Black dogs have a unique charm and have always had a strong place in the canine world. There’s even a Black Dog Day that is celebrated every October. I’ve created this list of black dog names and the meanings are also included.
List Of 270 Black Male Dog Names And Their Meanings:
Hades
Greek, “the unseen one.”
Twilight
Twilight is made of the Old English prefix twi, “two” or “half,” and light.
Buio
”Pitch dark.”
Mavros
From Greek mavros, black.
Ozzy
Short for Osbourne, from Old Norse Asbjorn, “god bear.” The connection to a black coat is via Black Sabbath.
Asita
”Dark-colored.”
Shadow
From Old English sceadu, shade.
Spook
Spectre.
Smokey
“Smoke-colored”. In 1952 Congress passed the “Smokey Bear Act” after a cub was rescued from a New Mexico wildfire.
Carbon
From Latin carbo, charcoal, and every diamond is made of it.
Skriker
”Shrieker.”
Pluto
”Wealth,” as well as an eleven-year-old Oxford girl chose it for a planet.
READ MORE: Dog Names For A Golden Retriever
Meeko
Meeko has origins in the raccoon in Disney’s Pocahontas and is a respelling of Japanese Miko.
Salem
”Peace.”
Poe
”Peacock,” and author of The Raven.
Kardama
Sanskrit for ”mud” or ”mire” and is also connected to the Prajapati sage in the Puranas.
Karasu
”Crow.”
Rook
A black crow, or a chess piece from Persian rukh, ”chariot.”
Wraith
Ghost.
Maleficent
Latin maleficus and means “doing harm.”
John Wick
Wick has roots in Old English wic (”dwelling” or ”hamlet”) that itself is from Latin vicus.
Mickey
Shortened from Michael, Hebrew for “who is like God?”.
Adham
”Dark-hued.”
Bran
”Raven,” and Fionn mac Cumhaill’s faithful hound.
Strigoi
From Latin strix, ”screech owl.”
Grim
Grim is from the Old Norse Grimr, from grima, a mask or hood. It is one of Odin’s bynames.
Dudu
Dark.
Neo
Greek neos, “new,” and an anagram of One, which the film (Matrix) hints at deliberately.
Pango
”Black” in Maori.
Blake
Blake has origins in the Old English blaec (“black”) and blac (“pale”).
Graphite
It comes from Greek graphein, ”to write.”
Ouzel
Ouzel is a word for blackbird, and I love how it sounds.
Thanatos
Death.
Erebus
Erebos is the primordial darkness that is situated between the earth and the underworld in Greek myths. The Royal Navy used it to a bomb vessel that disappeared with the Franklin expedition.
Czarny
Pronounced as CHAR-nih. ”Black.” Czarny Staw is a lake below Rysy in Poland’s Tatras.
Douglas
It combines Gaelic dubh, dark, and glas, stream.
Cash
Johnny Cash (”box maker”) was the Man in Black.
Grackle
From Latin graculus, jackdaw.
Rahu
”Seizer.”
Dracula
Romanian, “son of Dracul,” after Vlad II’s place in the Order of the Dragon.
Tarmac
”A black material used for building roads.
Dante
Dante is Italian in origin and is a variation of Durante, “enduring.”
Fenrir
”Fen-dweller.”
Ghurab
”Raven”.
Adam
”Man” or ”earth.”
Sylvester
Latin silvestris, “of the woodland.” Pope Sylvester I died on 31 December 335 and this is the reason Germans and Austrians call New Year’s Eve Silvester.
Ater
”Matte black” in Latin, where niger is glossy black.
Hugin
”Thought/mind.”
Colby
“Someone who lives in a coal town.”
Blackjack
The game is from France as vingt-et-un.
Dunstan
”Dark stone.”
Chernysh
It comes from Russian chyorny, black.
Cosmo
Cosmo is from the Greek kosmos, ”order and arrangement.”
Bezalel
“In the shadow of God” and is ronounced as BET-zal-el. Bezalel was the craftsman who was selected in Exodus to build the Ark and the Tabernacle.
Darcy
”Dark” in Irish, or ”from Arcy” in Norman French.
Morgoth
”Dark enemy.”
Siavash
Siavash (”with black stallions”) rides via fire in Persia’s Shahnameh.
Acheron
”River of woe”.
Morrigan
Old Irish Mor-Rigan, means “phantom queen” or “great queen”.
Moddey Dhoo
”Black dog” in Manx, a ghost hound of Peel Castle.
Aswad
Black.
Obsidian
”Stone of Obsius,” a Roman finder in Pliny’s account.
