Note: In 2026, dogs’ names in France must begin with "B".
Until 1926, there was no rule in France governing the names of dogs registered with the LOF. In 1926, the S.C.C. decided that all dogs born in the same year would have names beginning with the same letter, which would make the work of dog genealogists easier. The letter "Z" was excluded because it was thought that there were not enough names beginning with this letter in French. It should be noted that, for several years afterwards, some breeders did not follow this new rule.
The only change to this system occurred in 1972, when the Commission Nationale d'Amélioration Génétique (National Committee for Genetic Improvement) decided to standardize the yearly letters for all animals. Five letters (K, Q, W, X and Y) were removed for the same reason that had led to the exclusion of "Z" in 1926, and it was decided that "I" would be used in 1973.
Note: with the advent of typewriters, the French Kennel Club decided to use only capital letters for dog names, and not to include accents and special characters. This is still the case today, and many letters and accented characters used in French cannot be used in dog names: À, à, Â, â, Æ, æ, Ç, ç, É, é, È, è, Ê, ê, Ë, ë, Î, î, Ï, ï, Ô, ô, Œ, œ, Ù, ù, Û, û, Ü, ü, Ÿ, ÿ.
The following table summarizes the letters used for dog names in France since 1926:
| 1926 | A | 1936 | K | 1946 | U | 1956 | F | 1966 | P | 1976 | M | 1986 | B | 1996 | M | 2006 | B | 2016 | M |
| 1927 | B | 1937 | L | 1947 | V | 1957 | G | 1967 | Q | 1977 | N | 1987 | C | 1997 | N | 2007 | C | 2017 | N |
| 1928 | C | 1938 | N | 1948 | W | 1958 | H | 1968 | R | 1978 | O | 1988 | D | 1998 | O | 2008 | D | 2018 | O |
| 1929 | D | 1939 | M | 1949 | X | 1959 | I | 1969 | S | 1979 | P | 1989 | E | 1999 | P | 2009 | E | 2019 | P |
| 1930 | E | 1940 | O | 1950 | Y | 1960 | J | 1970 | T | 1980 | R | 1990 | F | 2000 | R | 2010 | F | 2020 | R |
| 1931 | F | 1941 | P | 1951 | A | 1961 | K | 1971 | U | 1981 | S | 1991 | G | 2001 | S | 2011 | G | 2021 | S |
| 1932 | G | 1942 | Q | 1952 | B | 1962 | L | 1972 | V | 1982 | T | 1992 | H | 2002 | T | 2012 | H | 2022 | T |
| 1933 | H | 1943 | R | 1953 | C | 1963 | M | 1973 | I | 1983 | U | 1993 | I | 2003 | U | 2013 | I | 2023 | U |
| 1934 | I | 1944 | S | 1954 | D | 1964 | N | 1974 | J | 1984 | V | 1994 | J | 2004 | V | 2014 | J | 2024 | V |
| 1935 | J | 1945 | T | 1955 | E | 1965 | O | 1975 | L | 1985 | A | 1995 | L | 2005 | A | 2015 | L | 2025 | A |
In some other countries, breeders must give the puppies in
their first litter names beginning with "A", those in their second litter
names beginning with "B", and so on.
Breeders in countries without a specific naming system often adopt this system.
Note: Since many breeders have only one litter in their lifetime, in countries where this system is used, more dogs have names beginning with "A" than with any other letter.
An affix is a kennel name granted to a breeder for life. It makes it possible to identify the dogs they have bred by their names. A dog is given the affix of the bitch’s owner at the time of mating.
-It is a suffix when placed after the dog’s name (this is generally the case in Romance-speaking countries). For example, 'Vrac du Rocher des Jastres' is named 'Vrac' with the affix 'du Rocher des Jastres'.
-It is a prefix when placed before the dog’s name (this is generally the case in English-speaking countries):
"Happiness Vulcain" is named "Vulcain" (some people call that its surname) with the affix "Happiness".
If the bitch's owner does not have an affix at the time of mating, the dog will never have one.
