Female literary dog names

August 12, 2018 11:27 AM

My family is in the process of adopting two bonded female treeing walker coonhounds, and looking for literary names for them (especially ones that make sense as a pair). Can you provide us with some good suggestions?

Picture is available here.

Previous dog name history (to give background / ideas): Shakespeare (great dane/bloodhound mix), Bark Twain (another TWC), and our current dog Dickens (a lab mix). We are definitely not tied down to just author names, though.

posted by RyanAdams to Pets & Animals (43 answers total)

Conan and Doyle
posted by vunder at 11:34 AM on August 12, 2018

Emily and Charlotte
posted by emd3737 at 11:36 AM on August 12, 2018

Mame and Vera
posted by brujita at 11:41 AM on August 12, 2018

What about sleuthy literary characters for female detectives, since coonhounds seems like a sleuthy breed?
Nancy (Drew) and Trixie (Belden)?
posted by mcbeth at 11:41 AM on August 12, 2018

Old Dan(ielle) and Little Ann
posted by saladin at 11:43 AM on August 12, 2018

Eleanor and Marianne
posted by mymbleth at 11:44 AM on August 12, 2018

Anne (with an E!) and Diana seem like the obvious choice for a pair of bosom friends.
posted by Flannery Culp at 11:51 AM on August 12, 2018

Jane and Lizzy (Pride and Prejudice)
Janie and Phoeby (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
Meg and Jo (Little Women)
Anne and Diana (Anne of Green Gables)
Celie and Shug (The Color Purple)
Idgie and Ruth (Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:53 AM on August 12, 2018

I like old-fashioned names for dogs, so: Isabel and Henrietta.
posted by praemunire at 11:55 AM on August 12, 2018

Merricat and Constance
posted by vunder at 11:56 AM on August 12, 2018

Scout and Boo.
posted by Temeraria at 12:01 PM on August 12, 2018

Rosalind and Celia
Katharine (Kate) and Bianca
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:11 PM on August 12, 2018

Betsy and Tacy (the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace)
posted by elphaba at 12:14 PM on August 12, 2018

Agatha and Christie?
(Congratulations on your new family members!)
posted by bookmammal at 12:45 PM on August 12, 2018

Thelma and Louise.
posted by rpfields at 12:45 PM on August 12, 2018

Fletcher and Marple!

They are gorgeous! Congrats!
posted by mochapickle at 12:46 PM on August 12, 2018

Thomas Hardy novels are a trove of lovely antiquated literary names--Bathsheba Everdene, Eustacia Vye, Elfride Swancourt, Tess Durbyfield, Arabella Donn, Suke Damson, etc.--maybe Bathsheba & Tess?

Hardy's own fox terrier Wessex or Wessie was a Very Good Dog, and I always thought that'd be a great name too.
posted by miles per flower at 1:00 PM on August 12, 2018

Those are coonhounds so I definitely vote for names of partners in crime.

Kitty and Lydia.
posted by fshgrl at 1:03 PM on August 12, 2018

Lots of good answers so far! We were thinking Agatha (shortened to Aggie) and Christie before I posted this, but there's a lot of items out here to consider. Keep them coming!
posted by RyanAdams at 1:05 PM on August 12, 2018

Franny and Zooey.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:40 PM on August 12, 2018

Hermia and Helena.
posted by nantucket at 1:50 PM on August 12, 2018

Dorothy and Parker?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:57 PM on August 12, 2018

Do you know what their previous owner called them? It might be easier in the long run if their new names sound similar to their old ones.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 2:15 PM on August 12, 2018

Molly and Cynthia (from Wives and Daughters)
posted by basalganglia at 2:16 PM on August 12, 2018

They were strays that came into the humane society. Workers there gave them the name Paisley and Presley... which are not the most exciting names.
posted by RyanAdams at 2:29 PM on August 12, 2018

We named our dog Ivy Bean after Ivy and Bean, my daughter's two favorite characters written by Annie Barrows...

Generally we call her Ivy... but when she's bonkers... we call her Bean...
posted by Nanukthedog at 3:31 PM on August 12, 2018

Harper and Flannery
posted by phunniemee at 3:36 PM on August 12, 2018

Virginia and Woolf
posted by vunder at 3:39 PM on August 12, 2018

Gertrude and Alice
posted by Miss T.Horn at 4:15 PM on August 12, 2018

Demeter and Persephone

(On preview, Idgie and Ruth are a great duo!)
posted by Amor Bellator at 4:22 PM on August 12, 2018

I feel that with coonhounds you should maybe try for something Southern

Flannery & O'Connor
Zora & Neale
Meg, Babe, or Lenny (from Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley)
Stella & Blanche (from A Streetcar Named Desire)
posted by brookeb at 4:23 PM on August 12, 2018

Eliot and Sand
posted by vunder at 5:40 PM on August 12, 2018

Charlotte and Fern
posted by drlith at 6:50 PM on August 12, 2018

Patty and Selma.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 7:00 PM on August 12, 2018

Virginia Woof and J.K. Growling
posted by h00py at 7:13 PM on August 12, 2018

Ann(e) and Dian(a) are striking to me because before I realized they were both female, my mind immediately went to Old Dan and Little Ann from Where the Red Fern Grows.
posted by Night_owl at 7:48 PM on August 12, 2018

Arya and Sansa.
posted by lunasol at 9:59 PM on August 12, 2018

Previously on AskMe: Notable Literary Dog Names. Lots of wonderful ideas!
posted by mochapickle at 10:13 PM on August 12, 2018

Cagney and Lacey
posted by rongorongo at 11:03 PM on August 12, 2018

The dogs are on their way home... and we still haven't decided on our answer.

Thus, for the moment until we make up our minds, they are getting the names "Thing 1" and "Thing 2".
posted by RyanAdams at 3:02 PM on August 13, 2018

Flannery and Eudora
posted by SinAesthetic at 8:49 AM on August 14, 2018

Also, walker hounds are the BESTEST. <3
posted by SinAesthetic at 8:51 AM on August 14, 2018

While a bunch of these names are good, we ended up going with...

Matilda and Miss Honey.

Thank you all for your suggestions.
posted by RyanAdams at 11:38 AM on August 16, 2018