Fekete
From Hungarian fekete, black.
Morfran
”Great crow” or ”sea crow.” Ceridwen brewed wisdom for this ugly son.
Mortimer
”Dead sea,” and Walt Disney’s first choice for Mickey.
Gwyllgi
”Dog of darkness.”
Heathcliff
Heathcliff (”cliff by a heath”) is Wuthering Heights’ dark foundling.
Beltz
”Black” in Basque, a language with no living relatives.
Stout
”Brave.”
Sullivan
”Dark-eyed” or ”hawk-eyed.”
Damien
”To tame.”
Corvus
Corvus is Latin for the raven as well as a constellation located south of Virgo.
Preto
From Portuguese preto, black.
Cerberus
”Spotted,” and a three-headed hound guarding the underworld.
Venom
It comes from Latin venenum, first a ”love potion.”
Skotos
”Gloom.”
Toto
Toto (”priceless”) is Dorothy’s little black dog in Oz.
Jet
From Gagai, a Lycian town, and Queen Victoria wore it in mourning.
Espresso
”Pressed out.”
Porter
”Gatekeeper,” and a dark beer London street porters loved.
Knight
Boy or servant.
Kuro
Japanese kuro, black.
Shuck
Shuck comes from the Old English sceocca and is meaning ”goblin” or ”demon.”
Barghest
It is a mythical monstrous black dog with large claws and teeth, according to Northern English legends.
Bam
”Night” or ”chestnut” in Korean.
Moros
”Doom.”
Nero
Italian for black, off Latin niger. The emperor has no part in it: he was Sabine and reached Rome from the Claudian family.
Cadejo
Pronounced as kah-DEH-hoh. ”Tangled hair.” A black cadejo haunts Central American roads by night.
Phineas
”The Nubian.”
Scarab
From Greek karabos, beetle.
Barney
”Son of consolation,” as well as a Scottish terrier in Bush’s White House.
Xiaohei
”Little black one.”
Krishna
Sanskrit krishna is symbolizing black and dark blue in one word.
Duffy
Irish O Dubhthaigh, descendant of Dubthach.
Surt
”The swarthy one,” a Norse fire giant who burns the world at Ragnarok.
Hijiki
Black sea vegetable.
Anubis
Anubis is the Greek spelling of Egyptian Inpu.
Umbra
Latin for shadow.
Vader
Vader is Dutch and German for father.
Donn
”Noble” or ”chief.”
Zorro
Spanish for fox, however, it was initially an insult for a loafer.
Musti
It comes from Finnish musta, black.
Charon
”Keen gaze”.
Bo
”To live,” ”wave,” ”abundant” or ”handsome,” and Obama’s black Portuguese water dog.
Batman
A batman is a soldier-servant who takes care of officers’ baggage. It comes from Old French bat (”packsaddle”).
Duncan
”Brown warrior” or ”dark warrior.”
Kek
”Darkness.”
Shabdiz
Shabdiz (”night-colored”) is Khosrow Parviz’s horse, found in stone at Taq-e Bostan.
Diesel
Diesel is a short form of Dietrich or Matthias, “son of Dietrich” or “little Matthias”.
Phantom
From Greek phantasma, apparition.
Usiku
Night.
Tamas
”Darkness” in Sanskrit and ”twin” in Hungarian.
Kage
Shadow in Japanese and is pronounced KAH-geh.
Dusk
Dusk is from the Old English dox, ”dark” or ”swarthy”.
Ugolyok
”Little coal.”
Xolo
Pronounced as SHOH-loh. ”Xolotl’s dog”. Aztecs thought it guided the dead to Mictlan.
Spade
From Italian spada, sword.
Tăciune
Romanians call a smoldering ember tăciune.
Guinness
Guinness is the Anglicised form of Irish Mag Aonghusa, son of Angus.
Ninja
”One who endures.”
Crow
From Old English crawe.
Chaos
”Void/chasm.”
Kemet
”Black land.”
Sirius
”Glowing,” and the Dog Star, brightest in our night sky.
Ace
”Number one.”
Bucephalus
Bucephalus (”ox-head”) is Alexander’s black horse, and a city, Bucephala, recalls him.
Dougal
Scottish Gaelic Dubhghall is symbolizing a ”dark stranger.”
Cole
From Old English col, charcoal.
Hypnos
Sleep.
Fiach
”Raven” or ”hunt.”
Kedar
”Dark,” and a son of Ishmael in Genesis.
Blackbeard
Black beard, and a pirate who tucked lit fuses under his hat.
Fang
”A seizing.”
