Best Male Dog Names

This list of famous names from literature. For a more general list, featuring 300 of the best male dog names on the site, check out Best Boy Dog Names

Welcome to our best-selling list of names!

Here we list names taken from some of the best-selling books in history, from Shakespeare to Agatha Christie, Stephen King right through to Harry Potter.

The world of literature has thrown up some memorable characters with some great names, and we've listed many of them right here on this page.

So pick your favorite book, pick your favorite fictional hero (or villain), some of the best male dog names are on the lists below.

Here's a few to get things going:

BOOTS: Character from Thy Servant a Dog by Rudyard Kipling

COBWEB: A fairy from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

FLY: Collie from the novel The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith

MCGEE: Travis McGee, detective created by John D. McDonald

(For the Best Female Dog Names list click here.)

AJAX Character from Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida

ARTEMIS Artemis Fowl, book series by Eion Colfer

ARTURO Title character from Arturo's Island

ATTICUS Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird

AUGIE Title character from The Adventures of Augie March

AUGUSTUS Augustus McCrae from Lonesome Dove

BABBITT Title character from the novel by Sinclair Lewis

BANQUO Character from Shakespeare's play Macbeth

BECKETT Irish writer and poet Samuel Beckett

BIG EARS Noddy's best friend from the children's books by Enid Blyton

BINX Binx Bolling from The Moviegover by Walker Percy

BLYTON Enid Blyton, bestselling children's author

BOO Arthur "Boo" Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird

BOOTS Character from Thy Servant a Dog by Rudyard Kipling

BROCK One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

BRODIE Title character from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

BRONTE Sisters Charlotte, Emily & Anne Bronte

BUCK Main character in Jack London's Call of the Wild

BULLSEYE Bull Terrier from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

BUSTER Scottish Terrier from Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

more of the best Male Dog names...

BYRON Poet Lord Byron

CAMUS Author Albert Camus

CAPOTE Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood

CHANDLER Author Raymond Chandler

CHASE Crime writer James Hadley Chase

CHAUCER Geoffrey Chaucer, author of The Cantebury Tales

CHEE CHEE Character from Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting

CHEKHOV Author Anton Chekhov

CLANCY Author Tom Clancy

CLOVER One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

COBWEB A fairy from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream

CONAN Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes

CONRAD Author Joseph Conrad

CORMAC Pulitzer prize winning author, Cormac McCarthy

CRAB Only dog to appear in a Shakespeare play (Two Gentlemen of Verona)

CUJO Rabid St. Bernard from Stephen King's novel of the same name

CYRANO French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac

DANTE Dante Alighieri Italian poet of the middle ages

DASHIELL Author Dashiell Hammett

DAWG Canine character in the Bunnicula books by James Howe

DEFOE	Daniel Defoe, author of Last of the Mohican's
DEXTER	Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse novels
DICKENS	Author Charles Dickens
DINGO	Dog from Jules Verne's Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen
DIRK	Dirk Pitt, character created by Clive Cussler
DYLAN	Author & poet Dylan Thomas
ELLIOTT	Author T.S. Elliot
ENDER	Hero of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
EPI	Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
ESSAY	Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
EUGENE	Eugene Henderson from Henderson the Rainking
FAGIN	Villain from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
FANG	Farmer Maggot's guard dog from The Lord of the Rings
FENTON	From Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor
FINCH	Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
FIVER	One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down
FLEMING	Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond
FLUKE	Man reincarnated as a dog in the novel by James Herbert
FLY	Collie from the novel The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith
FLYTE	Sebastian Flyte from Bridshead Revisited

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

more of the best Male Dog names...

