Way back in seventh grade I read Kin Platt's marvelous young adult novel Sinbad and Me and conceived a lifelong ambition to own an English bulldog. I decided a few years back that, should such a noble animal ever come into my life, I would name it "Spurgeon," after one of my pulpit heroes who was, of course, British. However, ADD (attention dog disorder) being what it is, I couldn't stop and have several other likely candidates:
Caliban (from "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare)
Mooncalf (another name for the same character from the same play)
Bludgeon
Pilar (from For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway)
So I'm curious: What names have you given or would you give to a dog and why? What role did/would breed play? Extra points for literary allusions because my undergrad English degree gives me pretensions of being a lit snob. What the heck - just for fun let's throw in favorite names you've heard for other people's dogs as well.
I like Barnabas from the Mitford novels because good dogs can be so encouraging.
ReplyDeleteJove is pretty good too, if you're into mythology. Besides, anytime someone is missing something, you could put it by the dog and say, "Look, it's over here by Jove!"
~Becky
We had a dog named Gumbo. She was a shelter dog with a little bit of this and a little bit of that to form a coat the color of a chocolate brown roux.
ReplyDeleteOur current dog is Matilda. She was named after the Roald Dahl book of the same name. Just like the main character, she is smart and sweet in spite of bad parenting in her earliest years!
~Karen H.
duke snyder after the famous baseball player...
ReplyDeleteI found a couple of new ones this week in my first-ever reading of "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. Two characters in the novel have dogs that are their constant companions. The dogs' names are "Pilot' and "Carlo." I may try them out on some of my dogs at the shelter.
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