Formally-Named Pet

"Look, Mr. Bubbles, ADAM!"

— A Little Sister talking to a Big Daddy, BioShock

How do you show that your pet is special? When you want to go above and beyond a normal pet name, a formal title is the easiest way to add some sophistication. He's not just Fluffernutter, he's Mister Fluffernutter! You can usually expect such a pet to be a little lap dog or a pampered kitty. However, they may occasionally be horrible giant scary monsters, so beware.

Often overlaps with Mister Muffykins. The Right-Hand Cat is often a Formally-Named Pet. Likewise in pet-related cases of Consulting Mister Puppet. Depending on the honorific chosen, this can aid in/lead to Your Tomcat Is Pregnant. How NOT to Write a Novel mentions this as something that is overdone.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In this ad for Petsmart, a man has an unseen pet named Mr. Barkey von Schnauzer.

Anime & Manga

• In Hetalia: Axis Powers, Iceland's pet puffin is appropriately named Mr. Puffin.
• Mr. Tadakichi from Azumanga Daioh.
• Captain Harlock has a weird-looking bird named Tori-san, often renamed in English dubs as Mr. Bird.
• Sarasa's Big Friendly Dog Antoinette Ghandi XIII in Lime-iro Senkitan.
• Mister Soichiro from Maison Ikkoku.
• Sakamoto from Nichijou tries to be this, insisting on "-san" being added to his name. Nano complies, the Professor does not.
• In the English version of Ranma ½, Kodachi's pet is "Mr. Green Turtle". And no, it isn't a turtle but a huge crocodile.
• As a Shout Out to Maison Ikkoku, the inhabitants of Higansou in Otaku no Musume-san get a large dog and name it Mister Soichiro.
• In the first episode of Galaxy Angel, Ranpha and Forte are assigned to find a lost cat named "Baron Fitzgerald III".

Comic Strips

• Mr. Bun, Suzie's stuffed rabbit from Calvin and Hobbes.
• B.A.'s cat in Knights of the Dinner Table is Colonel Prowler.
• Footrot Flats has Aunt Dolly's corgi, Prince Charles, and Wal's other dog, Major.
• Played With in The Far Side, in which dogs had more conventional names like "Rex" given to them by their owners, but the names they gave themselves were far more elaborate, including examples like "Queen La, Stainer of Persian Rugs" and "Princess Sheewana."

Fan Works

• The Bolt Chronicles: Subverted in "The Survivor." Upon adoption, Claire names her new tuxedo cat "Mr. Mittens." Mittens refuses to accept the "Mr." part of the appellation, however, because she's not male. As she tells Petey:
  Mittens: Geez, couldn't they have been bothered to turn me over and, y’know, taken a look before naming me? They didn’t exactly need a crystal ball to figure that out. I am after all missing those three vital pieces of equipment any Mister needs in his repertoire.
• Holidays with Holmes: The son of Holmes' latest client leaves a box containing "Mr. Bubbles" with Watson to help the doctor's healing process. It turns out to be a bulldog puppy.
• In Magic on Strike Harry has a boa constrictor named Sir Slythers.
• Passion on Display: Aizawa owns a tuxedo cat named Mr. Snuggles.
• In The Redemption of Draco Malfoy Harry has a Kneazle called Princess Amelia Von Fluffybits.
• In Royal Ward when Harry rescues his cousin Dudley's abandoned rats he names them Stilton Von Cheeseworth the First and Colby.
• Seventh Endmost Vision: Tifa named her cat Mr. Punch when she was young.
• In Tones of Gray the Dugards have a cat named Monsieur Chat.

Films — Live-Action

• Mr. Bigglesworth from Austin Powers.
• Mr. Smith in The Awful Truth
• Big Fat Liar: Movie producer Marty Wolf has a stuffed monkey named Mister Funnybones to which he's... oddly attached.
• Mr. Tinkles, the cat villain of Cats & Dogs.
• Profumo di donna: Fausto, once an army officer, is now a bitter, angry man after he was blinded in a training accident. His only friend is a pet cat that he calls "the Baron".
• Shackleton: The ship's cat on the Endurance Antarctic expedition is named Mrs. Chippy. (Even though he's actually a tomcat.)
• True Grit: The cat's name is General Sterling Price, after the American Civil War general of the same name.
• Donald Strachey, private dick, has his dog Dr. Watson in his first movie adaptation Third Man Out.
• In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Eggsy named his dog J.B., after Jack Bauer. Harry, on the other hand, apparently named his training dog Mr. Pickle.
• In The Last Boy Scout, Darian has a stuffed lion named "Furry Tom" and had Joe use it to escape Marcone's thugs.
• Mr. Jinx, the Byrnes' family cat in Meet the Parents.
• In The Voices, one of Jerry's pets is a cat named Mr Whiskers. The other pet is a dog named Bosco.

