D&D Dog Names

Q: What do you name a D&D dog?

Pick a register and stay in it. The tavern hearth names the dog after the room he works: Gravy, Farthing, Tankard. The warband names him like a soldier: Sentry, Vanguard, Quarrel. The virtue lane, lent from the published tiefling convention, names him after a promise: Devotion, Constancy. Three registers, one dog, choose the table that fits.

Q: Should my dog’s name sound like my character’s?

Keep the registers separate. Character names follow ancestry conventions, dwarf clan names, elven given names, and the D&D name generator owns those tables. A companion carries a smaller name, a call name, and the virtue and tavern lanes here are built exactly for that scale.

Farthing is a small coin, and a small dog that costs you one. The tavern register in one receipt. This table holds 47 companion names across six lanes, each rooted in a D&D convention or labeled invented where it is a build.

Prefer the tool? Open them in the generator. Every name comes with a receipt.

What are D&D dog names?

47 names, six lanes, one rule. The tavern lane names the dog after the room that feeds him. The warband lane names him like a soldier of the company. The gait lane names the motion. The virtue lane lends the published tiefling convention. The canon lane cites named dogs of record. The invented lane builds race-style coinages and says so on every row.

Grouped by lane. The root column is the receipt column.

D&D dog names with roots, meanings and lanes
Name	Meaning	Root	Lane
The tavern hearth: food and coin words from the common room
Gravy	the good part of the plate	food lane	tavern name
Mutton	sheep on the menu, hound under the table	food lane	tavern name
Barley	the grain before ale	food lane	tavern name
Tankard	the drinking vessel; the tavern pup	object word	tavern name
Crumb	what the floor owes him	food lane	tavern name
Supper	the appointment he keeps	food lane	tavern name
Mead	the honey drink	food lane	tavern name
Porridge	breakfast of the party camp	food lane	tavern name
Pasty	the folded miner’s lunch	food lane	tavern name
Stew	where he earned the name	food lane	tavern name
Bannock	the griddle round, frontier bread	food lane	tavern name
Farthing	a small coin; a small dog that costs you one	coin word	tavern name
Groats	the smallest grain money	coin word	tavern name
The warband: rank and gear words; the dog as a soldier of the company
Bastion	the fort word; holds the line	rank word	warband name
Vanguard	the front of the column	rank word	warband name
Rampart	the wall that walks with you	rank word	warband name
Trooper	the rank that endures	rank word	warband name
Marshal	the one who arrays the line	rank word	warband name
Sentry	stands the watch and takes it seriously	rank word	warband name
Quarrel	a crossbow bolt; and yes, also that	weapon word	warband name
Pommel	the sword’s seat and the saddle’s grip	weapon word	warband name
Halberd	the pole arm; the long reach	weapon word	warband name
Pavise	the shield that stands alone	weapon word	warband name
Thane	the retainer lord, the rank word	rank word	warband name
Yeoman	the steady freeholder	rank word	warband name
The gait and sound lane: what the dog does, named for it
Blink	from the blink dog: here, then elsewhere	monster-register loan	gait name
Howl	the long announcement	sound word	gait name
Bounder	one who travels by leap	gait word	gait name
Lope	the easy fast gait	gait word	gait name
Bay	the deep voice at the treeline	sound word	gait name
The virtue lane: the published tiefling virtue convention, lent to a companion
Devotion	first of the vows, first at the door	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Fidelity	keeps the watch after the party sleeps	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Valor	does not check the odds first	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Charity	drops the coin at the orphanage door	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Sincerity	cannot lie, even to the guard	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Merit	earned, not given	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Constancy	the same dog in every town	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
Temper	the virtue of the forge, held	virtue name, tiefling convention lent	virtue name
The canon lane: named dogs from licensed game canon
Scratch	canon: the camp dog of the licensed Baldur’s Gate 3 game	licensed game canon	canon name
The invented lane: race-style builds, labeled invented
Snorrik	dwarf-style build, invented here	invented build	invented name
Trundle	the gait word, minted as a name	invented build	invented name
Barkus	bark + -us, the joke build, invented	invented build	invented name
Koben	dwarf-style build, invented here	invented build	invented name
Dart	the real word; the speed lane	real word	invented name
Fennas	elven-style build, invented here	invented build	invented name
Borinn	dwarf-style build, invented here	invented build	invented name
Karrak	deep-register build, invented here	invented build	invented name

The Monster-Register receipt

Dogs are in the books, and the books name them by species. The Monster Manual's dog family is a real citable register, and each entry lends a naming lane to the table above. The best of them gave the table its cleanest name outright:

The Monster Manual dog family and what it lends a name
The monster	The register	What it lends a name
Mastiff	the Monster Manual’s guard dog	the plain brave line a name can stand on
Wolf	the pack hunter of the first dungeon	pack words and loyalty framing
Worg	the evil-souled mount of goblins	a menace register for the big scary boy
Blink Dog	teleports mid-stride	lends the table its best dog name: Blink
Death Dog	the two-headed curse hound	the omen lane, for a dog with presence

For characters of the playable ancestries, the published naming tables live on the D&D name generator.

The virtue convention

The Player's Handbook gives tieflings virtue names, and companions wear them well. A tiefling named Devotion chose the word as a life rule; a hound named Devotion proves it twice a day, at the door and at the fire. The lending is the move, and the table labels every virtue row with it. The full ancestry convention, infernal roots included, runs on the tiefling name generator.

The real-dog sound rules, two beats and no command soundalikes, sit in the how to name a pet guide, and they still apply at the table.

Canon companions and the family

The companion lists travel together. The umbrella page carries the rules receipts, familiars, mounts and sidekicks; the cat page carries the familiar shapes; and the general fantasy register holds the myth-and-morphology lane:

D&D pet names: the companion umbrella, find-familiar and find-steed included.
D&D cat names: the familiar shapes and the canon cats.
Fantasy pet names: the invented-build register, labeled per row.

D&D dog names questions, answered

What do you name a D&D dog?

Pick a register and stay in it. The tavern hearth names the dog after the room he works: Gravy, Farthing, Tankard. The warband names him like a soldier: Sentry, Vanguard, Quarrel. The virtue lane, lent from the published tiefling convention, names him after a promise: Devotion, Constancy. Three registers, one dog, choose the table that fits.

Is Scratch a canon D&D dog?

Yes: the camp dog of Baldur's Gate 3, the licensed game, and the best-known companion dog in modern D&D play. The canon row is flagged canon because the receipt matters: named animals from published or licensed material get the source line, same rule as every other list on this site.

Should my dog’s name sound like my character’s?

Keep the registers separate. Character names follow ancestry conventions, dwarf clan names, elven given names, and the D&D name generator owns those tables. A companion carries a smaller name, a call name, and the virtue and tavern lanes here are built exactly for that scale.

Where this data comes from. The Monster-Register table cites the fifth-edition Monster Manual dog family. The virtue lane cites the tiefling virtue-name convention in the Player's Handbook. Scratch is canon from Baldur's Gate 3, a licensed game; the receipt is the source line, not a claim on the setting. Invented builds are labeled invented per the site rule. Where every name's receipt comes from →