Morpheus
”Shape,” and morphine comes from his name.
Panther
”All beast.”
Black Female Dog Names:
Kala
In Sanskrit kala is “black” and “time” and is the root of the Hindu goddess of death Kali.
Orphne
”Night gloom.”
Giza
Darkness.
Sloe
From Old English slah, blackthorn fruit.
Zilla
Hebrew Tzillah, “shadow” and is one of Lamech’s two wives in Genesis.
Bagheera
Bagheera is a leopard with a melanistic coat and serves as Mowgli’s guardian.
Callisto
”Most beautiful.”
Achlys
From Greek achlys, death mist.
Tapenade
From Provencal tapeno, caper.
Lilith
It is from Akkadian lilitu (”night spirit”) and is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible at Isaiah 34:14. ”… There the night creature Lilith will settle and find her place of repose.”
Zuko
”Glory.” Lord Zuko is a character in Nickelodeon’s series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Leila
Arabic layl, night.
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice is a spelling variation of Betelgeuse that is a star in the constellation Orion.
Raven
From Old English hraefn, a large black corvid.
Kokila
”Black cuckoo.”
Catrina
”Pure,” and Posada’s skeleton lady of Day of the Dead.
Neela
Dark blue.
Marmite
”Cooking pot.”
Humbelina
It is a feminine form of Humbelin that is from Germanic elements for bear cub and bright. Blessed Humbeline of Jully was beatified in 1703.
Liquorice
Greek glykyrrhiza, “sweet root”.
Silhouette
”Dark outline,” after a stingy French finance minister.
Nebula
”Fog.”
Nimbus
”Cloud” or ”halo.”
Hesperia
“Western land” or ”evening star.”
Negra
Spanish feminine of negro and comes from the Latin niger.
Amunet
”The hidden one.”
Kelpie
”Water horse,” and an Australian sheepdog breed.
Shikkoku
”Lacquer black.”
Esmeray
Esmeray is composed of the Turkish elements esmer (”dusky”) and ay (”moon”). It is pronounced as ES-meh-ray.
Sabbath
Hebrew shabbat, ”to stop” or ”to rest.”
Elvira
”Truth” or ”happy.”
Bellatrix
”Female warrior”. Nicknames that I like are Bella and Trix.
Yin
”Shady slope,” a hill’s north face in old Chinese.
Tizona
Tizona (”firebrand”) is El Cid’s sword.
Yana
”Black” in Quechua and ”God is gracious” in Slavic.
Nephthys
”Lady of the house.”
Eclipse
Eclipse comes from Greek ekleipsis, “an obscuring of light.”
Nott
“Bald-headed.”
Melaina
Melaina is the female form of Greek melas, ”black.”
Hecate
“She who works from a distance.”
Ciara
It is the Irish feminine of Ciar that is ssymbolizing “little dark one.” Saint Cera of Ireland founded the monastery at Kilkeary in Tipperary.
Chhaya
Shadow.
Coraline
”Coral,” as well as a Gaiman’s girl who meets a mother with button eyes.
Sepia
”Cuttlefish.”
Sombra
Spanish for shadow. It produced sombrero, a type of wide-brimmed hat.
Lyssa
”Rage,” and rabies belongs to genus Lyssavirus.
Kkami
”Pitch black.”
Alecto
”Unceasing/implacable.”
Merle
French for the blackbird and comes from Latin merula. Merle is also an incompletely dominant coat color pattern.
Obscura
From Latin obscura, ”dark,” as in camera obscura.
Kohl
From Arabic kuhl, eye powder, root of English alcohol.
Dujana
”Darkness of night.”
Odile
Odile (”wealth”) is the black swan of Swan Lake.
Sambuca
It has origins in Latin sambucus, elder tree.
Yami
Yami is “goddess of the Yamuna river” in Sanskrit and “darkness” in Japanese.
Banshee
”Woman of the fairy mound.”
Shani
”Scarlet,” or Saturn, slow planet of Hindu astrology.
Clove
From Latin clavus, nail.
Styx
”Hate”. Gods swore their oaths by this river.
Truffle
From Latin tuber, lump.
Maura
Saint Maura (”dark-skinned”) of Antinoe is honored in Egypt and the Middle East.
Yoru
Yoru in Japanese means night.
Hela
As per Norse myths Hela is Loki’s daughter and ruler of the dead.
Pepper
From Sanskrit pippali, long pepper.
Vanta
It comes from vertically aligned nanotube arrays, a coating that swallows light.
Midnight
Middle of night.
Dubheasa
“Dark beauty of the waterfall”.