Literature

• Harry Potter: Filch has a pet cat, Mrs Norris. (There's no mention of a Mr. Norris.)
• Discworld:
  • In Making Money, Topsy Lavish (née Turvy)'s dog and eventual chairman of the bank is named Mr. Fusspot.
  • In Guards! Guards!, Lady Sybil's swamp dragons have names like Lord Mountjoy Quickfang Winterforth IV or Goodboy Bindle Featherstone of Quirm (better known as Errol, after Nobby's brother).
• Peter S. Beagle's Tamsin features a cat simply named Mister Cat.
• From T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, the magical Mr. Mistoffelees (the only one of all the cats in the book to be named that way).
• In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden's cat is named simply Mister.
• Pippi Longstocking has her little monkey, Mr. Nilsson.
• Given a medieval twist in A Song of Ice and Fire: Tommen has kittens named Ser Pounce and Lady Whiskers (and another named Boots).
• Variation in Jennings, where Jennings names a guinea pig "F. J. Saunders" and the school cat is named "George the Third" (maybe just indicating he was the third cat called George, but the Headmaster assumes the House of Hanover connection).
• Dr. Henry Metzger the cat, who seems to be the only living thing that Metzger's Dog does not try to kill.
• Variation in Dave Barry Slept Here: James II's dog is named Bart XI.
• Life of Pi has an unusual variation in Richard Parker, the 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger (who's a zoo animal rather than strictly a pet). He's always referred to by his full name. The hunter who caught him was named Richard Parker and wanted to name him "Thirsty" (since he was caught while drinking), but he mixed up the paperwork so that legally, the tiger was Richard Parker and its captor was listed as Thirsty None Given.
• Animorphs had Melissa Chapman's cat, who was named Fluffer McKitty. Marco makes fun of the cat's name at one point, exaggerating it into "Fluffer McNutter or whatever that stupid cat's name is." Note that the trope description, above, uses an example extremely close to this.
• Fairy Oak: Shirley Poppy has a mouse she calls "Mr. Berry" because he likes to eat blueberry candy.
• In What-a-Mess, the eponymous Afghan puppy is actually named Prince Amir of Kinjan, but that's not what people call him. His mother is named The Duchess of Kinjan.
• Peek A Boo Poo: The cat, as revealed in the second book, is named Mr. Tibbles.
• Angela Nicely: Tiffany’s pet pony is named Princess.
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: The president's cat is called Mrs. Taubsypuss.

