You don’t want to give your dog an ordinary name like Fido or Spot. And you love books. So, naturally, you turn to your favorite literary classics when it’s time to name the new puppy. The result? This list of actual canine names inspired by literature (from The Giant Book of Dog Names).
Auntie Em
Bandersnatch
Bloomsbury
Boo Radley
Byron
Chekhov
Dr. Watson
Galsworthy
Gatsby
Gunga Din
Hemingway
Ibsen
Jeeves
Kafka
Kilimanjaro
Mrs. Danvers
Nietzsche
Romeo
Sam Spade
Voltaire
Voldemort
A chiwawa named Kafka? A pug named Nietzsche? Well, why not? Still, it takes a very special — or just very bookish — person to name her dog Voldemort.
Not that I have anything against literary dog names. In fact, we named our own Yorkie-poo Captain Colossal, after a character in a young adult novel by Daniel Pinkwater, thus going with both literature AND irony. Does Captain mind being saddled with a (gently) mocking moniker? Not at all.
He’s probably just glad we didn’t name him Mrs. Danvers.
(Roz Warren is the author of OUR BODIES, OUR SHELVES: LIBRARY HUMOR.))
Everyone calls my dog Spike. I call him Obnoxious
My father named our black lab/crocodile mix, “Lochinvar.” Dad said: “As a child, I was forced to memorize that poem by Sir Walter Scott. This is my vengeance.” The dog’s name ended up abbreviated to “Lochy” and everyone thought we meant, “Lucky.”
My dog’s name is Beowulf ….