75 Strong Black Dog Names With Meaning & Origins

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.

Black Male Dog Names:

Hades

Greek, “the unseen one.”

Twilight

Twilight is made of the Old English prefix twi, “two” or “half,” and light.

Ozzy

Short for Osbourne, a surname from Old Norse Asbjorn, “god bear.” The connection to a black coat is via Black Sabbath.

Smokey

“Smoke-colored”. In 1952 Congress passed the “Smokey Bear Act” after a cub was rescued from a New Mexico wildfire.

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.

Kardama

Sanskrit for ”mud” or ”mire” and is also connected to the Prajapati sage in the Puranas.

Maleficent

Latin maleficus and means “doing harm.”

John Wick

Wick has roots in Old English wic and is meaning ”dwelling” or ”hamlet” that itself is from Latin vicus.

Mickey

Shortened from Michael, Hebrew for “who is like God?”.

Grim

Grim is from the Old Norse Grimr, from grima, a mask or hood. It is one of Odin’s bynames.

Neo

Greek neos, “new,” and an anagram of One, which the film (Matrix) hints at deliberately.

Blake

Blake has origins in the Old English blaec (means “black”) and blac (“pale”). Save

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.

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 that means”enduring.”

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.

Colby

“Someone who lives in a coal town.”

Blackjack

The game is from France as vingt-et-un.

Cosmo

Cosmo is from the Greek kosmos, ”order and arrangement.”

Bezalel

It has Hebrew roots and is meaning “in the shadow of God” .Pronounced as BET-zal-el, Bezalel was the craftsman who was selected in Exodus to build the Ark and the Tabernacle.

Morrigan

Old Irish Mor-Rigan, means “phantom queen” or “great queen”.

Corvus

Corvus is Latin for the raven as well as a constellation located south of Virgo.

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 the Northern English legends.

Nero

Italian for black, off Latin niger. The emperor has no part in it: his name is Sabine and reached Rome from the Claudian family.

Krishna

Sanskrit krishna is symbolizing black and dark blue in one word.

Duffy

Irish O Dubhthaigh, descendant of Dubthach.

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.

Batman

A batman is a soldier-servant who takes care of officers’ baggage. It comes from Old French bat an means ”packsaddle.”

Diesel

Diesel is a short form of Dietrich or Matthias and means “son of Dietrich” or “little Matthias”.

Black Female Dog Names:

Kala

In Sanskrit kala means “black” and “time” and is the root of the Hindu goddess of death Kali.

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.

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.

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”.

Hesperia

“Western land” or ”evening star.”

Negra

Spanish feminine of negro and comes from the Latin niger.

Esmeray

Esmeray is composed of the Turkish elements esmer (that means ”dusky”) and ay (”moon”). It is pronounced as ES-meh-ray.

Sabbath

Hebrew shabbat and is meaning ”to stop” or ”to rest.”

Elvira

”Truth” or ”happy.”

Bellatrix

Bellatrix means ”female warrior”. Nicknames that I like are Bella and Trix.

Eclipse

Eclipse comes from Greek ekleipsis and is meaning “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.

Sombra

Spanish for shadow. It produced sombrero, a type of wide-brimmed hat.

Merle

French for the blackbird and comes from Latin merula. Merle is also an incompletely dominant coat color pattern.

Yami

Yami means “goddess of the Yamuna river” in Sanskrit and “darkness” in Japanese.

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.

Dubheasa

“Dark beauty of the waterfall”.

Noire

Noire is the French feminine of noir and has origins in the Latin niger (”dark” or ”black”).

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.

Morticia

It has roots in the Latin mortis (“death”). In the Wednesday television show Morticia Addams is played by actress Jenna Ortega,

Devaney

Devaney is the Anglicised form of O Duibheamhna that combines dubh (means ”black”) and Eamhain, the fort at Navan. In 1612 bishop Conor O’Devany was executed in Dublin.

Velvet

“Soft-napped fabric.”

Carey

It means ”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”.

Nyx

Greek for night, and a primordial goddess. Nyx is seen as the only goddess Zeus feared.

Adrienne

Adrienne is the French feminine form of Adrian that comes from Latin Hadrianus, “of Hadria,” a town in northern Italy.