How not to name a puppy

If you think that people are disagreeable these days about politics and culture, you can’t imagine how heated people got when I asked for suggestions on what to name my yellow Labrador puppy four years ago.

Blame social media.

My puppy’s breeders, Mike and Maryanne, named each pup based on its behavior. They called my pup “Willy,” which was a great choice.

While some of the pups were bossy and way too energetic, my guy was silly and laid back.

“Willy” suggests playfulness and a lack of self-importance. That name suited my puppy well, and I strongly considered keeping it.

However, I had long thought that if I ever got a dog, I would name him “Thurber” after the dog-loving humorist James Thurber, whose hilarious essays appeared in The New Yorker between the 1920s and 1940s.

In the 10th grade, you see, my best friend Ayresie and I found a tattered copy of his 1945 book A Thurber Carnival on a bookshelf in Ayresie’s basement.

While thumbing through Thurber’s collection of humorous essays and cartoons at the library, we laughed so hard, the librarian threatened to kick us out.

One essay, “The Dog That Bit People,” introduces a surly dog named Muggs, who bit and terrorized everyone except family members — who he only bit occasionally!

That moment in the library inspired me to become a writer. And it left me with one other thought: If I ever get a dog, I will name him Thurber.

I shared these thoughts on Facebook and asked for insights and recommendations.

“Thurber! You can’t name him Thurber!” shouted my otherwise soft-spoken sister, who had named her own dog Snowball.

“What the heck kind of name is Thurber?” said my friend Griff, who has a Jack Russell named Chip.

“You need to name him something short and manly like Sam or Butch or anything but some odd name like Thurber,” chimed in a stranger on Facebook.

“Muggs,” the actual name of “the dog that bit people,” was one I considered.

“Now you’re talking,” said some other Facebook stranger. “Muggs is the way to go.”

“Muggsie!” said another person. “You have to name him something cute, and Muggsie is perfect.”

I share this example to illustrate how opinionated and forceful people have become in the era of social media, in which everyone has a platform and a voice.

Psychology Today says that a simple “lack of eye contact” is what is driving increasingly nasty tweets and posts, making rudeness in our society “our new normal.”

My puppy-naming situation became such a hullaballoo — culminating in late-night phone calls, rude emails and increasingly angry posts — I eventually had to shut down what I intended to be a friendly, playful exercise and cease talking to anyone about the name I would eventually choose.

I named my wonderful puppy Thurber, the perfect name for such a joyful, hilarious soul. He makes me laugh harder than any of James Thurber’s wonderful essays ever could. (See my dog’s funny videos at YouTube.com/@ThurbersTail.)

I learned recently that one of the world’s most beloved singers also named her dog Thurber.

Lucky for her, she did so in the 1960s — long before social media could cause her any issues.

Her name was Janis Joplin.

Copyright 2025 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Find Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books and funny videos of his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.