Live-Action TV

• When Leonard is considering getting a cat in The Big Bang Theory, one of the names he's thinking about is "Sergeant Fuzzyboots". Also, in another episode, he mentions his family's cat. "I'm pretty sure Dr. Boots Hofstadter's degree was honorary." Similarly, Sheldon's Manhattan Project of cats in "The Zazzy Substitution" starts with "Dr. Robert Oppenheimer."
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • Willow and Tara get a cat and name it "Miss Kitty Fantastico". The cat later disappears without mention. It's brought up later, when Dawn implies in a quick aside that the cat was killed in a household cross-bow accident.
  • Drusilla's dog is "Ms. Sunshine."
  • Kendra's favorite stake is named "Mr. Pointy".
• A strange variant happens on the Bunk'd season 3 finale, "Up, Up, and Away". After the boys shaved a young kikiwaka (a legendary yeti-like creature in the series) to look like a normal human boy, Destiny squeals about how cute he looked and tried to call him Sir Cuddles Mc Cutie. However, subverted in that he chose Finn's suggestion of Doug.
  • The cat that Destiny kept after she found it at camp was ultimately revealed to have the name Mrs. Kitty by its actual owner.
• On Degrassi, Fiona's ex-girlfriend has a cat named Mr. Tuxedo-Pants.
• On The Dick Van Dyke Show, Sally's cat is named Mr. Henderson.
  • In one episode Alan Brady gets Rob to work on a play he's in that's written by a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Truman Capote. "Capote" has a pet German Shepherd named Mr. Ben which he takes everywhere and consults for advice.
• The Drew Carey Show: Drew and Lewis bribe Oswald into voting to sell Buzz Beer by giving him a bunny. Oswald immediately names it Commander Bun-Bun and starts to act like a Diabolical Mastermind with a Right-Hand Cat.
• In Friends, Mr Heckles pretends he has a cat named Mister Bob Buttons.
  • Rachel bought a hairless cat she named "Mrs. Whiskerson" because she can't call her "Fluffy".
• Game of Thrones: Tommen has a cat named Ser Pounce. Sansa's direwolf was called Lady.
• Brittany on Glee has a cat named Lord Tubbington.
• Mr. Muggles, the Pomeranian from Heroes.
• In Jessie, Ravi's pet water monitor lizard is named "Mr. Kipling". Its name is changed to "Ms Kipling" after they discover it's female.
• My Name Is Earl: Darnell's turtle is named Mr. Turtle.
  • In one episode Joy & Darnell - an interracial couple - interact with a reverse-color interracial couple, Liberty & Ray-Ray. Liberty is Joy's half sister. Ray-Ray has a bearded dragon (a type of lizard) he calls Mr. Bearded Dragon.
• The dog on Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn actually had two distinguished titles. His previous owner named him Lord Timothy. Afterwards, the name that was chosen by the kids was Dawn's preference, Admiral Squishy Paws, although they rarely used the formal title.
• On Psych, Shawn's cat's name is Chairman Meow.
• Sex and the City: Carrie's book reading is interrupted by the appearance of one Mr. Winkle, a real celebrity dog, who has a book of his own, which he's signing (by putting his paw print on it).
• NYPD Blue: Recurrer Sgt. Gibson has an African Gray parrot called The Colonel. During the brief time he's in charge of the squad he brings it in to live in his office, and salutes it asking permission to "come aboard" (presumably as a private joke). Sipowitz teaches it to say "Douchebag" so Gibson will be forced to take it home.
• The famous Mister Ed, of course, of course.
• Clarissa Explains It All: Ferguson finds a kitten and names him "William F. Buckley." Another aspect of the joke is that when the original owner shows up to claim the kitten, his name for the kitten is the far more informal name "Bubblegum."
• In M.I. High, the Grandmaster has Right Hand Bunny called General Flopsy.
• Doña Clotilde's pet dog in El Chavo del ocho is named "Satanás". Satanás means Satan in Spanish. The joke is that, as she's though to be a witch in the show, every time she calls for her pet they think she is summoning the devil.
• Operation Ouch! did a segment on a comfort dog who works at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Although her real name is Nala, staff and patients have dubbed her 'Dr. Dog', and she even has a hospital nametag reading this.
• Young Sheldon: Billy Sparks's pet chicken Matilda shares his last name, according to Sheldon. It's unclear whether the chicken is named that or if Sheldon simply addressed her formally.

Podcasts

• Audrey's pet rabbit (and possible familiar) in The Adventure Zone: Amnesty is dubbed Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD, with insistence on the full title.
• The writer of The Magnus Archives has admitted to loving this trope so it's of no surprise that a statement giver's cat is called Major Tom and a later recurring character has a pet cat called the Admiral.

Radio

• The Storyteller's horse, Mr Floofywhiskers, in John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme (he wanted a cat, but his parents told him they had too much space).
• The Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC 6 Music had a mascot dog (really just an archive recording of a dog barking) that was always referred to as Sir Montague Jeavons.

Theatre

• In Cats, the magical Mr. Mistoffelees (the only one of all the cats in the musical to be named that way).

