Garfield and Friends Inspired Dog Names

When it comes to cartoon dogs, Odie still stands as one of the most easily identified, up there with the tenured likes of Snoopy, Droopy, Goofy, Pluto and Scooby Doo. While he may not have quite the same longevity as others in the group, it’s hard to deny that a dog created in 1978 is still gracing television and theater screens with regularity, thanks to several resurgences of Garfield’s popularity (plus he’s one of few famous cartoon dogs without an -oo sound). 

Even though Odie’s features aren’t terribly refined, he does have a few distinct features that have remained steadfast throughout his existence and as such, he carries the distinction of being a wire-haired dachshund and terrier mix. The most notable are his brown ears, his yellow fur, his single spot and his large and lengthy tongue, of which he almost always has hanging half out of his face so he can employ it as the intimidating licking machine it is. Up until 1997, he was a regular walk-on-all-fours kind of dog, but after October of that year, he was depicted as walking upright like Garfield. This realignment opened big doors down the road, as Odie took on the ability to dance and was prominently featured this way in the first feature film adaptation of the comic strip/cartoon. 

Unlike Garfield, Odie’s background is a bit more cloudy, as it took several renditions of his backstory and name to end up the cartoon dog we know and love today. His name originally came from a car dealership commercial Jim Davis wrote in the 1970s, centered around a character named Odie the Village Idiot. When Davis originally submitted Garfield, Odie’s name was actually Spot (for good reason given his appearance), but when he went to talk to fellow cartoonist Mort Walker, Walker told him that he had already employed a dog named Spot in one of his own comic strips. Liking the name from his previous commercial work, Davis decided to adapt the name to his yellow-furred cartoon canine. 

One of the most notable aspects of Odie’s character is that he is often framed and looked at by both Jon and Garfield as a bit of an idiot, but numerous times throughout both the comic strip and television show, he outsmarts the pair of them, proving that, like many dogs, he lets on that he’s a dunce when he’s really just using how he’s perceived as a means to make his own gains.