Funny Dog Names

623 names in this category, each with its meaning and background. See all temperament categories.

A funny dog name has two jobs, and most lists of them only test one. The joke has to land when the name is read off a vet's clipboard, and the name has to work when you are standing in a field at dusk shouting it. Fuzz Aldrin wins the first test and loses the second, because nobody yells Fuzz Aldrin across a park. Chewie — the same joke with the joke taken out — passes both.

That is the whole trick, and it is why the funniest names on this page tend to be the short ones.

Apachi

Aussie

Colloquial term for Australians, the citizens and nationals of Australia

Babalou

Bacon

Bado

Recorded as a masculine given name in Old High German

Badou

Bagsy

Bakko

Baldo

Short form of Old German names with the element bald, "bold, brave"

Balloona

Bally

A surname

Baltollo

Bam

Recorded as a masculine given name in popular culture; also a surname

Bambam

Recorded as a given name in Indigenous Australian (masculine).

Bambo

A nickname, not documented as a given name

Banana

The fruit of plants in the genus Musa

Bango

Banja

In Serbo-Croatian, a spa

Banjo

English banjo, a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame

Bark

Recorded as a masculine given name in medieval english

Bark Vader

Barkaholic

Barker

An English surname meaning "a tanner of leather"

Barkimedes

Barklin

Barkly

Barko

Recorded as a masculine given name in Russian

Barkoni

Barksalot

Barky

Barky Mcbarkface

Barky Mcbarkstein

Barney

Diminutive of Barnabas, Bernard or Barnaby

Batty

An English surname from Batte, a medieval form of Bartholomew

Baz

Chiefly british diminutive of barry or basil

Bazulu

Bazza

A diminutive form of Barry, meaning 'fair-headed' or 'spear'.

Beeper

A device that emits a beep or sound signal, often used for alerts

Bendy

Recorded as a Danish masculine given name; no meaning is documented.

Beppo

A diminutive of the given name Giuseppe

Bibo

Recorded as a masculine given name in Portuguese

Biff

From a nickname based on the english word biff, meaning "punch, hit, strike"

Biggles

A nickname of the fictional pilot James Charles Bigglesworth

Bilbo Waggins

Bilko

Bingos

Binks

An English surname

Bitsy

A diminutive of Bitsy or Bitsie, recorded as an English feminine given name

Blackberry

Blackyjack

Blido

Bluto

A cartoon character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar

Bojangles

Bolik

Bones

Recorded as a given name in english, used for both men and women

Bonga

A name derived from African languages.

Bongo

A surname recorded in Gabon, South Africa and Italy

Bonkers

Bonky

A nickname, borne by the trance musician Onno Borgen

Bonto

Bonzo

A nickname, and the name of several fictional characters and a band

Boogie

Boogy

Bopper

Bork

An internet word for a dog's bark, from DoggoLingo

Bosbo

Bosbos

Bounce

Bouncy

Boxy

An adjective meaning "like a box"

Boz

A nickname, given name or surname

Brixi

A Czech surname, derived from the Latin name Brikcius

Bubblegum

Bubsy

The anthropomorphic bobcat in the Bubsy video game series

Buckaroo

A cowboy of the Great Basin and California region, from Spanish vaquero

Buckey

Bucky

Recorded as a masculine given name in the Popular Culture category

Buford

A given name of English origin

Buggsy

Buggy

An Irish surname

Bugsy

From a slang term bugsy, meaning "crazy, unstable"

Bullwinkle

A character from the animated series 'Rocky and Bullwinkle'

Bumbles

Bumper

Bunji

A masculine Japanese given name

Burrito

English word for a Mexican dish of a flour tortilla wrapped around a filling

Buzz

From a nickname derived from the onomatopoeic word buzz, meaning "buzz, hum, murmur"

Caper

Captain Floofbeard

Captain Wigglebutt

Chacko

A Syriac Malayalam masculine given name and surname, a form of Jacob and James

Chaka

Recorded as a given name in African American (rare) and Zulu use

Chatty

Recorded as an English given name, feminine, in a user-submitted entry

Cheddar

English: the village of Cheddar in Somerset, or the cheese named after it

Cheech

Recorded as a rare masculine given name in English

Cheese

The English word for a dairy product made from curdled milk

Cheesy

Cheeto

Chew Barka

Chewbecca

The recall test, and why it kills most puns

Trainers converge on much the same recipe: one or two syllables, a firm consonant near the front, an open vowel at the end. It is why Max, Rocky, Bella and Charlie top every registry on earth. A pun name has to survive the same filter, and most of them fail on length alone before anyone gets to the joke.

