So you’ve made the exciting (and hopefully well-researched) decision to become a fur parent. Besides stocking up on all the necessary supplies and securing your yard, you still have another important task: choosing the perfect dog name!

They say a dog is man’s best friend, but for hardcore book lovers, it’s probably a close tie. Why not let your love for books inspire your furry friend’s name?

From beloved four-legged heroes to authors and classic (two-legged) characters, the world of literature has quite an array of creative, fun names to choose from. After all, your best friend deserves something more original than Fido!

100 Literary Dog Names

Below are 100 fun dog name ideas inspired by some of your favorite literary canines, authors, and characters. (I never realized how much I wanted a dog named Rhett Butler until I started researching for this post.)

Note that many of these names would also be adorable choices for cats, fish, birds, hamsters, and any other friends from the animal kingdom. (But if you’re looking for baby names, we recommend you choose wisely.)

Dogs from Books

• Argos (The Odyssey)
• Blue (The Sound and the Fury)
• Buck (Call of the Wild)
• Buddy (A Dog’s Purpose)
• Bullseye (Oliver Twist)
• Charkie (Curious George)
• Cujo (Cujo)
• Clifford (Clifford the Big Red Dog)
• Einstein (Watchers)
• Fang (Harry Potter)
• Fluffy (Harry Potter)
• Ghost (Game of Thrones)
• Lad (Lad, A Dog)
• Lassie (Lassie Come Home)
• Marley (Marley and Me)
• Max (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
• Nana (Peter Pan)
• Pongo (The Hundred and One Dalmatians)
• Shiloh (Shiloh)
• Snoopy (the Peanuts comic strip)
• Toby (Sherlock Holmes)
• Toto (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• Winn-Dixie (Because of Winn-Dixie)
• Yeller (Old Yeller)

Names Inspired by Authors

• Agatha (Agatha Christie)
• Austen (or Jane) (Jane Austen)
• Byron (Lord Byron)
• Capote (or Truman) (Truman Capote)
• Dante (Dante Alighieri)
• Dickens (Charles Dickens)
• Edgar (Edgar Allen Poe)
• Eliot (T.S. Eliot)
• Faulkner (William Faulkner)
• Fitz (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• Harper (Harper Lee)
• Hemingway (Ernest Hemingway)
• Homer (Homer, author of the Odyssey)
• Hunter (Hunter S. Thompson)
• Joyce (James Joyce)
• Langston (Langston Hughes)
• Leo (Leo Tolstoy)
• Maya (Maya Angelou)
• Orwell (George Orwell)
• Oscar (Oscar Wilde)
• Seuss (or Theodore) (Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisel)
• Shakespeare (William Shakespeare)
• Tolkien (JRR Tolkien)
• Twain (Mark Twain)
• Vonnegut (or Kurt) (Kurt Vonnegut)
• Wallace (David Foster Wallace)
• Walt (Walt Whitman)

Names from Characters

• Alice (Alice in Wonderland)
• Arya (Game of Thrones)
• Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia)
• Atticus (To Kill a Mockingbird)
• Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)
• Augustus (The Fault in Our Stars)
• Bella (Twilight)
• Coraline (Coraline)
• Daisy (The Great Gatsby)
• Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
• Dorothy (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• Eloise (Eloise at the Plaza)
• Emma (Emma)
• Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)
• Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
• Ginny (Harry Potter)
• Gretel (Hansel and Gretel)
• Gulliver (Gulliver’s Travels)
• Hagrid (Harry Potter)
• Hansel (Hansel and Gretel)
• Hazel (The Fault in Our Stars)
• Hermione (Harry Potter)
• Huck (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
• Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
• Katniss (The Hunger Games)
• Matilda (Matilda)
• Moby (Moby Dick)
• Ophelia (Hamlet)
• Padfoot (Harry Potter)
• Pippi (Pippi Longstocking)
• Rhett (Gone with the Wind)
• Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
• Scarlett (Gone with the Wind)
• Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird)
• Sherlock (Sherlock Holmes)
• Sirius (Harry Potter)
• Violet (A Series of Unfortunate Events)
• Watson (Sherlock Holmes)
• Winnie (Winnie the Pooh)

Names from Comics

• Blaze
• Bruce
• Flash
• Marvel
• Mystique
• Raven
• Robin
• Rogue
• Sage
• Storm
• Thor
• Shadow

What Do Dogs Symbolize in Literature?

In art and in literature, dogs are often used to symbolize guidance, protection, loyalty, fidelity, alertness, and love. As dogs have become more and more domesticated, they also represent companionship, and as “man’s best friend,” dogs are often used as “sidekick” characters in both film and literature.

Dog Names from Literature

From Lassie to Toto, some of our favorite books wouldn’t be the same without their furry heroes/heroines. If you love books as much as we do, you might consider a literary-inspired name for your four-legged friends!

And if you’re thinking about bringing home a dog (or any animal), always make sure that you understand the responsibilities that come with being a fur parent. Your future Toto (or Miss Scarlett, Hemingway, Hermione…) deserves your unconditional love!

Which literary dog names are your favorites? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• 12 Best Baby Name Generators
• Terms of Endearment: Pet Names from Around the World
• 12 Female Literary Characters Who Are More Than Damsels in Distress
• How to Create a Pen Name: The Professional’s Guide to Pen Names