I do believe the superstition, but I also believe that there are exceptions to the superstition that make the general rule true. One of them is renaming abused boats or animals to excise all traces of the abuser.
When I was a kid I used to read my parent's Reader's Digest. One issue had the story that taught me not to change a dog's name. If I recall correctly, the main character was a man who had lost his son in WWII and was trying to raise his grandson while not being sure he still had the will to live himself. One day he found a dog that had been lost. It was a magnificent bird dog, a pointer, but it was close to death from being lost so long, starving and matted with burs and needed to be nursed back to health. As the dog regained his strength, so did the new owner, and the grandson formed a special bond with the dog. The new owner knew that a dog like that belonged to someone who had to be looking for it, and even though he felt that no one could need the dog as much as him and his family, he needed to find the real owner.
In the meantime he tried to figure out the dog's name. The dog was well trained and would go on point, so he had to have a name, but he ever responded, no matter what the man and his grandson tried. Since it is bad luck to change a dog's name, the dog remained nameless.
Then one day the inevitable happened. Someone called and said they heard the man had a pointer that had been lost that met his description. The caller described the dog, knew his training, and even knew his habit of pointing in a particular way. With a heavy heart the man told the caller that the dog sounded like his and he should come out to identify the dog in person.
A few days later a small sports car drove up and out of it emerged an emaciated young man missing an arm. He had been wounded in WWII and almost died. He had been a bird hunter before the war and trained the dog, and the dog had helped give him the strength to recover. The dog had gotten loose in a car accident or something like that, and wouldn't know it's way back home so he needed a family to rescue him for the owner to get it back.
The old man listened to the story and realized that not only did all the pieces fit, but that this was a person who needed the dog more than him, and he needed to give it back. Haltingly he explained to the young man what the dog meant to his family and how grateful they were to have had him. The only problem, the old man said, was that they never knew the dog's name, and they didn't want to change it. The dog was far away in a field playing with the grandson and the old man and young man stopped to look at them before the young man took the dog. The young man said the dog did look like his, but he couldn't be sure after so much time, so he suggested that he stand on the edge of the field and call the dog's name. If he responded, it was his dog, if not, it wasn't and he would continue with his search.
The old man didn't think there was much need for such a test because it was obvious the dog belonged to the young man, but he agreed. The young man walked to the edge of the field, paused for a second, and yelled "Hey Chief!".
The dog didn't respond. The young man stood there for a second, looking at the boy and the dog. He turned to the old man and said that the dog sure looked like his, but didn't seem to be. He hoped that his dog was out there somewhere and he would have to continue his journey looking for it. He wished the old man well and said he hoped he figured out the dog's name. The old man was sorry for the young man, but he couldn't believe his good fortune. He thanked the young man and wished him good luck in the search for his own dog and its safe return.
A few days later a note appeared in the old man's mailbox. All it said was "Try Tennessee".
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