Pig Name Generator

Naming a pig, big or small

Pigs are smart, curious and noisy, and anyone who has spent an afternoon with one knows that a pig has opinions. That is why pig names work best when they leave room for personality. A mini pig raised in a house, a heritage breed on a smallholding and a county fair project all want different names, but each benefits from something that reads as a character instead of a label.

Two things pull the list. The first is the famous one: pigs and food. Bacon, Hamlet, Pork Chop and Truffle are obvious pulls, and the food angle is often affectionate rather than grim. Truffle and Dumpling work because they describe a round, snuffling animal and because pigs really do forage for truffles. Bacon is more contested, especially for a pet that will never see a frying pan, and you should pick it only if the household is in on the joke.

The second pull is pig physique: round, pink, spotted or black. A Kunekune with tassels, a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, or a Gloucestershire Old Spots each have a look, and the name can follow the look. Names for the barnyard type are short and human-sounding, such as Hazel, Ernest and Percy, the kind you would give a distinguished uncle.

Mini pig names versus farm pig names

Mini pigs live in living rooms, so they tend to get pet names: Waffles, Peanut, Button, Poppy. They are small, get spoiled and answer to a name quickly, especially when food is involved. Farm pigs live in pens and pastures and are often named by children who help raise them, so those names skew toward characters, jokes and family names.

Sows are adult females, boars are intact males, and a barrow is a castrated male. Gilts are young females that have not farrowed. You do not need any of that for naming, but it helps to know the terms if you are entering a fair. Use the first-letter filter if you have a litter and want a set of names that begin with the same letter.

Tips for picking a pig name

• Consider breed and color. Kunekune, pot-bellied and heritage pigs have distinct looks that suggest names once you have a photo in hand.
• Pigs learn their names quickly, so choose a sound that stands out from other words you say to them, especially food words.
• Decide if the food joke is right. A pet pig named Bacon gets a laugh at first and a raised eyebrow later, so make sure everyone in the household is happy with it.
• For a litter, choose a shared theme such as breakfast foods, Shakespeare characters, or root vegetables so the names read as a set.
• Check that the name is easy to call in a farmyard: one or two syllables, a clear vowel, and no similarity to anything else you shout regularly.