FORSYTHE Author Frederick Forsythe

FORTE Stray dog from the Story of Edgar Sawtelle

FRIDAY Robinson Crusoe's manservant from the novel by Daniel Defoe

GARP T.S. Garp from The World According to Garp

GASPODE Unusually clever dog in The Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett

GATSBY Subject of the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

GREGOR Gregor Samsa from Kafka's The Metamorphosis

GRIP Farmer Maggot's guard dog in The Lord of the Rings

GRISHAM John Grisham, legal drama author

GULLIVER Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

GUNTER Author Gunter Grass

HAILEY Author Arthur Hailey

HAMLET Title character from Shakespeare's play

HAMLIN The Pied Piper of Hamlin, from the children's fairy tale

HAMMER Mike Hammer, fictional detective created by Mickey Spillane

HANK Cowdog from Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson

HANSEL Grimm Brothers fairy tale Hansel and Gretel

HARDY The Hardy Boys adventure books by Franklin W. Dixon

HAROLD Dog that appeared in the Bunnicula books by James Howe

HARPER Author Harper Lee

HASTINGS	Hercule Poirot's sidekick Captain Arthur Hastings
HEATHCLIFF	From Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights
HEMINGWAY	Author Ernest Hemingway
HERCULE	Agatha Christie's brilliant Belgian detective Hercule Poirot
HERO	Character from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
HIGGINS	Author Jack Higgins
HOLDEN	Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye
HOLMES	Crime solving genius created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
HOMER	Poet of Ancient Greece
HORATIO	Author horatio Alger
HORTON	Dr Suess, Horton Hatches the Egg
HOTSPUR	Harry Hotspur from Shakespeare's Henry IV
HOWIE	Dog that appeared in the Bunnicula books by James Howe
HUCKLEBERRY	Title character from Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
HUGO	Author Victor Hugo
HUXLEY	Author, humanist and pacifist Aldous Huxley
IBSEN	Norwegian playwright Henrik Ipsen
ICHABOD	Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
IVANHOE	Title character of the novel by Sir Walter Scott
JEEVES	From My Man Jeeves by P.G.Wodehouse

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

more of the best Male Dog names...

JERRY Hero of Jack London's novel Jerry, Dog of the Islands

JIP Canine character from Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting

JK JK Rowling, author of the Harry Porter books

JUNO Character from Shakespeare's The Tempest

JUPITER Character from Cymbeline by William Shakespeare

KAFKA Author Franz Kafka

KAZAK The Hound of Space The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

KEP Collie from The Tale of Jemina Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter

KEROUAC Author Jack Kerouac

KIMBALL Kimball O'Hara from Kim by Rudyard Kipling

KING Best selling horror author Stephen King

KINGSLEY Author Kingsley Amis

KIPLING Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book

KOONTZ Author Dean Koontz

KURT Author Kurt Vonnegut

KURTZ Character from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness

L'AMOUR Western author, Louis L'Amour

LASKA Canine character from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

LEAR King Lear by William Shakespeare

LEO Russian author Leo Tolstoy

LEOPOLD	Leopold Bloom from Ulysses by James Joyce
LESTAT	Vampire from the novels by Ann Rice
LONDON	Jack London, author of White Fang
LOONY	Black Spaniel in Enid Blyton's Barney Mystery series
LOOP	Novel about wolves by Nicholas Evans (The Loop)
LUTHER	Dog from Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff
MACBETH	Title character from the Shakespeare's play
MARCEL	From Rememberance of Things Past by Marcel Proust
MARLOWE	Philip Marlowe from The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
MCDUFF	Macbeth's nemesis from Shakespeare's play
MCGEE	Travis McGee, detective created by John D. McDonald
MCNAB	Andy McNab, writer of military fiction
MORIATY	Dean Moriaty from On The Road
MORSE	Detective from the Colin Dexter novels
MR DARCY	Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy from Pride & Predjudice by Jane Austen
NABAKOV	Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov
NEDDY	Neddy Merrilll from The Swimmer by John Cheever
NELL	Little Nell Trent heroine of Charles Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop
NEMO	Main character in Jules Verne's 20, 000 Leagues under the Sea
NERO	Nero Wolfe, fictional detective created by Rex Stout

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

more of the best Male Dog names...

