Tikken

How Tikken Got Her Name

Tikken

On, January 15th, 2011, our Golden Retriever Tikken (Mariner Freedom Fighter) celebrated her fourteenth birthday. Over the years many have asked "Why Tikken?" Some people have thought it's because as a puppy she was like a clock and always "ticking." There is actually a deeper story and this year through the miracle of Google I was able to learn more about Tikken's namesake.

Tikken was born on Martin Luther King Day in 1997. As a result her breeders, Jon and Kathy Chase of Mariner Kennels, named this litter of pups the "Freedom litter" and asked that all of us getting pups use the word "Freedom" in our pups AKC registered name. After giving it some thought, I decided on "Mariner Freedom Fighter." Outside of dogs one of my interests has always been World War Two, especially the resistance movement. Members of the resistance were commonly called "freedom fighters."

I next had to choose Tikken's call name and wanted something I could connect to her registered name. An early thought was to call her "Kira," after Kira Nerys, a character on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, who was a former member of the Bajorn resistance. I then decided that I wanted to name my pup after a real female resistance fighter. Since I am half-Norwegian and was especially interested in the resistance movement in Norway during World War Two I decided to see if I could identify a Norwegian female resistance fighter to be my inspiration. Not sure where to go I went to an email list for Golden Retriever fans on the internet and a Norwegian member of the list suggested the name "Tikken."

This year I finally learned more about my Tikken's namesake via Google and the translation of a review of the book Tikken Manus by Nora Campbell.

Tikken is named after Norwegian freedom fighter and patriot, "Antiquity" Ida Nikoline Lie Lindebrække, who was nicknamed "Tikken." During the war she worked as a secretary at the British legation in Stockholm, Sweden where she was an important intermediary between the Norwegian resistance in the Company Linge and the British military. For her efforts during the war, Tikken was decorated with King Haakon VII's Freedom Medal. Tikken later married Max Manus, one of the leaders of Company Linge.

Tikken_as_a_child
Tikken as a child

Tikken_as_an_adult
Tikken and Max

Tikken_and_Max_Manus_in_1950
Tikken and Max Manus in 1950

Tikken1995
Max and Tikken Manus in 1995

Tikken_2008
Tikken 2008

 

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