It’s all in a name.

Rivera Elementary School received a $3,000 check recently for naming the mascot of a longtime Denton business.

Seeking to find a name for its mascot, Adams Exterminating Co., along with Dark Horse Productions, created a contest to suggest names for its company mouse. Local elementary schools were encouraged to submit names, by grade level, for the friendly rodent.

“We’ve had him for 60 years but he never had a name,” said company owner Virgil “Spunky” Adams. “It also was to find a way to help give something back to the schools.”

With the call out to name the company’s mouse, the contest created a lot of interest and excitement, Adams said, and submissions rolled in from students at 16 Denton-area schools.

Adams said he and his son Dustin sifted through names like Spike, Zoom-Zoom, Speedy, M&M, Ames, Carlotta — Italian for “the strong one” — and others.

“It’s been a lot of fun, and it’s really fun going through these forms and seeing what the kids have done,” Spunky Adams said. “Some of the kids got pretty creative.”

Emerging as winner of the contest was the name Dash, submitted by Rivera second-grader Tristan Metcalf. She said she came up with the name with her father’s family.

“I was surprised,” she said after learning of her winning entry.

On Thursday, representatives from Adams Exterminating presented Tristan’s second-grade class with a large check to represent the school’s monetary prize. Adams said he plans to host a pizza party for Tristan’s class.

The mouse logo synonymous with Adams Exterminating originated 60 years ago as a mascot for a bowling team that included Adams’ grandfather, Virgil Harrison Adams, and father, Virgil Clarence Adams.

“Originally, he was kind of mean-looking, stomping around on the left side,” Spunky Adams said.

In the late 1990s, Adams decided to create a friendlier-looking mouse and place it on the right side of the company’s name.

“We felt he ought to be the guy on the run instead of us,” he said.

The name Dash seemed to be appropriate for a mouse who “looks like he’s about to dash away,” Adams said.

Rivera Principal Robert González said the excitement on campus over the contest win was contagious. He said the prize money will allow the school to fund a reading contest.

González said Rivera could purchase items such as bicycles and computer games as an incentive for students to read.

“Everybody wins,” he said. “That $3,000 is going to go a long way.”

Managing Editor Dawn Cobb contributed to this report.

BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com .