500 Famous Literary Dog Names from Books

Get over 500 famous literary dog names you’ll love, from fictional dogs in books to character names, authors, and more to inspire the name of your puppy.

You’ll find a list of names of fictional dogs from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens to Old Yeller, William Shakespeare classics, and even dog names from the Harry Potter series.

Then, I share dog names inspired by literary characters, including authors like Sherlock Holmes, Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen, as well as books like Moby Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Hunger Games series, and more.

You’ll love these bookish names for your new dog!

Best Literary Dog Names

Literary Dog Names of Fictional Dogs

Below are some of the most famous dog names in literature:

• Argos (The Odyssey)
• Asta (The Thin Man)
• Bailey (A Dog’s Purpose)
• Bandit (Little House on the Prairie series)
• Bear (A Dog’s Purpose)
• Bella (A Dogs Way Home)
• Big Red (Big Red)
• Blanche (King Lear)
• Blue (The Sound and the Fury)
• Bodger (The Incredible Journey)
• Boots (Thy Servant A Dog)
• Bowser (Woof)
• Buck (Call of the Wild)
• Buddy (A Dog’s Purpose)
• Bugle Ann (The Voice of Bugle Ann)
• Bullseye (Oliver Twist)
• Carl (Good Dog, Carl)
• Chance (One Good Dog)
• Charkie (Curious George)
• Charley (Travels with Charley)
• Chet (the Hardy Boys)
• Christmas (A Dog Named Christmas)
• Cleo (Clifford the Big Red Dog)
• Clifford (Clifford the Big Red Dog)
• Copper (The Fox and the Hound)
• Cora (To Dance with the White Dog)
• Cujo (Cujo)
• Dingo (Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen)
• Duchess (The Pie and the Patty Pan)
• Edison (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
• Enzo (The Art of Racing in the Rain)
• Einstein (Watchers)
• Ellie (A Dog’s Purpose)
• Fang (Harry Potter series)
• Flossie (Lady Chatterley’s Lover)
• Fluffy (Harry Potter series)
• Fly (Babe)
• Genevieve (Madeline series)
• Ghost (Game of Thrones)
• Granite (Child of the Wolves)
• Grizzle (Mrs. Dalloway)
• Holiday (The Lovely Bones)
• Howard (Bunnicula)
• Jack (Little House in the Prairie series)
• Jasper (Rebecca)
• Jip (David Copperfield)
• Juno (The Swiss Family Robinson)
• Kazakh (Galápagos)
• Kep (The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck)
• Kiche (White Fang)
• Kipper (Kipper the Dog)
• Lad (Lad, A Dog)
• Laska (Anna Karenina)
• Lassie (Lassie Come Home)
• Lily (Lily and the Octopus)
• Little Ann (Where the Red Fern Grows)
• Lorelai (The Dogs of Battle)
• Marley (Marley and Me)
• Max (How the Grinch Stole Christmas)
• Missus (The Hundred and One Dalmations)
• Mr. Bones (Timbuktu)
• Nana (Peter Pan)
• Nero (The First Four Years)
• Old Dan (Where the Red Fern Grows)
• Orson (Seize the Night; Fear Nothing)
• Padfoot (Harry Potter series)
• Perdita (The Hundred and One Dalmatians)
• Pickles (Ginger and Pickles)
• Pilot (Jane Eyre)
• Poky (The Poky Little Puppy)
• Pongo (The Hundred and One Dalmatians)
• Popper (The Goldfinch)
• Randolph (A Dog About Town)
• Renni (Renni the Rescuer)
• Ribsy (Ribsy)
• Ripper (Harry Potter series)
• Samantha (I am Legend)
• Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. (Everything is Illuminated)
• Scamper (The Secret Seven)
• Sharik (Heart of a Dog)
• Shep (These Happy Golden Years)
• Shiloh (Shiloh)
• Six-Thirty (Lessons in Chemistry)
• Snowy (The Adventures of Tintin)
• Spot (Spot the Dog)
• Tiger (A Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
• Toby (Sherlock Holmes)
• Tock (The Phantom Tollbooth)
• Top (The Mysterious Island)
• Toto (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
• Tulip (My Dog Tulip)
• Weenie (Eloise series)
• Wellington (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time)
• White Fang (White Fang)
• Winn-Dixie (Because of Winn-Dixie)
• Yeller (Old Yeller)
• Zhucka (Brothers Karamazov)

More Dog Names Inspired By Literature

In addition to the above classic dog names from literature, below are links to posts that list hundreds of more dog name ideas based on books to inspire the name of your pet dog.

These names range from the names of book protagonists, other types of animals, author names, and more! You can easily use the baby name ideas for your furry friend as well.