Derogatory Name Ideas?

Favourite so far?

Frog	0.0%	[ 0 ]
Beetle	25.0%	[ 4 ]
Ant	6.2%	[ 1 ]
Bat	6.2%	[ 1 ]
Ghost	12.5%	[ 2 ]
Tick	50.0%	[ 8 ]
Total Votes:			[ 16 ]

[xvampericxchickx]

I'm wanting to write a roleplaying prompt and the character has had their memory erased and been trained by the person who caused it to happen as a sort of slave/pet, and has been essentially reprogrammed to act more like an animal than a person. I want this person to have renamed my character something really degrading, partially inspired by Grey Worm and the other Unsullied in GoT, and a book I read with a character called Mouse, but mostly inspired by an RP I'm in at the moment where my partner has a character named Rat.
I'm looking for a more sort of 'cute' name, and obviously I'm not going to use Mouse or Rat because that feels a bit like cheating.

So far I'm considering;

Frog
Beetle
Ant
Bat (Although I feel like this is maybe too close to Rat, even though I think it's adorable.)
Ghost (I like this one too, but I feel like it is too cliché as this is going to have a sort of horror-ish vibe.)
Tick

I'll probably keep updating this list, but I was just wondering which is your favourite, or if you have any other suggestions? It doesn't have to be an animal, those are just all I've thought of so far.

[Turnilk]

"Frog" => a cute little slimy creature that eats bugs.
"Beetle" => a type of creature that I usually associate with strength (thanks to rhino beetles) and poo (thanks to dung beetles).
"Ant" => a creature I would associate with strength, community, war, and hunting.
"Bat" => although bats can and do spread disease, and some can be really ugly, I usually think of flying foxes when I think of bats and they are just so cute emotion_bigheart (I challenge you to not think or say "AWWWWWWWW!!!!")
"Ghost" => the non physical essence(?) of a person which sometimes continues after said person's death. It would make me think of invisibility, horror movies, and really bad Casper movies.
"Tick" =>Its a blood sucking parasite that spreads disease. Also reminds me of the Tick cartoon.

The most degrading on this list to me would be "Tick" since other than the cartoon super hero, I can't think of any positives that I would associate with it.

I don't really think degrading and cute go together, but if you're set on the idea, think about some of the most degrading things people call one another (animal or not) and see if there are cuter or not as bad sounding words that can be used instead. For example, calling someone a "little s**t" would be rather degrading, but it might be a little less bad sounding to replace "s**t" with "dung" or "pucky" wouldn't sound as bad. At least to me it wouldn't. You might need to rephrase some things to make it not sound as odd though. Using the examples from before, "little dung" and "little pucky" sound weird, so changing it to "pile of dung" or "festering pile of horse pucky" would make it less weird sounding.

Some suggestions as requested:
"Turdlet" (turd-let) I made it up after taking my dog for a walk... Guess what it is referring to.
"Spittoon"
"Infant"
"Dirt"
"Mud"
"Stupid" most people wouldn't find this an appealing name. I saw it used in a book for an animal's name and my opinion of it changed slightly since the animal wasn't stupid and was actually fairly useful to the character who owned it.
"Lice"
"Flea"
"Roach"
"Grime"
"Gnat"
"Yellow" a color sometimes associated with urine, cowardice, and flowers.
"Uranus" you can probably guess why.

That's all I've got.

[pickledDeath]

I think I like ghost the most (lol, I rhymed! =D). The other animal names have traits to them that can be seen as really positive. Like, frogs are really adaptable, being one of the few animals that survive in and out of water. Beetles are really strong and determined. Same thing goes for ants and they have a whole hive mind aspect to them. I think bats are really interesting, how they use sonar to find food at night and fly to avoid big predators on the ground.

That just leaves tick and ghost. I think tick has more of a negative connotation, but more for being an animal that leeches off of and makes other animals sick without providing any useful application. In terms of a owner/slave relationship, I guess this would work if the owner is implying that the slave is useless and a drain on their resources.

Ghost is the only one left that is negative, but not in terms of putting down the slave itself. If your character was named ghost, that would signal to me that they were taught to disappear, to blend in and to be forgettable. I think ghost would be a really nifty name. :3

[Desi the fuzzy fluffhead]

I think it should depend on how the character is reprogrammed and how the person who reprogrammed them feels towards the character and their own personality.--Like pet's names reflect more on the owner than the pet.

Maybe he has a sense of humor and names them Fluffy because they have long hair, or maybe Fido, because he makes them act like a dog, or maybe Ghost because he likes them to be out of sight and out of mind.

[Kairi Nightingale]

Why not simply 'Pet'? (Might be worth noting that 'pet' is sometimes used as an endearment depending on where you, much like 'honey' or 'sweetie'.) Or name them after whatever they use them for the most? Like 'Fetch', 'Cook', 'Guard'. If they had an actual pet before that died, they might name the person after their lost pet.

Actually saw that in a video game once. The character was created to be a personal assassin/soldier/pawn for the antagonist. The 'owner' named him after a dog he once had, thinking it suitable since the character was programmed to follow orders and be forever loyal towards the him like the dog was trained to. It was a normal name for the setting, but the fact that it was the antag's former dog gave it a deeper, more degrading meaning in my opinion and really showed how the antagonist didn't think of him as a person at all, but as an animal to be trained to do as he wanted. Doing something similar will also give you the excuse to name him pretty much anything, while still having the same effect of 'this person isn't considered a person'.