Where Did Your Breed's Name Originate?

[RiverStar-Aura]

Typical late night shower pondering and it struck me ... How did some breeds get their names? Mine are pretty self explanatory: Aussie Terrier (a terrier developed in Australia) and Norwich Terrier (a terrier from the Norwich area), however there are some that aren't quite so simple.

Ones that have me stumped (only as I'm too lazy to research myself! :laugh:) are: Whippet, Greyhound (were the originals really just "grey hounds"?), Kerry Blue (Kerry?) and Beagle to name a few.

Also, I remember reading (or being told) that Australian Shepherds are only named Aussie because it was to help increase their popularity in America (due to all things Australian being awesome!!). Is this true?

[Canisbellum]

Shar Pei meaning Sand Skin referring to their coarse prickly coats.

[cannibalgoldfish]

Shiba Inu has several possible name origins. Shiba may mean brushwood or little. (Inu means dog) So most people just say it means little brushwood dog :D

I sometimes think it translates to "Little devil spawn"

[Simply Grand]

From what I've read Australian Shepherds were named because the breed was developed in the U.S. using sheep dogs sent on ships with sheep from Australia to the U.S. The breed has been in existence for a while, prior to the 1980s rise in popularity of all things Aussie in the U.S.

[ninaky]

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Edited January 8, 2016 by ninaky

[Allerzeit]

Named after the German town of Rottweil :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottweil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottweiler

[Podengo]

Portuguese podengo pequeno = small (pequeno) rabbit hunting hound (podengo) from Portugal :)

[Roova]

Border terrier:

Easy to remember because they were first bred in the Cheviot Hills near the border of England and Scotland.

French bulldog :

In summary... the toy or miniature versions of a British Bulldogs were taken by English Nottingham lace makers (out of work because of machinery) to France to continue working their craft. They were thought to have been crossed with terriers and pugs and the French Bulldog evolved.

[DobieMum]

Dobermann is named after the gentleman who bred them originally Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann

[Mjosa]

Kerry Blue terrier. Developed in County Kerry Ireland, they were farm dogs.

On one of my trips to Ireland I went to a couple of dog shows and saw them untrimmed.

[helen]

Brittanys were named after the region they originated from in France

[Dewclaws]

Labrador, named in England after the sea the original dogs worked and swam in , replaced the name little Newfoundland .

Cairn terriers , named after 'cairns' groups of rocks the dogs would flush and dig out vermin from , replaced the name short haired sky terrier ,

[dragonwoman]

From what I've read Australian Shepherds were named because the breed was developed in the U.S. using sheep dogs sent on ships with sheep from Australia to the U.S. The breed has been in existence for a while, prior to the 1980s rise in popularity of all things Aussie in the U.S.

Nothing Australian in the dogs but they were used to work Australian sheep, we exported many merinos to US in late 19th, early 20th centuries...............dogs are from Europe, Basque shepherds went to US amongst other nationalities.....knowledgeable Aussie person says they can see Koolie traits in Aussies working, makes sense, Koolies came from Europe too...idea of breeds as such is pretty recent, dogs just came in "types" depending on their jobs in life, and their names usually derived from their locality or their job

[Lhok]

Akita named after the Akita prefecture in northern Japan.

--Lhok

[mita]

The 'Tibetan' part of Tibetan Spaniel is self-explanatory. They were a native Tibetan dog breed. The 'Spaniel' bit is more complicated, given that they are not spaniels in the sense of 'nose' dogs.

Tibet had always been closed for thousands of years to Western influence until a British army battalion came from their base in northern India & occupied Lhasa. When they marched out back to India (& back to the UK) in 1904, the men took dogs that'd become their pets.

The diary of a witness to the actual marching out is still in the British Library in London. A British officer describes the men taking 'their' dogs .... he said the mastiffs were 'as big as Welsh pit ponies'. And he said it was touching to see big, burly men carrying much loved little spaniel-like dogs in their arms. He said they resembled King Charles spaniels a bit.

So that's how the 'spaniel' bit got in .... 'spaniel' in the sense of a pet lapdog. But the little dogs already had a label in the Tibetan language ... which meant 'scissors dogs' in English. Because they were small as if they'd been cut down with scissors.

The officer in charge of the expedition sent 4 'tibbies' back to his wife in England where the English version 'Tibetan Spaniels' prevailed. All Tibetan Spaniels in the western world are descended from those 4.

Edited January 9, 2016 by mita

[DeltaCharlie]

Border Collies: Collie/colley means Useful Dog and they were traced back to the English/Scottish Border. Useful dogs from the Border.

Pyrenean Shepherds: Shepherds from the Pyrenees mountains in France.

[Little Gifts]

I'm a goober. My parents ended up with a keeshond dumped on them (rescue helped us rehome him) and back then I thought the word stood for 'barge dog' in whatever language/country they originated from. Apparently Kees was the nickname of some Dutch rebel leader that the breed was the mascot for and hond is the Dutch word for dog. Named back in the 18th century. You learn something new everyday!

[The Spotted Devil]

Spaniel type dogs were thought to have originated from Spain as early as 300AD. Paintings in the 16-17th C show dogs that look like ESS. Within the same litter the larger Springer Spaniels were used to "spring" or "flush" game whilst the smaller litter mates were used to hunt woodcock - ie Cocker Spaniels. Originally used to flush game for hawks, coursing hounds and nets they were particularly successful hunting dogs when the wheel lock firearm was invented.

Dalmatians - whilst they didn't originate from Dalmatia they were used to guard the border in the late 18th C.

[Simply Grand]

I'm a goober. My parents ended up with a keeshond dumped on them (rescue helped us rehome him) and back then I thought the word stood for 'barge dog' in whatever language/country they originated from. Apparently Kees was the nickname of some Dutch rebel leader that the breed was the mascot for and hond is the Dutch word for dog. Named back in the 18th century. You learn something new everyday!

Isn't Schipperke 'barge dog'? I didn't know where Keeshond came from either, interesting. I knew a man of Dutch origin once whose first name was Kees, it was 'Australianised' to be pronounced 'keys' but was probably meant to be 'case' as in 'Keeshond'.

[Simply Grand]

From what I've read Australian Shepherds were named because the breed was developed in the U.S. using sheep dogs sent on ships with sheep from Australia to the U.S. The breed has been in existence for a while, prior to the 1980s rise in popularity of all things Aussie in the U.S.

Nothing Australian in the dogs but they were used to work Australian sheep, we exported many merinos to US in late 19th, early 20th centuries...............dogs are from Europe, Basque shepherds went to US amongst other nationalities.....knowledgeable Aussie person says they can see Koolie traits in Aussies working, makes sense, Koolies came from Europe too...idea of breeds as such is pretty recent, dogs just came in "types" depending on their jobs in life, and their names usually derived from their locality or their job

Oh that's interesting, thanks dragonwoman. Makes sense really, dog that herds Aussie sheep = Aussie Shepherd.

It is so confusing for people who have never heard of them before though - "no, they're not actually Australian, and no, they are not related to the other Shepherd you've heard of (German)..."