Namegiver Morales, assistants Lyon, Grace, Marie, Frida the Chicken and me

The House of Eggriculture turned into a party scene last Friday evening. Over 40 people came to celebrate the official namegiving occasion for our chicks. The highlight of the evening was the namegiving ceremony, in which
we had an honor to have the only professional chicken namegiver in the Mission – “Father” Frank Morales to name our chickens, assisted by an international group of children.

See more of the extremely entertaining ceremony in the video below, and find photos on my Flickr stream.

Ann making friends with one of the chicks.

The chickens, all four of them, have become integral part of our family. Also, they have become great entertainment for the whole neighborhood: always when I glance out of the window to see how the chickens are doing, I see somebody on their balcony looking at the chickens.

We call them only “Girls”. We really need to name them properly; otherwise, they might get an identity crisis as a result of treating them as a group, as a mass.

We want to have your contributions to the process: please, suggest names for our chickens!

Post your suggestions by replying to this post with the form that you’ll find at the bottom of the page. We will gather suggestions for a couple of weeks, and then, from the suggestions, people can vote for their favorite names. The winner names will be chosen – unless the names are super awkward.

In this link you’ll find the profiles of the chickens, with pictures that capture their personalities.

For your inspiration: Here are some names that have already been suggested, by a reader of this blog.

Amelia. Amelia Earhart was a famous aviator.
Thelma and Louise. We all know who they are and they sure did fly.

Hillary Clinton. She’s a bit of a high flyer.(Editor’s note: Suggestion made by a New Zealander, she is not aiming to be offensive)

Martha. As in Stewart. She was kept in the coop for a wee while wasnt she. Poor Martha!!!!!!

HennyPenny. From the story book “Chicken Little” and…

Gertrude. Just a cool chicken name.

What is your suggestion? Remember: we have four chickens, and not a single name – so the more names you’ll suggest, the happier we are! And, if you want to, you can tell us which name goes for which chicken; for example, Lollipop for the white punk chicken, HennyPenny for one of the yellow ones, etc.

I have a dream: I want chickens on my backyard. I live in the Mission, which is the best neighborhood for chickens in San Francisco. There’s a lot of sun and snails in my backyard, and not too many raccoons. As a cool bonus, there’s a nice lady with purple hair living next to us. And animal rescue people living below us.

Two chickens that my friends Ann and Kelton brought us to relieve the longing for real chickens.

Could a chicken ask for more?

If my dream comes true, I will be a part of the evolving eggriculture movement. Which, I of course, I want to be. For once, I want to be an early adapter. At least early-adapterish. (I guess I will not be the first one to have chickens in the Mission.)

I have never been in the forefront of new trends in the Mission. Just to prove that: I don’t have Cordarounds pants yet. I discovered the delicious Magic CurryKart only months after my neighbors. I don’t ride any those elegant vintage bikes that makes the rider look like from a movie from the 50’s. I just have a clumsy mountain bike.

Not to be hip is embarrassing. Especially in the Mission, which is a nursery for many Silicon Valley success stories, and thus, home for hip people. To be somebody in this neighborhood, I need the chickens.