Looking for the best classic dog names from literature for your new canine companion?
You’re going to love this list!
With 85 names across every genre and style, the hardest thing will be choosing just one!
Read on to check them out!
Related ➨➨ Top 500+ Dog Names to Help You Find the Perfect Moniker for Your New Pup
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Classic Dog Names from Literature
Literature is full of unlikely and distinctive names, be it character names or even the names of authors. Being a bookworm, why not scan the bookshelves to help you find a great name.
Maybe the name of a famous dog from literature? You can also consider your favorite literary character whose personality matches your dog’s. Or even the name of an author that you love.
Here is an extensive list of classic dog names picked from literature that you can choose as inspiration while picking the perfect name for your new dog.
Be warned, the choice is going to be a tough one!
Literary Character Dog Names
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Long after reading our favorite books, the characters and the stories remain with us. Picking a name from literature is a great way of including your favorite book into your daily life. Here are some amazing ideas to consider, starting with the girls!
89 Literature-Inspired Names for Girl Dogs
- Adela Quested (A Passage to India)
- Alice (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
- Althea (The Faerie Queene)
- Amy (Little Women)
- Anastasia (Fifty Shades of Grey)
- Anna Karenina (Anna Karenina)
- Antoinette (Wide Sargasso Sea)
- Arabella (Jude the Obscure)
- Arwen (The Lord of the Rings)
- Bathsheba (Far from the Madding Crowd)
- Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing)
- Bella Swan (Twilight)
- Bertha (Jane Eyre)
- Blanche (Jane Eyre)
- Camilla (Evelina)
- Candide (Candide)
- Cathy (East of Eden)
- Celia (As You Like It)
- Celie (The Color Purple)
- Charlotte (Charlotte’s Web)
- Charlotte (Pride and Prejudice)
- Clarissa (Mrs Dalloway)
- Daisy (The Great Gatsby)
- Dalloway – Mrs. Dalloway
- Darcy – Pride and Prejudice
- Dorothea (Middlemarch)
- Edna (The Awakening)
- Eliza (Pygmalion)
- Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings)
- Esmeralda – The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
- Fern Arable (Charlotte’s Web)
- Ginevra “Ginny” (Harry Potter series)
- Hana (The English Patient)
- Hedda (Hedda Gabler)
- Heidi – (Heidi)
- Hermione (Harry Potter series)
- Hester (The Scarlet Letter)
- Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
- Imogen (Cymbeline)
- Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre)
- Jo March (Little Women)
- Juliet (Romeo and Juliet)
- Katherine (The Taming of the Shrew)
- Kitty Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)
- Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
- Lily (The House of Mirth)
- Lucy (Villette)
- Madame Bovary (Madame Bovary)
- Marianne (Sense and Sensibility)
- Matilda (Matilda)
- Miss Marple – Agatha Christie’s Crime Novels
- Molly Bloom (Ulysses)
- Nancy (Oliver Twist)
- Ophelia (Hamlet)
- Pearl (The Scarlet Letter)
- Penelope (The Odyssey)
- Pip (The Great Expectations)
- Portia (The Merchant of Venice)
- Princess Buttercup (The Princess Bride)
- Rosamond (Middlemarch)
- Rose (Rose in Bloom)
- Roxane (Cyrano de Bergerac)
- Sabina (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
- Scarlett (Gone with the Wind)
- Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird)
- Septima (Barchester Towers)
- Seraphina (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
- Sibyl (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- Sophia (Tom Jones)
- Stella (A Streetcar Named Desire)
- Sue (Jude the Obscure)
- Sylvia ( Bell Jar)
- Tess (Tess of the d’Urbervilles)
- Thea (The Song of the Lark)
- Therese (The Price of Salt)
- Tinkerbell (Peter Pan)
- Titania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
- Undine (The Custom of the Country)
- Ursula (Women in Love)
- Vera (And Then There Were None)
- Viola (Twelfth Night)
- Virginia (Mrs. Dalloway)
- Vita (All Passion Spent)
- Vittoria (The Corsair)
- Wendy Darling (Peter Pan)
- Winnie (The Secret Agent)
- Yelena (Uncle Vanya)
- Zenobia (The Blithedale Romance)
- Zora (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
Of these classic dog names from literature, I really love Ophelia and Juliet for a girl, but since they both met such tragic fates, I’d probably go with something like Hermione!
89 Boy Dog Names Inspired by Literature
- Achilles (The Iliad)
- Adam Bede (Adam Bede)
- Alec d’Urberville (Tess of the d’Urbervilles)
- Algernon Moncrieff (The Importance of Being Earnest)
- Alsemero (The Changeling)
- Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
- Augustus “Gus” (Lonesome Dove)
- Basil (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- Bazarov (Fathers and Sons)
- Bilbo (The Hobbit)
- Billy Budd (Billy Budd, Sailor)
- Bingley (Pride and Prejudice)
- Binx (The Moviegoer)
- Black – Sirius Black from Harry Potter
- Bob Cratchit (A Christmas Carol)
- Caleb (Middlemarch)
- Captain Ahab (Moby-Dick)
- Captain Hook – Peter Pan
- Captain Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
- Captain Wentworth (Persuasion)
- Cassius (Julius Caesar)
- Cedric (Little Lord Fauntleroy)
- Charlie (Heart of Darkness)
- Colonel Aureliano (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
- Copperfield (David Copperfield)
- Count Vronsky (Anna Karenina)
- Cyrano (Cyrano de Bergerac)
- D’Artagnan (The Three Musketeers)
- Dantes – The Count of Monte Christo (first name is Edmund, but I like Dantes better for a dog)
- Deronda (Daniel Deronda)
- Dodger – Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist
- Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- Dr. Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)
- Dracula (Dracula)
- Edgar (Wuthering Heights)
- Edward (Sense and Sensibility)
- Egeus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
- Eugene (Eugene Onegin)
- Faust (Faust)
- Ferdinand (The Tempest)
- Fitzwilliam (Pride and Prejudice)
- Frederick (Persuasion)
- Friar (Romeo and Juliet)
- Gabriel (Far from the Madding Crowd)
- Gandalf (The Lord of the Rings)
- Gatsby (The Great Gatsby)
- Gilbert (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
- Gulliver – Gulliver’s Travel
- Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)
- Hector (The Iliad)
- Henry (Mansfield Park)
- Holden (The Catcher in the Rye)
- Horatio (Hamlet)
- Howard (The Fountainhead)
- Huckleberry or Huck – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Ichabod (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
- Ivan (The Brothers Karamazov)
- James Bond (Casino Royale)
- Jean Valjean (Les Misérables)
- Jekyll – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (when he’s being naughty, you can call him Hyde!)
- Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)
- Lancelot – King Arthur’s right-hand man
- Leopold (Ulysses)
- Long John Silver (Treasure Island)
- Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
- Macbeth (Macbeth)
- Magnus Chase (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard)
- Marcellus (The Music Man)
- Marlowe (The Big Sleep)
- Maxim (Rebecca)
- Milo Minderbinder (Catch-22)
- Mowgli – The Jungle Book
- Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)
- Napoleon (Animal Farm)
- Oliver (Oliver Twist)
- Orlando (As You Like It)
- Othello – The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice
- Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon)
- Santiago (The Old Man and the Sea)
- Scrooge (A Christmas Carol)
- Septimus Warren Smith (Mrs Dalloway)
- Sherlock Holmes (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
- Silas (Silas Marner)
- Sir Gawain (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight)
- Sir Lancelot (Le Morte d’Arthur)
- Tarquin (The Rape of Lucrece)
- Telemachus (The Odyssey)
- Tristan (Tristan and Iseult)
- Watson – Sherlock Holmes
For a boy dog, I love Lancelot. It’s a good, strong name. Of course, his life ended rather tragically, too. Mowgli is a cute name if you want a “happily ever after” moniker.
Related: 100 Wonderful Winter Dog Names
15 Famous Dogs from Literature
For nerds who love to keep their noses in their books and want a way to remember and revisit their favorite four-legged literary characters, why not name your new pooch after them?
Here are some great selections for you to pick from.
- Argos – The Odyssey
- Bull’s-Eye – Oliver Twist
- Cujo – Cujo
- Dogmatix – The Adventures of Asterix
- Fang – Harry Potter
- Ghost – Game of Thrones
- Jip – David Copperfield
- Lassie – Lassie Come-Home
- Nana – Peter Pan
- Snowy – The Adventures of Tintin
- Tiger – The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
- Tock – The Phantom Tollbooth
- Top – Mysterious Island
- Toto – The Wizard of Oz
- Wolf – Rip Van Winkle
Honestly, I’m not so sure I’d go with Cujo! On the other hand, it’s a funny ironic name, especially if you give it to a tiny dog, like a teacup poodle!
11 Other Animal Names from Literature
Apart from dogs, there are a number of other memorable animal companions from literature that have stood the test of time.
Here are a few suggestions of literature’s famous animals whose names you can use for your beloved little pooch.
- Aragog – Harry Potter (a spider)
- Aslan – The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (the title lion)
- Black Beauty – Black Beauty (the title horse)
- Dinah – Alice in Wonderland (Alice’s cat)
- Drogon – A Song of Ice & Fire
(a dragon)
- Hedwig – Harry Potter (an owl)
- Norris – Harry Potter (another kitty!)
- Pickwick – The Pickwick Papers
(okay, so this one is a human, but hey, we’re animals, too!)
- Tigger – Winnie the Pooh (a tiger)
- Wilber – Charlotte’s Web (one terrific pig)
19 Dog Names from Famous Authors
Most authors have a unique writing style, some whimsical, others funny, inspirational and rousing, and some outright dark and menacing.
Why not name your pooch after one of your favorite authors whose writing is similar to your dog’s personality and quirks?
Or you can pick the name of an author whose distinctive looks, like curly hair or thin mustache or even long tresses, remind of your little one?
- Agatha – Agatha Christie
- Austen – Jane Austen
- Dickens – Charles Dickens
- Doyle – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Seuss
- Enid – Enid Blyton
- Fitzgerald or Fitz – F Scott Fitzgerald
- Hemingway – Ernest Hemingway
- King – Stephen King
- Lee – Harper Lee
- Leo – Leo Tolstoy
- Lewis – Lewis Carroll
- Martin – George RR Martin
- Maya – Maya Angelou
- Oscar – Oscar Wilde
- Poe – Edgar Allan Poe
- Rumi
- Shakespeare
- Tolkien – JRR Tolkien
- Woolf – Virginia Woolf
9 Other Innovative Literary Names
When choosing a name for your new furry friend, there is no right or wrong answer.
There are a few unique literature derived references that you can use for your dog’s name, no matter how well they fit!
- Anecdote
- Bard
- Drama
- Fable
- Hymn
- Lyric
- Novella
- Para
- Prose
- Verse
There are thousands and thousands of names that you can choose from when looking for a name inspired from the pages of your favorite books.
Limited by only your creativity and ingenuity and using the many different angles while making your pick, there is no dearth of inspirations and options for names for your furry companion.
What are your favorite classic dog names from literature? Share below!
