal to me. It goes like this...

Me: 'name one'?
DH: No.
*pause to search for next suggestion*
Me: 'name two'?
DH: No.
*pause to search for next suggestion*
Me: 'name three'?
DH: No.

...and so on and so forth. It comes to light quite a ways into the process that DH does not like the idea of using a human name for the dog. We also didn't want to come up with just one name since we weren't going to get to see our pup until the day we went to bring her home, and what if the name didn't fit? So we narrowed it down to 5...Onyx, Reese, River, Sophie and Timber.

By the time that we picked her up River was the clear favorite as long as it fit, and it did. So where did we come up with River? She's named after River Tam from the now canceled TV show Firefly. In fact her name as it is registered with the American Kennel Club is "Bayview's River Tam" (Bayview is the breeder's name and had to be a part of the name).