Video Games

• BioShock: Little Sisters call their pet Big Daddy "Mr. Bubbles".
• In Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina keeps a tiny varkid in a jar, who she named "Sir Reginald Von Bartlesby".
• Dante of Granblue Fantasy applies this naming to all of his cats. Even better than the usual Mr/Ms, they all get Lord/Lady.
• In Tales of Monkey Island, Hemlock McGee has a cat named Miss Prettywhiskers.
• If you give Anders a cat in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, he names it Ser Pounce-a-lot. Eventually he and Nathaniel talk about it.
  Nathaniel: Isn't that name a little... ridiculous?
  Anders: What do you think I should call him? Frederick?
  Nathaniel: There are worse names, I suppose...
  • And his favorite cat from his days in the Circle Tower was Mr. Wiggums, who was his only company when he was locked up as punishment for running away. Sadly, poor Mr. Wiggums had to be put down after he was possessed by a rage demon and killed three armored Templars. Anders was never more proud.
• In World of Warcraft, the lich Kel'thuzad has a cat named Mr. Bigglesworth. If you're feeling mean, you can kill it at the beginning of Naxxramas. Which results in Kel'thuzad yelling at you from the depths of the dungeon.
• In Super Paper Mario, Pook has a goldfish called Captain Gills.
• In Tasty Planet: Back for Seconds, cats are given random individual names instead of being labelled as just "Cat" like in the first game. Sometimes the names get formal prefixes, resulting in names like "Ms. Kitty", "Mrs. Bitey", "Sir Pookie" or "Captain Patches".
• Team Fortress 2 has cosmetic pets that hang out on/around players; notable formally titled pets include Sniper's Sir Hootsalot, an owl, and Soldier's Private Maggot Muncher and Lieutenant Bites, a bald eagle and a rabid raccoon, respectively.
• In Wizard101 you can do this, and are strongly encouraged to do so by the system. Pet names are in two parts, a title and a name, and most of the titles are of this nature, though you can pick none.
• Shadowrun Returns Hong Kong had Captain Whiskers, a cat which belonged to the decker Rhombus before its tragic and premature demise.
• In Dragon Quest VIII, the master mage of Arcadia, Dominico, named his dog Sir Leopold and angrily corrects David whenever he calls him just Leopold.

Webcomics

• In Chapel Chronicles, Chapel's pet hedgehog is named Sir Rupert Tennyson Bollingsworth the First
• Charby the Vampirate has Mr. Noodle, a werewolf infected vampire dachshund that Charby acquired when feeding on what he thought was a dog killed by a werewolf.
• In Eerie Cuties an ancient vampire queen had a kitty named Mr. Boodles.
• Jarad has a pet Gyarados named Mr. Fish in Manly Guys Doing Manly Things.
• Girl Genius had a large mechanical snake toy/pet/assassin which used to belong to the Big Bad before she gave him to her nephew as a christening gift. The Big Bad named said snake "Mr. Hissyfit".
• Housepets! has at least 10 cats called Mr Bigglesworth, due to their owner being a Crazy Cat Lady. They all look the same, though they're not related and some are female. They occasionally mess with other pets who don't know there's more than one.
• John in Homestuck names Rose's mutant cat Dr. Meowgon Spengler, not knowing that she has already named him Vodka Mutini.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Mr. Scruffy, Lord Shojo's (and later Belkar's) cat.
  • He gained a canine Evil Counterpart within the Linear Guild with Sir Scraggly.
  • There's also Mr. Stiffly, the Monster in the Darkness' name for O-Chul. He counts because he got the name while the MITD was using his paralyzed body like a stuffed animal for his make-believe tea party.
• Pet Foolery: One mini-series shows a young girl, Emma, adopting a snake when her parents take her to buy a pet for her birthday. She calls the snake Mr. Noodle.
• Sluggy Freelance: After surviving a horrible explosion, Bun-Bun temporarily loses his memory and is adopted by a family that renames him Mr. Fuzbutt.
• Raven's cat in El Goonish Shive refers to himself as Mr. Fuzzball although according to Raven his name is actually Max.
• At one point, Helen from Narbonic tries to control the insane, super-intelligent gerbils she's created with an adorable kitten named Sir Pounce after eating several gerbils, he gets strapped to a bomb, blown up, and sent to Hell.
• Nick's pet raccoon in Samurai Princess is named Mr. Fluffycuddles.
• One of Spookybot's greyhounds in Questionable Content is called Mr Smooches.

Web Original

• In one episode of commodoreHUSTLE, "Rarelywinter", Kathleen suggests naming a defeated dragon, "Sir Burns-A-Lot". Graham translates this to Jer as, "Kathleen can't think of anything either."
• Homestar Runner: In the 2018 Halloween cartoon "Mr. Poofers Must Die", Homestar tries to tell a scary story in which a fluffy dog named Mr. Poofers gets killed off.
• TVTV 's Expy of Frankenstein's Monster has "Mr. Stiffy", a very, very dead cat.
• VG Myths: This is used in "Hyrule Myths - Can You Kill Ganon With A Cucco?", naming the Cucco used for the experimentation:
  This is General Clucks I. Don't tell him he's "The First".