The last sentence of the previous paragraph applies in continental Europe, but England has a slightly different system: when the breeder sells a dog to its first owner, the new owner can add their affix to the dog’s name. After that, the dog’s name will not change, even if ownership changes.
This system is sometimes used in the USA. For example: "Phantom Force of Northland" is named "Force"; he was produced by Beth Cephil (affix: "Phantom"), who sold him to Mr. North (affix: "Northland"). The dog then took his new owner’s affix as a suffix. Under this name, he sired puppies bearing this affix (e.g. "NorthLand's Jewel").
However, there is an exception to the French rule prohibiting name changes: a nickname can be added between the time a dog is identified and the time the S.C.C. issues its birth certificate.
This is because breeders generally do not know who the new owner will be when they identify the dog. The new owner may be unhappy with the chosen name and may prefer a different one. To keep a record of this nickname, it is added to the birth certificate after "dit" (for a male dog) or "dite" (for a female dog), which mean "called" or "alias" in French.
For example, "Colt dit Chably du Fief d'Epsom" was originally registered as "Colt du Fief d'Epsom". His new owner wanted to call him "Chably", so this nickname was added.
In some cases, a dog has a nickname that does not appear in any official document. To keep track of this nickname, I add "alias XXX" after the dog’s name in the database. For example, "Luron du Rocher des Jastres" who was called "Mobylette" is called in the database "Luron du Rocher des Jastres alias Mobylette".
When two dogs have the same name and no nickname can be used to distinguish between them, I add a number to the end of the name.This system was invented in France by Dr H. Castaing in 1904, before the adoption of the simpler "one letter per year" system; it
was described on the second page of his pedigree template (see pedigree of "Vic
de l'Antenne") and in "Fram, chien d'arrêt" by Colonel Dommanget.
The name consists of three parts:
1- A first name beginning with a letter corresponding to the year of birth (A for 1901 and 1926, Z for 1925 and 1950, etc.). This name is always written entirely in uppercase letters.
2- A matronymic family name, i.e. a family name passed down through the mother. The final vowel of this name is changed to indicate the generation. This is called the 'chronopentascale' system (from 'penta,' meaning 'five' in Greek, for the five vowels: 'a' for the 1st generation, 'e' for the 2nd, 'i' for the 3rd, 'o' for the 4th, and 'u' for the 5th).
3- The breeder’s affix (kennel name)
Here is an example:
- "DRAGONNE-Maba-Fram", born in 1904, in the "Fram" kennel, from the bitch "Mab de Bellefontaine".
- The daughter of "DRAGONNE-Maba-Fram" born in 1906 will be called "FANNY-Mabe-Fram".
- If "FANNY-Mabe-Fram" is sold to the "Bretagne" kennel her daughter born in 1909 will be called "IRA-Mabi-Bretagne", etc.
- When all five vowels have been used, a '1' will be added. So, the offspring of 'Mab de Bellefontaine' at the 8th generation will have the matronymic family name 'Mabi 1'.
Ace: Batman is a fictional character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in Detective Comics # 27 in 1939. He is a superhero without superpowers. Ace was a German Shepherd originally owned by an engraver named John Wilker. Batman and Robin found him after his master was kidnapped by a gang of counterfeiters. Batman used Ace to try to locate Wilker.
Bali: The comic strip "Baptiste and Bali", by André-Philippe Côté, tells the adventures and misadventures of a tramp named Baptiste and his dog, Bali.
Bill: Boule and Bill is a Belgian cartoon named after its two main characters, created in 1959 by Jean Roba, and continued since 2003 by Laurent Verron. The series follows the adventures of Boule, a seven-year-old boy, and his dog, a cocker spaniel named Bill. Also present are Boule's mother and father, Caroline the turtle, the neighbour and her cat Corporal.
Buck: The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. Buck, a 3-year-old dog, lives a comfortable life in the Santa Clara Valley with his owner, Judge Miller. One day, Manuel, the Judge's gardener, steals Buck and sells him to be used as a sled dog (during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, sledge dogs were expensive). He and the vicious, quarrelsome lead dog, Spitz, develop a rivalry. Buck eventually defeats Spitz in a major fight. Buck then becomes the leader of the pack. He is sold several times until becoming the property of John Thornton, an experienced and respectable man. One night, he returns from a short hunt to find his beloved master and the others in the camp have been killed by a group of Yeehat Indians. Buck eventually kills the Indians to avenge Thornton. After realizing his old life is a thing of the past, Buck follows the wolf into the forest and answers the call of the wild.
