Dog Names that Start with Na

The world of children’s books, picture books, movies, and cartoons is rampant with stories and illustrations of animals, mostly dogs and cats, which are significant characters in the lives of the storybook kids.  Sometimes, these canine characters possess human-like mannerisms and abilities which require some imagination for we adults to process.  For children, however, these delightful tales not only entertain them, but they also teach them valuable lessons for their lives.  We would guess that many of our readers and pet owners grew up either reading or watching the variety of “Peter Pan” movies and books - and there are more than you may think or remember!  

J. M. Barrie was the author of the original play, written in the early 1900’s, and his writing fashioned Nana as a Newfoundland Dog, bearing a striking resemblance to one of his beloved dogs, Luath, a black and white Landseer Newfoundland.  Some of the literary works created after him by others who followed, frequently depict Barrie’s Nana as a Saint. Bernard.  The ironic thing about this last fact is that, in the production of the original play, “Nana” was portrayed by a man wearing a dog costume!  

There were many literary and film-based works based upon the original play as well as those coming later in the subsequent versions, ranging from 1904 to 2017.  It seems that “Nana” was portrayed most often in them as a Saint Bernard Dog instead of the Newfoundland Dog of which Barrie originally wrote and specified as such quite clearly in his original script for Peter Pan. One can only assume that they substituted the Saint Bernard breed because of its popularity.  

In the play, Nana played the role of a “nanny” to the Darling children as a result of the financial constraints which did not allow the family to be able to afford a human one.  Being a dog, she was limited to that which she could do with “paws,” but was able to give medications, baths and herd the children when and where necessary.  Nana was able to alert the parents when the children disappeared with Peter, and she was there when they returned safely to their beds.  Displaying love and devotion beyond her species, Nana demonstrated the very personification of the valuable traits to which we humans are able to avail ourselves.