By Albert & Terra Collver

One of the most common questions we get from first-time puppy families — and it’s a wonderful question — is some version of: “Wait, the papers say the dog’s name is that? That long thing? Then why do you keep calling him Hunter?”

It’s a fair thing to be puzzled by. A purebred dog can end up carrying a name on its AKC registration that reads like a full sentence, while everyone who actually knows the dog calls it something short and friendly. Both names are real, both are useful, and there’s a lovely little tradition behind the whole system. Since our current litter — the Game On litter, BlazE bred to Etta, born May 26, 2026 — is about to head to new homes, this felt like the right moment to explain how names work at Three Doves, and to have some fun with the game-themed registered names we’re building for these eight puppies.

Two names, two jobs: registered name vs. call name

Here’s the short version, the one we give at the back door:

Your puppy’s registered name is the formal name on the AKC papers — the one that shows up on a pedigree, in a catalog, and on a championship ribbon if the dog ever earns one. Your puppy’s call name is what you actually say when it’s time to come inside for dinner.

The registered name is the dog’s “legal” name in the eyes of the American Kennel Club. It’s permanent, it’s unique, and it’s the name that ties the dog to its ancestors on paper for as long as records exist. The call name is the everyday name — Buddy, Hunter, Millie, Jack — and it can be absolutely anything you like. It does not have to appear anywhere in the registered name, though very often a piece of it does.

Why are registered names frequently so long and elaborate? A few reasons. First, the AKC has to keep millions of dogs, across registries that go back more than a century, from having duplicate names — so a bit of creative length helps each dog stand out. Second, the registered name carries information: it usually opens with a kennel name (the breeder’s “brand”), and titles the dog has earned get stacked onto the front and back as abbreviations over its lifetime. By the time an accomplished show or performance dog is fully titled, its registered name can look genuinely intimidating — which brings us to a few famous ones.

Famous dogs, and the names on their papers

If you watch the big shows, you’ve heard the announcer read out a name that goes on for a small paragraph, and then the handler leans down and whispers “good boy, Trumpet.” That’s the registered name and the call name, side by side, in front of a national audience. A few of our favorites — starting, of course, with one of our own breed:

• Ch. Felicity’s Diamond Jim — call name “James” — the English Springer Spaniel who won Best in Show at Westminster in 2007. “Felicity’s” is the kennel prefix; “Diamond Jim” is the flourish; and the family simply called him James.
• GCHB Flessner’s Toot My Own Horn — call name “Trumpet” — the Bloodhound who took Westminster Best in Show in 2022. A little joke that pays off: “Toot My Own Horn” for a hound whose whole job is his voice — and the call name pulled right out of the pun.
• Ch. K-Run’s Park Me In First — call name “Uno” — the Beagle who won Westminster in 2008. “Park Me In First” → first place → Uno.
• GCHP Lockenhaus’ Rumor Has It V Kenlyn — call name “Rumor” — the German Shepherd who won Westminster in 2017. The everyday name is simply the memorable word lifted out of the middle of the formal one.
• GCH CH Pequest Wasabi — call name “Wasabi” — the Pekingese, 2021 Westminster winner, where breeder prefix plus one vivid word does all the work.

Notice the pattern: the kennel name comes first, the clever part comes next, and the call name is very often just the most sayable piece of the whole thing — or a little inside joke about it. That’s exactly the design we follow at Three Doves.

Why our registered names begin with “Three Doves”

At Three Doves we ask that every puppy’s registered name begin with “Three Doves,” followed by something that fits the theme of the litter it came from. That opening word is our kennel name — the same idea as “Felicity’s,” “Lockenhaus’,” or “Pequest” above. It’s how a dog is identified, for the life of the pedigree, as one we bred and raised. You can see it in the parents of this very litter:

• The sire is Ch Vinewood Three Doves Plays With Fire — call name BlazE. (“Plays With Fire” → a dog named BlazE. The registered name sets up the call name.)
• The dam is Three Dove’s At Last — call name Etta. (A quiet nod to Etta James and “At Last.” The formal name hides a small tribute; the call name makes it personal.)

