Dog Names Meaning Elf

Judy was the name of a famous and heroic ship’s dog over fifty years ago, a name she later shared with the adorable cocoa-making elf from The Santa Clause and Judy, a liver and white Pointer breed dog, was just an indispensable to her crew as Judy the elf was to Santa Claus. She started out as a simple ship’s mascot just before World War II, but it was when a ship she was serving on went down in 1939 that she showed her true colors. She almost drowned, trapped under a bank of lockers on the ship, but was rescued when one of the crewmen returned to the vessel to retrieve the supplies. Both the crew and the dog were stranded on a desert island without a supply of fresh water. Fortunately, Judy was able to sniff out fresh water, allowing them to survive; unfortunately, the last British ship had vacated the area, and the group was taken by Japanese as prisoners of war. She was registered as a prisoner of war and was the only canine registered that way during the war, and it was there that she met Frank Williams, who became her closest companion. 

The dog endured beatings, wild animals, and maggot-ridden food to stay by his side. She alerted prisoners to dangerous wildlife like snakes and scorpions, as well as to the approach of the Japanese guards, who often threatened to shoot her. The men were transferred, and although Judy was not allowed on the ship, her buddy Frank taught her how to lie still when carried in a sack and he smuggled her onto the ship in a rice sack. When the ship was later torpedoed, he had no alternative but to shove her roughly out of a porthole in an attempt to save her life, then escaped the ship, only to be captured by the Japanese once again. He didn’t know where she was until reports of a dog rescuing drowning men came in; she had been helping flailing men to reach floating debris as well as actually allowing some to hang on to her while she swam them back to shore. She later found Frank again at the new camp but was sentenced to death by the guards due to a lice outbreak. She hid out in the jungle, and although they conducted sweeps to find the cunning canine, the guards were unable to find her. When the war ended Frank smuggled her aboard the rescuing ship, not informing the captain of her presence until they were three days from the shores of the United Kingdom. They convinced the captain to allow her to land, and after a mandatory six-month quarantine, she became known as Gunboat Judy and was awarded the Dicken Medal, the highest honor that can be given to animals in the military.