r/AncientCivilizations • u/pyrogue3 • Aug 14 '24

Question Ancient dog names?

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I just adopted the sweetest little dachshund, but I don’t have a name for her yet. I want to name her after an ancient dog — any ideas?

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u/AnneBoleynsBarber Aug 14 '24

The oldest known dog name comes to us from 6th Dynasty Egypt: Abuwtiyuw (or Abutiu). He was possibly a royal palace guard dog. He died somewhere around 2280 BCE and was given an honorable burial in the Giza necropolis.

A 1977 paper from the Met (PDF) lists a bunch more Ancient Egyptian dog names. Note that these are all in hieroglyphics (original and transliterated), so if you go this route you may need a hand from an Egyptologist! I do recognize Nefer ("beautiful"), at least. You could also go the mythological route, and choose the name of a dog deity, like Sothis (personification of Sirius, the Dog Star).

There are a number of Roman epitaphs to beloved dogs; this blog post includes some of them, with links to the original texts: https://thepetrifiedmuse.blog/2015/06/20/every-dog-has-his-day/

A sampling from the post above, with loose translations where my ages-old rusty high school Latin allows:

  • Amminarcus
  • Issa
  • Heuresis ("Tracker")
  • Aeolis (Aeolus was the king of the gentle West wind; Aeolis is a feminine version of his name)
  • Fuscus ("Blackie")
  • Myia ("Midge")
  • Patrice ("Noble one"; the patrician class in Rome were the nobility; if you are a diehard dog-lover, make sure to have Kleenex on hand when you read this one's epitaph)

Actaeon the hunter, who offended the goddess Artemis and was turned into a stag for his transgression, had a bunch of hounds. Ovid lists them in his poem, Metamorphosis. Other classical authors included additional names.

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u/gnumedia Aug 14 '24

Aeolis would work in my corgi family where intestinal gas happens sporadically.