The fix is to split the name in two. The pun lives on the registration paperwork and in the story you tell at dinner. The call name is the short piece of it, and the dog never hears the rest.

Puns that survive contact with a field

The pattern to copy is a full name that carries the joke and a short form that works as a name in its own right. These all do it, with varying degrees of grace.

Chewbarka → Chewie
Hard ch at the front, open ending. The cleanest example on the list.
Bark Twain → Twain
One syllable, unusual enough to cut through noise at distance.
Indiana Bones → Indy
The short form is a real name that people already like, which is the second-best sign of a good pun.
Jimmy Chew → Jimmy
Works because Jimmy is an ordinary dog name with the joke bolted on, not a joke pretending to be a name.
Woofgang Puck → Wolfgang
Better than most, because the call name is a genuine name that merely happens to be funny on a dog.
Arf Vader → Vader
The short form is doing the joke better than the joke did. Nothing is lost by dropping the first word.
Fuzz Aldrin → Fuzz
Only just survives. Fuzz is one syllable but soft at the front, so it does not carry far.
Crime and Pugishment → Pug
Only works if the dog is a pug. Otherwise the joke is carrying the whole name and it will collapse the first time you need the dog to come back.

The reliable fallback: food and household objects

If you want funny without the risk, take a real word that is simply incongruous on a dog. These work because they need no explanation, they are already the right length, and everyone who hears them smiles without having to work out why.

Waffles, Pickle, Bagel
Breakfast and deli counter. The most reliably funny group, and the most commonly used.
Noodle, Meatball, Tofu
Foods that also happen to describe a dog. Noodle suits a long dog, Meatball a round one.
Nugget, Beans, Spud
Short, hard consonants, faintly unflattering. The unflattering ones are funnier.
Biscuit, Muffin, Pretzel
Warm and harmless. Also extremely common, which is the one real cost.

The single caution is the vet's waiting room. Most practices have three Waffles and four Biscuits on the books, so if you want the name to belong to your dog alone, drift toward the less obvious end of the list — Pretzel, Tofu, Gherkin.

The funniest category is an ordinary human name

There is a case to be made — and the registry data supports it — that the genuinely funny dog names are boring human ones. Rover's and the AKC's most popular lists are full of Charlie, Max, Leo, Lucy and Emma: names that would be unremarkable on a person and are quietly absurd on a dog. Push further in the same direction and you get Kevin, Gary, Susan, Brenda, Doug, Deborah — names with no canine connotations whatsoever.

They satisfy every practical criterion too. Two syllables, firm consonant, vowel ending, and nobody at the park will have another one.

See also: Boy dog names · Girl dog names · Happy dog names · Waffles · Pickle · Kevin

Common questions

Will a funny name embarrass me at the vet?

Only the long ones. The receptionist will read 'Sir Woofington the Third' out loud and the whole room will turn round. If you would not say the name to a stranger, shorten it before you register it.

Can I change a dog's name if the joke wears off?

Yes, and dogs adapt faster than people expect. Using the new name and the old one together for a week or two makes it close to unnoticeable.

Do funny names make a dog harder to train?

No — what makes a dog harder to train is a name that competes with a command. Avoid Sit, Stay, Down, Heel, Come and No, along with anything close to them. A dog called Shay will hear stay all day long.

What is the most common funny dog name?

Food names dominate, because they are funny without requiring the listener to get a reference. Biscuit, Waffles and Pickle are the perennial leaders.

Sources

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