Noire
Noire is the French feminine of noir and has origins in the Latin niger (”dark”).
Bramble
From Old English braembel, thorny shrub.
Cricket
From Old French criquer, to creak.
Tulip
”Turban.”
Vampira
”Vampire,” and TV’s first horror host.
Eris
”Strife,” and her golden apple started a war.
Sandhya
”Twilight.”
Agate
From Achates, a river in Sicily.
Carmilla
Carmilla (”garden”) is Le Fanu’s vampire, older than Dracula.
Sumi
In Japanese Sumi is symbolizing “black ink” or ”clear.”
Nisha
Sanskrit nisha, night.
Ebony
Ebony has Latin origins and is meaning “deep black wood.” It is one of the few woods dense enough to sink in water. Eboni and Ebonee are spelling variations.
Goma
”Sesame,” an official Shiba Inu coat color.
Lethe
Forgetfulness.
Tourmaline
From Sinhalese toramalli, mixed gems.
Morticia
It has roots in the Latin mortis (“death”). In the Wednesday television show Morticia Addams is played by actress Jenna Ortega.
Nemesis
Retribution.
Caligo
”Mist.” Caligo is also an owl butterfly genus with eye-spot wings.
Satin
It comes from Arabic zaytuni, ”of Zaitun,” a Chinese port.
Atropos
”Inflexible.”
Eve
”Life” or ”evening.”
Devaney
Devaney is the Anglicised form of O Duibheamhna that combines dubh and Eamhain, the fort at Navan. In 1612 bishop Conor O’Devany was executed in Dublin.
Anko
”Bean paste.”
Circe
”Hawk,” as well as a witch who changes men into pigs.
Starling
From Old English staer, a speckled songbird, and a flock is a murmuration.
Badb
”Battle crow.”
Ganache
”Jowl.”
Belladonna
”Beautiful lady”. Italian women used its drops to widen their pupils.
Velvet
“Soft-napped fabric.”
Carey
”Black” or ”dark” with Irish roots.
Sable
Sable is symbolizing ”near-black coloration.”
Blakesley
Blakesley is a village in Northamptonshire and means “black wolf’s wood/clearing”.
Smudge
”A dark smear.”
Treacle
From Greek theriake, an antidote for venom.
Bianca
Bianca is Italian for ”white,” and I love that joke on a black pup.
Nyx
Greek for night, and a primordial goddess. Nyx is seen as the only goddess Zeus feared.
Mamba
From Zulu imamba. Black mambas get their name from an inky mouth.
Nightingale
”Night singer.”
Aubergine
From Persian badingan, eggplant.
Adrienne
Adrienne is the French feminine form of Adrian that comes from Latin Hadrianus, “of Hadria,” a town in northern Italy.
Tenebrae
Latin tenebrae has the sense of darkness.
Nocturne
”Of the night”, from Latin nocturnus.
Mascara
From Italian maschera, ”mask.”
Rajani
Night.
Hex
”Witch,” ”spell,” ”curse,” and ”six” in Greek.
Morena
Spanish morena means a brunette woman.
Opal
”Precious stone.” Black opal comes from Lightning Ridge in Australia.
Celaeno
”The dark one.”
Mực
”Ink” or ”squid,” and Vietnam’s classic moniker for a black dog.
Kara
Turkish kara is symbolizing black and the north.
Kolbrún
”Coal-black brows.”
Calypso
”She who hides,” and a song style from Trinidad.
Kalma
”Scent of death.”
Mab
Queen Mab (”she who intoxicates”) brings dreams in Romeo and Juliet.
Persephone
”Bringer of death.”
Cassis
”Blackcurrant,” or a fishing port near Marseille.
Abyss
From Greek abyssos, bottomless.
Pearl
”Precious.”
Ratri
Night, and a Vedic goddess with a Rigveda hymn.
Jinx
It comes from Greek iynx, wryneck, a bird used in charms.
Dahlia
”Valley,” after Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.
Strega
”Sorceress.”
Nori
”Seaweed,” ”law,” ”rule” or ”chronicle.”
Cinder
From Old English sinder, slag.
Ink
From Greek enkauston, ”burned in.”
Domino
”Lord.”
Audrey
Audrey (”noble strength”) Hepburn wore a black Givenchy dress in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Delaney
”Dark challenger.”
Related articles
275 Unique Chinese Dog Names And Their Meanings
288 Cute Korean Dog Names With Meanings
Spiritual Dog Names (Male & Female) With Meanings
Unusual Black and White Dog Names (Male & Female)
Cute Brown Dog Names (female & male) With Meanings
