I just came across this article in the online daily telegraph. You can read it here if you like:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/4358115/Cows-with-names-produce-more-milk-scientists-say.html

but basically some research has found that if you name a cow and give it individual attention, it will produce more milk.

Of course, the ancient Egyptians knew all about the importance of names. If you wished to destroy someone, you never mentioned his name again, and if you had enough clout you could go one better and prevent anyone else from mentioning his name either. This is why certain pharaohs, such as Akhenaten, had their cartouches destroyed by their successors.

The converse applies. Give something a name and you begin to personify it. This is the reason why some people (me, for a start) name their cars. We once had a car we called Marvin, after the paranoid android in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Bloody thing was always breaking down.

Since then we've tended to go for more positive names, such as Thor, Genghis and Ming the Merciless. I once knew someone who drove a rather clapped out Nissan Micra that she named 'Foh' (after a Jackie Chan character). I have never seen a car that gave its all like that one did.

In the past I have named all sorts of things, including a wood burning stove (which for some reason that now eludes me, I called Asterix).

So really, for anyone with even the most basic knowledge of magic, giving a cow a name is a must. Likewise with any pet, if you give them a human name, they tend to behave in a more human manner.

Mr Penry always reckons that our dogs named themselves... we just did as we were told...:)