back when i first played neopets in 2002, i was having so much trouble with pet names. i was really really young at the time - young enough that i had to have my parents send in a COPPA form to the admins to let me have neofriends! - and i didn't know, or realize, that pet names had to be *unique*.

the one pet i remember distinctly naming was a green kacheek. i wanted to name them 'Lucky'. but, obviously, the site had been up for like three years already and that would be considered, even in that day, a high-value "Real Name". pets with "real names" tend to go for a lot (real or virtual currency), and there is a lot of inter-community drama over what might count as a 'real name'.

of course, being an elementary schooler at the time, i didn't know any of this, or at the very least it wasn't as widespread as it is now. all i knew was that i typed in "Lucky" and the site shook its head sadly at me.

luckily, the site had - has - a built-in suggestion feature. it took whatever name you typed in and suggested three alternate names, usually with some stuff tacked on. if i understood the real algorithm behind it, i could probably find a lot of stuck pets in the pound.

that said, it's not rocket science! here are some of the suggestions you might get for a pet named "lucky":

• lucky455
• luckyneo
• lucky_2001
• lucky_133
• luckystar

the general pattern seems to be something like:

Name(nnn|_2001|_nnn|neo|star)

more or less, anyhow. a google search for pets from y4 (2002) in the lost and pound shows this pattern pretty clearly.

but of course, i wasn't the only little creature trying to name their pet any of the given suggestions. i had to click the suggestions a few times consecutively before one stuck! i don't know if the 20-character limit was present then or not, but i do know the name ended up formatted like "Lucky(....)_3starneo", or something similar.

unfortunately, my account was part of one of the many account purges. all the inactive old accounts cause server bloat and inadverdent "name hoarding". not that my username was anything you might want - a number on either side of my old middle name - but it did get completely wiped, which means so did my neopoints, items, and pets.

so i won't ever know what happened to lucky_3starneo. i'm sorry i couldn't rescue you before they got to you! you and my aisha and acara and probably fourth pet i can't remember. probably a lupe if i'm being honest.

but i will say it's really interesting to see that the suggested name feature was prominent enough that you can still see old pets whose names follow that same formula. heck, you can still use tools like this one to sift through pets that have similar name formats.

never forget your virtual pets!