NIGHTSHADE One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

NODDY Character from the children's books by Enid Blyton

OPAL Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

ORSON Black Labrador featured in two novels by Dean Koontz

ORWELL George Orwell author of Animal Farm and 1984

OSKAR Osker Matzerath from The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass

OTHELLO Title character in Shakespeare's Othello

OY Dog-like creature from Stephen King's The Dark Tower

PADDINGTON Paddington Bear, from the children's stories by Michael Bond

PAN Peter Pan from the J.M. Barrie stories

PICKLES Terrier from Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter

PILGRIM Billy Pilgrim from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five

PIP From Charles Dickens Great Expectations

PIPKIN One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

PLATO Poet of Ancient Greece

POE Writer and poet Edgar Allen Poe

PUZZLE Character from the novel The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis

QUENTIN Quentin Compson from The Sound and the Fury

RABBIT Rabbit Angstrom from Rabbit Run by John Updike

RAMSEY Mrs Ramsey from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

RAVEN	Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven
REBUS	Scottish detective from the novels by Ian Rankin
RHETT	Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind
RIPLEY	Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr Ripley
ROLAND	Gunslinger in Stephen King's Dark Tower series
ROWF	Black mongrel from The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams
RUMBO	Man reincarnated as a red setter in Fluke by James Herbert
SABBATH	Micky Sabbath of Sabbath's Theater
SALINGER	Author J.D. Salinger
SAM	Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon
SANTIAGO	From Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
SAWYER	Title character from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
SCAMPER	Golden Spaniel in Enid Blyton's Secret Seven
SCOUT	Scout Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird
SEARCHLIGHT	Dog from children's novel Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner
SEBASTIAN	Sebastian Flyte from Bridshead Revisited
SEYMOUR	Seymour Glass from Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
SHAKESPEARE	William Shakespeare
SHARIK	Canine character from Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
SHELDON	Author Sidney Sheldon

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names lists...

more of the best Male Dog names...

SHERLOCK Sherlock Holmes from the novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

SILVER One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

SLINKSTER Canine character from Francesca Lia Block's novel Weetzie Bat

SMILEY George Smiley from the John LeCarre spy novels

SNITTER Black & White Terrier from The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams

SPARK Author Muriel Spark

SPILLANE Mickey Spillane, creator of Mike Hammer

STEINBECK Pultizer prize winning author, John Steinbeck

SUESS Children's author Dr. Suess

SWEETHEART One of King Lear's dogs from Shakespeare's King Lear

TARZAN From Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

TENNESSEE Playwright Tennessee Williams

TENNYSON Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate

THISTLE One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

THOR German Shepherd in the book Thor by Wayne Smith

THUNDER One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down

TIGER Dog from Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

TIMMY Canine member of the Famous Five by Enid Blyton

TINDER Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

TINTIN Hero of the graphic novels by Herge

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

TINY TIM	Character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carole
TOAD	From Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows
TOGO	Bull Terrier from the Nancy Drew books
TOLKIEN	J.R.R. Tolkein, author of Lord of the Rings
TOLSTOY	Russian author Leo Tolstoy
TOO-TOO	Character from Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
TOP	Canine character from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
TREY	Dog of King Lear from Shakespeare's play
TRICKI WOO	Pekingese from All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
TRIFFID	Alien species in Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
TWAIN	Mark Twain, renowned author and animal lover
TWILIGHT	Vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer
TWIST	Title character from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
UMBRA	Sawtelle dog from The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
VIRGIL	Roman Poet
WHAT-A-MESS	Afghan Hound pup from the children's books by Frank Muir
WIGGINS	Dog from The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
WILBUR	Adventure writer Wilbur Smith
WILLOW	One of Richard Adams' rabbits from Watership Down
WINN-DIXIE	Canine character Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Click the image below for even more great Puppy Names...

more of the best Male Dog names...

WOLF Farmer Maggot's guard dog The Lord of the Rings

WORDSWORTH Poet William Wordsworth

YEATS Poet & dramatist William Butler Yeats

YOSSARIAN Character from Joseph Heller's Catch-22

YURI Yuri Zhivago from Dr Zhivago

ZANE Zane Grey, Western author

ZAZIE From Zazie in the Metro

ZENO From Italo Svevo's Confessions of Zeno

ZHIVAGO Title character from Boris Pasternak's novel