I have 2 cats - Radar and Sonic. Radar because his humungous ears reminded me of radar dishes, and Sonic is short for Sonic Boom which is the part of his registered/show name that we got to choose - wanted to keep it on a science/technology theme. And they do indeed know what their names are and respond to them.
The parrot is called Jasper, I've always assumed that 'he' is male although I've never had 'him' DNA tested so 'he' could actually be a 'she'. Although if female would still be called Jasper because it would be highly confusing to change it after 5 years.