Western Animation

• The Venture Bros.. The Monarch keeps the taxidermied corpse of his old cat, Mister Mostly Mittens, in his dining room. Apparently, it had three white paws and one not-white paw (hence "mostly").
• Mr Cool, the Fonz's dog, from The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang.
• Ms Lion from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
• Mr Kat from Kid vs. Kat.
• In Dan Vs. "The Animal Shelter", Dan takes home a kitten and names it Mr. Mumbles, who keeps that name even when Dan learns that she's a female.
• Mr. Kitty, Eric Cartman's pet cat from South Park.
  • Mr. Garrison's toys/pets Mr. Hat, Mr. Twig, and Mr. Slave.
  • In one episode Paris Hilton comes to South Park and tries to buy Butters from his parents to be her new pet; she renames him Mr. Biggles.
• Mr. Twitches, Lizzie's pet cat from Tinkerbell and The Great Fairy Rescue
• Mr. Pettibone, Goofy's pet cat in Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• Mr. Whiskers, the rabbit from Brandy & Mr. Whiskers (although not a pet).
• Mr. Puffy Fluffy from SpongeBob SquarePants.
• Phineas and Ferb
  • Doofenshmirtz took in a cat and named it Mr. Fluffypants, "because you are fluffy and look like you're wearing pants. Also you remind me of my Uncle Fluffypants."
  • In another episode, Candace had a bunny that she called Mr. Cutie Patootie. Turned out he was a rogue OWCA agent trying to find Perry's lair.
• WordGirl: Captian Huggyface. Although it's hard to say whether or not he's actually a pet.
• On The Simpsons Nelson's cat is Mr. Mooch and Moe's cat is Mr. Snookums.
  • Also, Krusty the Klown's chimp's name is Mr. Teeny.
• Mrs. Boots from Slacker Cats. A Running Gag is Eddie pushing her Berserk Button by continually asking where Mr. Boots is.
• On Family Guy, Peter is revealed in a Cutaway Gag to have once had a goldfish named Lieutenant Shinysides.
• Mr. Jinks from the Pixie and Dixie segments of The Huckleberry Hound Show. He was actually a co-star with Pixie and Dixie.
• Princess Clara of Drawn Together had a cat named Mrs. Fluffybutt. Xandir killed it and made it look like a Mutual Kill with a police officer as part of Captain Hero's attempt to coerce her into a date.
• Rare cow example: Mrs. Calloway from Home on the Range
• Kim Possible villain Dr. Drakken has a pet poodle named "Commodore Puddles".
• In Grojband, Mina's pet cat is named Dr. Purrs.
• On As Told by Ginger, the school principal has a dog named The Duchess. As a slight Running Gag, Carl keeps referring to her as "Duchess" while Hoodsey, as well as the principal, insist on the "The".
• Transformers: Rescue Bots features "Mister Pettypaws", owned by resident grumpy old woman Mrs. Neederlander. He gets stuck up trees a lot, and the Rescue Bots have to get him down.
• On Bob's Burgers, one of Aunt Gayle's many cats is called Mr. Business.
• In the Superhero Origin episode of Freakazoid!, when Jack Valenti^note The then-president of the Motion Picture Association of America who voices himself. explains the film ratings, he uses a made up family as an example of who could watch a movie that had which rating. He refers to the family's pet dog as "Sgt. Scruffy".^note "Who's just a dumb dog anyway."
• Not technically pets, but the world of Bojack Horseman is populated by a mix of humans and Funny Animals, and some characters based on domesticated animals are named this way, such as Princess Carolyn and Mr Peanutbutter. This seems to be their actual names, since Mr. Penutbutter’s nephews call him ”Uncle Mister”.
• Wander over Yonder: In "The Pet", Wander tries to tame a vicious Xenomorph-like alien he calls "Captain Tim" (after the name on the dog-tag the alien coughed up). Wander eventually finds Captain Tim a "forever home" with Lord Hater, who takes a shine to the vicious little beast.
• Inverted in the "Peabody's Improbable History" segments of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Mr. Peabody is a dog, but the boy, Sherman, did not name him and is more or less Mr. Peabody's pet.
• Catscratch has Mr. Blik. Oddly enough, his brothers Gordon and Waffle don't have that going on for them.

Real Life

• United States President Benjamin Harrison had two pet oppossums named Mr. Protection and Mr. Reciprocity.
• Comedienne Susan Calman's cats include DCI Jane Tennison and Dr Abigail Bartlet.
• YouTube reviewer Dominic Noble has a cat named Sir Terry Pratchett in honour of his favourite author. The "Sir" part is not negotiable.
• As revealed in an early episode of Room 101, Frank Skinner and David Baddiel had a cat called Chairman Meow. Then-host Nick Hancock had a Lame Pun Reaction to professional comedians coming up with that name.
• Friar Bigoton, the Franciscan Monastery dog.

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