So when a Game On puppy is registered, its name will read “Three Doves [something]” — and we work with each family, one-on-one, to land on a “something” they love. The call name is then entirely yours: it can echo the registered name, or have nothing to do with it at all. Either is perfect.

“Game On” — a theme that plays both ways

Here’s where this particular litter gets fun. We named it Game On, and that phrase does double duty in the most fitting way possible for a sporting Springer.

On one hand, game means games — the whole world of play, competition, cards, chance, and sport, where you go all in, call your shot, and rise to the occasion. On the other hand, game is an old hunting word: game birds, “fair game,” the quarry a flushing spaniel was bred for centuries to find and retrieve. A well-bred English Springer Spaniel lives in both of those worlds at once — a dog that will happily run an agility course or a rally ring in the morning and work a field of pheasant in the afternoon. So our registered names for this litter lean into both meanings of the word.

A menu of game-themed registered names

These are examples, not assignments — a starting point families can choose from, mix, or use as inspiration for one entirely their own. (We’ll never lock a name in without you.)

Games, competition & chance — the “let’s play” side of Game On:

Three Doves Game Plan · Three Doves Wild Card · Three Doves All In · Three Doves Hat Trick · Three Doves Match Point · Three Doves Gambler · Three Doves High Stakes · Three Doves Dealer’s Choice · Three Doves Sudden Death · Three Doves Ante Up · Three Doves Home Field Advantage · Three Doves Call My Bluff · Three Doves Full House · Three Doves Game Changer · Three Doves Top of the Order · Three Doves Play to Win

Field, feather & fair game — the sporting-spaniel side of Game On:

Three Doves Fair Game · Three Doves Open Season · Three Doves Flush & Fetch · Three Doves Full Choke · Three Doves Game Bird · Three Doves On Point · Three Doves First Flush · Three Doves Whistle & Wing · Three Doves Ready On the Line · Three Doves Pull! · Three Doves Feather in My Cap · Three Doves Steady to Wing · Three Doves Games Afoot (a nod to “the game’s afoot”)

And because the best call names are often hiding inside the registered name, here’s how easily one flows into the other:

Three Doves Rolls the Dice → call name “Domino.”
Three Doves Full Choke → call name “Trap” or “Skeet.”
Three Doves Wild Card → call name “Wildcard” (or “Ace,” or “Jack”).
Three Doves Fair Game → call name “Hunter.”

The litter names we’ve been using all summer — Purdey, Diver, Domino, Trap, Tracker, Hunter, Wildcard, and Skeet — were themselves chosen with this in mind. Any of them can carry straight over into a registered name, or set one up. But you are under no obligation to keep them. Plenty of our families arrive at go-home day already calling their puppy something entirely their own, and we love that too.

How we’ll actually do it with your family

When you reserve a Game On puppy, here’s the naming process, start to finish. You’ll pick a call name whenever you like — many families have one ready before pickup, some decide in the first week at home. For the registered name, we’ll send you the “Three Doves ___” menu above plus any ideas of your own, help you check that the name isn’t already taken in AKC’s registry, confirm it fits within AKC’s length and formatting rules, and submit it with the litter registration. If your puppy is a show or performance prospect, we’ll often suggest a registered name with a little room in it for future titles to stack on the front and back — so that someday the announcer has something wonderful to read out loud while you lean down and whisper the short version.

One last thought

A registered name is a small thing that turns out to be a big thing. It’s the line that connects your puppy to its parents, its grandparents, and the whole Three Doves program — and, we hope, to whatever this puppy grows up to accomplish. The call name is the one you’ll say ten thousand times, in love and in exasperation, for the next twelve or fourteen years. We take real joy in helping you land on both.

If you’re one of our Game On families and you want to start brainstorming, just reach out — this is one of the most fun conversations we get to have. Game on.

— Albert & Terra

Three Doves Performance Dogs — AKC Breeder of Merit, English Springer Spaniel
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