Here’s an experiment you should try. Find a busy dog park at peak hours, walk in and shout ‘Max’ or ‘Bella’ at the top of your lungs.
You do that, and chances are you’re about to get swarmed by quite a few different dogs. They’re some of the most common choices people make when naming their pets.
I don’t think you really want your dog to have the same name as everyone else’s right? Of course not. We all like originality, and a little creativity goes a long way.
So how do you decide on a good, unique name for you dog? Well let’s think about a few different methods:
Where to Draw Inspiration From:
Fictional Characters:
Fiction has been around pretty much since the beginning of time. And as such, there is hundreds of thousands of fictional characters scattered across modern and historical works.
Some are animals, some are human and there is often stories told about characters that have very normal names, but creative writers do have a tendency to be, well, creative.
Fantasy and sci-fi writers in particular have to come up with unique and other-worldly sounding names for those that inhabit the worlds they create and these can end up being great names for your pets.
It would be interesting to name your dog after another fictional dog. Maybe look for one that’s a little more obscure though. So many people have named their dog ‘Cujo’ after the possessed St. Bernard from a Stephen King novel that it’s ceased to be unique anymore.
But at one point, that was a cool, original dog name so it’s proof that looking to fiction is a good way to find a distinctive name.
Locations:
Again, I’m not saying you should name your dog after a very well-known location, but because there is a massive world out there and a vast number of cities, towns, historical sites, mountain ranges, lakes and anything else you could spot on a map that you could use.
Think obscure, don’t call your dog Texas after your home state because that’s probably not particularly original, but you could pick somewhere smaller and more specific.
Maybe somewhere small and memorable that you happened upon yourself while travelling abroad. Or if you grew up in a quiet town with a unique name you could use that too. A little piece of home that you’ll have everytime you call your dog.
Or you know, like I said earlier, find yourself a mapr of the world or better yet, an atlas. Examine it and see if you can find a place name that you think suits your pet. You’re bound to find something among the thousands of exotic and eye-catching location names.
Foreign Languages:
Dog breeds come from all over the world. You’ve got German Shepherds, Irish Setters, Japanese Akitas, Tibetan Mastiffs, Rhodesian Ridgebacks and so many more. Why not give your dog a name that lines up with their country of origin?
Foreign languages do tend to sound pretty beautiful to people who have English as their first language and I can guarantee you’ll find few others who have take the same route when naming their dogs.
Just make sure that you actually know what the word means when you choose it. You don’t want to be calling your dog something crude or insulting without even realizing it. So make good use of a dictionary if you want to draw from foreign languages.
So with all of these sources of inspiration in mind, here’s 25 ideas for names for male dogs and 25 for female dogs:
Male:
- Gatsby
- Stitch
- Thor
- Berkley
- Asher
- Cobi
- Dezi
- Primo
- Ghost
- Vettel
- Pike
- Lupin
- Chico
- Kade
- Adonis
- Clark
- Orion
- Atticus
- Kenji
- Dodger
- Austin
- Milo
- Dayton
- Bond
- Osborn
Female:
- Ophelia
- Rogue
- Zaria
- Willow
- Violet
- Emerald
- Inu
- Gala
- Kimchi
- Piri
- Loa
- Kalu
- Arya
- Akira
- Cypris
- Fern
- Yuki
- Sahara
- Nyx
- Waverly
- Luna
- Artemis
- Nakita
- Inari
- Juno
Conclusion
You’ll never run out of inspiration even with just these three sources but there’s many more places you can find great names too.
Remember, creativity is key here, but it’s also not hard to find a unique, interesting name for your dog if you are looking in the right places.