Bean

Bean is an English name from the common legume, a word with roots in Old English bean. As a pet name, Bean is entirely a term of affection — it emerged from a tradition of food-based nicknames applied to small, beloved people and animals. "Little bean," "jelly bean," "bean" — these are the nicknames that parents use for babies and pet owners use for tiny, beloved companions. Bean suggests something small, round, and precious, a creature you could hold in your hand and want to keep there forever.

Bean sits at #278 on the pet name charts and is one of those nicknames that somehow became a first name through sheer force of affection. It has an inherently small, precious quality — you don't name something large and imposing Bean. This is the name for the compact companion, the tiny resident of the household who takes up very little physical space but an enormous amount of emotional space. Bean suits companions who are round, small, or simply have that indefinable quality of being almost unbearably cute at all times.