If you just got an awesome new best friend then you need some awesome dog names for your new pooch to choose from. I hope to give you some great ideas. I also hope to get some great ideas from you. If you have some awesome dog names please leave them in a comment.

So how do you pick a name? Should you be gender specific? Should it fit the breed? Well I can tell you the dog really isn’t going to care. It should be something that you like and will be happy saying hundreds of times a week.

I have a friend that has a little 4 pound mix that looks like a dust mop with legs and a little bark you can barely hear. She is the cutest thing. Her name is Cujo. Obviously it doesn’t fit in any way but I think the name is perfect.

There are some general guidelines you should follow. Don’t pick a name that has too many syllables.  Awesome dog names will be 1 or 2 syllables. It’s not a rule that is written in stone though. You can fudge here a little since most dogs can’t count that well anyway. Kind of like congress.

Don’t use a name that sounds to much like a dog command.  Most dogs don’t know the difference between Mitt and sit or Ray and stay. Of course if you’re not going to train the dog it really doesn’t matter. Of course, dog training is not that difficult.

It should be something that comes easily to the lips. Some people like to use funny names, but don’t use something that is going to embarrass you. I heard of a guy that named his dog Guess. You can imagine his amusement when people would ask the dog’s name. “What’s your dog’s name?” … “Guess”

Don’t use a name that sounds like the name or nickname of someone else in the family. You don’t want the dog jumping in your lap when you call someones name, especially if it’s in the middle of a passionate encounter. It can also be very confusing if it sounds like the name of a child. Especially for the child.

Awesome dog names should not be a word that is going to be used often. I wouldn’t want to name my dog Tequila, Beer or Fajita. It would be really confused.

Make sure that you choose a name the dog will grow into if it’s a pup. You want the name to grow with the dog. You don’t want to be calling your German Shepard “Fluffy” when you are trying to stop it from biting the mailman.

There are many ways to pick an awesome dog name. You can be descriptive of the way the dog looks. Rusty for a Irish Setter, Spot for a Dalmatian or Shorty for a Great Dane. They can reflect the origin of the dog, the sex of the dog or the personality. The name you choose can reflect nothing. It can be a name or word you like. Dogs really don’t care what you call them as long as you call them.  Especially for dinner.

So here are a few awesome dog names to get us going: Elvis, Lassie, Buddy, Shadow, Bandit, Badger, Astro, Lady, Killer, Bruiser, Freeway, Midnight, Sparky, Radar, Lucky, Frisbee, Speedy, Comet, Coco, Hero, Tango, Cowboy, Rusty, Barkley, Big Mac, Poseidon, Dozer, Tequila, Chico, Jalapeno, Alpha, Apollo, Blackjack, Biscuit, Bonzo, Zeus and Cujo.