Historical dog names: real names from records across the centuries

Part 1

The oldest dog names on record

He was a royal guard dog, and a pharaoh whose own name has been lost ordered him a ceremonial burial, with a coffin from the royal treasury, fine linen, incense, and perfumed ointment. An inscribed stone recording these gifts was found in 1935 by the archaeologist George Reisner in the rubble of a demolished tomb chapel at Giza. The inscription describes him as the dog who was the guard of His Majesty, and states his name directly. He appears to have been a sighthound of the type called a Tesem, with erect ears and a curled tail, similar in build to a modern greyhound.

Abuwtiyuw's grave and mummy have never been found, so the tablet is the only trace of him that survives.

Part 2

How naming dogs changed over time

In Ancient Rome, Fido meant faithful, and other dogs carried names such as Pearl, Guardian, or Predator, based on colour, temperament, or role. This pattern held for a long time: a 1985 survey of over 12,000 dog names in the United States found owners still naming dogs after food, disposition, colour, and their own jobs.

That same 1985 survey found a newer trend running alongside the old one, with people starting to give dogs human names instead of turning traits into proper nouns. Records from Hartsdale, one of America's earliest pet cemeteries, show this shift happening gradually, with human names such as Samantha and Daniel appearing on graves from the 1960s onward, alongside older names like Freckles and Rusty. Before the Second World War, graves at the same cemetery almost never used human names at all.

Part 3

What historical names reveal about how dogs were seen

Ask yourself what a name in an official record signals about a dog's place in a household or a state. Abuwtiyuw's inscription calls him the guard of His Majesty, words that come from a pharaoh's own order for his burial. In Ancient Egypt, killing a collared dog that belonged to someone was treated as a capital crime.

Not every record names its dogs. At Hartsdale, some of the earliest graves give no dog's name at all, reading only Pets or My Pet, or simply the owner's family name.

Part 4

Patterns across cultures and eras

You will see this most clearly if you compare the four groups below rather than focusing on one single culture's names.

• Appearance: Blacky and Ebony in Egypt, and Blackie, Whitey, Blue, and Tawny among the ancient Greeks.
• Virtue or temperament: Reliable and Brave One in Egypt, and Fido, meaning faithful, in Rome.
• Sound: the Greek name Lycas, meaning wolf.
• Place: an Egyptian name that translates as Those of Thebes.

If you want the detail of one tradition rather than this wider sweep, a dedicated page on a single culture, such as Roman or Viking dog names, goes further into that one period.

Part 5

Using history to choose a name today

Rather than copying one ancient name outright, it can help to pick an era or theme that suits your dog, then look at real examples from it.

Before you use an old name, check what it is actually recorded as meaning. Even Abuwtiyuw's own meaning is debated: the archaeologist who found the inscription thought part of the name imitated a dog's bark, while another scholar has argued it means With Pointed Ears. Getting the meaning right matters more than picking an exotic-sounding word.