Dog Names That Start With W

Sweet, modern descriptive name, but perhaps a little too cute for its own good.

A fairly common nickname in England that has never caught on in America. The rise of acronyms like MILF and DILF probably won't help its prospects going forward.

Eighties spin on megapopular Whitney that currently ranks higher than the original. Whitley fell out of the Top 1000 for several decades but resurfaced in 2018.

Classic Wilhelmina is still the dominant form of this name, but the more intuitive, streamlined Willamina is rising alongside it. The phonetic spelling eliminates some of Wilhelmina's bulk, taking it from geek-chic to modern feminissima.

Proper Bostonian.

A Leave It to Beaver/old comic-strip name, vacationing for years with the Griswolds in WallyWorld, but now back as WALL-E?

Wylie is one Celtic surname with as much appeal for girls as for boys. Wylie is ripe for spelling variations: Wiley is as appropriate as Wylie but when you spell it Wylei, as Corey Parker did for his son, you're getting into yooneek naming territory.

The Wolfe spelling shifts this name from animal name to surname-name, aggressive to aristocratic. One source suggests that bearers of the Wolfe family name were all fierce and cunning and/or hunters of wolves. An intriguing choice.

Unfortunate identification with an army of rats in the movie of the same name.

An ancient saint's name belonging to an 8th century English missionary. Variants include Walpurga and Walpurgis.

There have been many great Willies (Mays, Nelson, Wonka), but a boy with this name could never ever go to England. Most people will also assume it is short for the more traditional William, which might be the best avenue for achieving this nickname.

William was such a popular name, thanks to the Conquerer, in early England that it gave rise to a range of nicknames, including the distinctly Scottish Wilkie. Heard mostly as a surname these days, it's the middle name of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's son James and the first name of writer Collins. While Wilkie could make an adorable short form for a little boy, we'd recommend a more substantial full name such as, well, William.

See WYNTON.

Windsor may have male references, such as Britain's royal House of Windsor and a tie's windsor knot, but this name also has a definite feminine feel, as in Windsor Rose. That seems appropriate, as Windsor is used equally these days for boys and girls. Nicknames might include Win, Wind, Windy, and Winnie.

Wellington is a tony-sounding English surname turned baby name by pregnancy guru Rosie Pope, who calls her son Wells for short. It's also the middle name of one of the Sweet Home sextuplets, Blu Wellington.

Its jaunty o-ending makes this name more appealing than most of its Germanic brothers, and we hope we're beyond the constant response to his name being "Where's Waldo?" The weighty reputation of writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson adds a measure of backbone to the name.

A domesticated take on Wolf, if the animal name is too ferocious for your liking. Wolfie has never charted as a given name in the US, but that may soon change now that Wolf names are of interest following Kylie Jenner's baby name change.

Native-American feel via similarity to Winona.

Windsor may have male references, such as Britain's royal House of Windsor and a tie's windsor knot, but this name also has a definite feminine feel, as in Windsor Rose. That seems appropriate, as Windsor is used equally these days for boys and girls.

One of the few rainbow names that is masculine, Walken is a Noongar Aboriginal word.