Capi: Sans famille (Without Family) is a French novel by Hector Malot, published in 1878. Remi, a foundling, is sold to Vitalis, an old street musician. They are both on the road. Vitalis dies, and Remi, left alone, searches for his real family from the Auvergne region to England. He meets a group of terrifying robbers or child molesters, but becomes friends with animals, including a little monkey named Pretty Heart and the dog Capi.
Cerberus: In Greek mythology, Cerberus is the three-headed dog who guards the entrance to Hades, to prevent those who have crossed the river Styx from ever escaping.
Cubitus: Cubitus (Dommel in Dutch) is a Franco-Belgian cartoon created by Dupa in Tintin magazine in 1968. 39 albums were released between 1972 and 2002 by Le Lombard. Following the death of Dupa in 2000, Michel Rodrigue replaced him. Since 2005, with the help of screenwriter Peter Aucaigne, he has been making The New Adventures of Cubitus. The series tells the stories of Cubitus, a big, white, debonair dog endowed with speech. Cubitus lives in a suburban home with his owner Sémaphore, retired marine and his neighbor Sénéchal, his nemesis (although sometimes it is his best friend or companion). In the album "A Dog May Hide Another", Cubitus’s nephew, Bidule, appears in the series and meets Sémaphore and Sénéchal.
Kador: Les Bidochon is a French comic created by Binet, who writes and draws the stories. In one of their first adventures, the couple adopts an intellectual dog named Kador, the hero of an earlier four-volume series by the same author.
Lassie: Lassie is a collie, the heroine of Eric Knight's novel Lassie Come Home, which has inspired several films and television series. The first film based on the novel dates from 1943. In the series Lassie (1954-1974), she has several owners and, towards the end, goes her own way without a regular owner. In the 1970s, Lassie is the heroine of an animated series called Lassie Rescue Rangers. The first dog to play Lassie was named Pal. His owner, who could not handle him, hired Weatherwax Trained Dogs to train him. He sired many puppies before his death, and nine of his direct descendants succeeded him in the role. The others were adopted. All the dogs that played Lassie were male because females shed their coats once a year, making year-round filming impossible. Lassie's fame has reached such a level that she is, with Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart, one of the three dogs with a star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Mabrouk: Mabrouk (from an Arabic word meaning "happy, lucky") was the dog of the journalist Jean-Pierre Hutin, creator of the show 30 millions d'amis (30 Million Friends). He appeared on the show during demonstrations of sea and mountain rescues, as well as police-dog training. After the death of Mabrouk in 1982, a new dog was offered to Jean-Pierre Hutin by his colleagues in 1984, Mabrouk Junior, who became the new mascot of the show. After the death of Mabrouk Junior in 1996, his daughter Mabrouka took over as the show's new mascot. The official spelling of her name is H'Mabrouka to comply with French regulations on the initial letters of purebred dogs' names.
Montmorency: Montmorency is the fox terrier who accompanies the three friends on their journey. Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome about a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford. Because of the overwhelming success of Three Men in a Boat, Jerome later published a sequel, about a cycling tour in Germany, entitled Three Men on the Bummel.
Rover: Roverandom is a novella written by J.R.R. Tolkien and originally told in 1925. It deals with the adventures of a young dog, Rover. In the story, an irritable wizard turns Rover into a toy, and Rover goes to the moon and under the sea in order to find the wizard and be turned back into a normal-sized dog.
White fang: White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London. First published as a serial in Outing magazine, it appeared in book form in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory, Canada, during the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century, and details a wild wolfdog's journey to domestication. White Fang is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild, which concerns a kidnapped, domesticated dog who becomes a wild animal. Much of the novel is written from the viewpoint of its canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and humans. White Fang examines the violent worlds of wild animals and humans. The book also explores complex themes including morality and redemption.