Naming Your New Puppy

Shortly after bringing your new, best friend home, you’ll have the important task of giving them just the right name. Long gone are the days of christening our dogs with names such as Spot, Fido, or Rover. Pet owners of today are getting more and more creative in the quest for finding the perfect name for their special puppy.


While it may be fun thinking of unique or amusing names for your puppy, there are a few important points to keep in mind before naming your new pup. For one, it’s most important to choose a name that will be easily recognizable to the dog.


Since it can be difficult for animals to distinguish between certain sounds, you’ll want to avoid names that sound too similar to other common words, such as “Joe” as it is a bit too close to “no”. Likewise, a name like “Pooper” may be cute and fun at home, it might be rather embarrassing shouting it all throughout the dog park.


Also keep in mind that if you give your puppy a long name, it may inevitably be condensed at some point in time to a shortened version, so be sure you’re comfortable with that as well. Additionally, dogs will have a much easier time learning a name with one or two syllables than something long and complicated.


Approximately 50% of us give our pets human names or nicknames, while about 25% choose a name reflective of the dog’s appearance, breed, or personality. The rest of us choose a moniker at random or one that has some special significance.

For animals with mostly white fur consider the following names:

  • Casper
  • Chilly
  • Coconut
  • Frosty
  • Ice
  • Ivory
  • Marshmallow
  • Pearl
  • Snowball
  • Snowflake
  • Vanilla
  • Whitey

For animals with mostly black fur:

  • Blackberry
  • Blackie
  • Blackjack
  • Coal
  • Ebony
  • Jet
  • Licorice
  • Midnight
  • Pepper
  • Raven
  • Shadow
  • Storm

For animals with mostly brown fur:

  • Bear
  • Brownie
  • Chestnut
  • Chocolate
  • Cocoa
  • Fudge
  • Hershey
  • Mocha
  • Molasses
  • Tawny
  • Toasty
  • Toffee

The top ten names for male dogs are:

  • Max
  • Jake
  • Bailey
  • Buddy
  • Rocky
  • Duke
  • Buster
  • Sam
  • Casey
  • Rusty

The top ten names for female dogs are:

  • Maggie
  • Molly
  • Lucy
  • Lady
  • Sadie
  • Daisy
  • Ginger
  • Sandy
  • Cocoa
  • Princess