Yorkie Name Generator

Call names for Yorkshire Terriers, drawn from the breed's home county: towns and dales like Whitby, Skipton and Wensley, mill words like Bobbin and Shuttle, tea-time names like Parkin and Crumpet, plus tiny, silky and big-dog picks such as Thimble, Pewter and Tank.

About Yorkie names

The Yorkshire Terrier is named after its county, so this list starts there. The breed took shape in the mill towns of Victorian Yorkshire, where small terriers kept the rats down, and a dog called Huddersfield Ben, born in 1865, is regarded as its foundation sire. That history gives you place names such as Whitby, Ilkley, Skipton and Haworth, dales and rivers (Wensley, Swale, Nidd, Wharfe) and weaving words such as Bobbin, Shuttle, Spindle and Loom. Dialect adds Tyke, which can mean a Yorkshire native or a scrappy little dog, along with Nowt, Summat and Bairn.

Yorkshire also feeds the list: Pudding, Parkin, Crumpet, Rhubarb and Pomfret, the old name for Pontefract and its liquorice cakes. The Brontë sisters wrote at Haworth, so Heathcliff, Cathy, Eyre and Keeper, Emily Brontë's own dog, sit beside moorland names like Heather, Bracken and Curlew.

The rest is about the dog in front of you: tiny names (Thimble, Button, Tuppence), coat names for the steel blue and tan (Silky, Pewter, Tawny, Tansy), bow and topknot names (Ribbon, Duchess, Lady Muck) and big-dog jokes for a terrier that fears nothing (Tank, Brutus, Goliath). Smoky is here too, after the Yorkie who served beside an American soldier in the Second World War.

How to choose Yorkie names

• Choose one or two clear syllables for everyday calling, such as Whitby, Bobbin, Parkin or Tansy, and keep a longer one like Huddersfield Ben or Appletreewick for the paperwork.
• Say a place name the local way before you commit. Keighley is said Keeth-ley, Masham is Massam, Rievaulx is Ree-vo and Slaithwaite is Slawit, which is why the list spells it that way.
• Yorkie puppies are born black and tan, and the steel blue comes in as the coat grows out. Black and Tan suits a puppy for a while; Pewter, Slate, Steel and Tawny will still fit the adult.
• Avoid names that sound like the cues you plan to teach. Sithee starts like sit and Nowt sounds like no, which is funny for a week and confusing after that.
• For two Yorkies, pick a pair that belongs together without rhyming: Warp and Weft, Swale and Ure, Heathcliff and Cathy, Pudding and Gravy, or Lady Muck and Lord Muck.

Frequently asked questions

What are good Yorkshire names for a Yorkie?

Short place names work best as call names: Whitby, Ilkley, Skipton, Otley, Malham and Hawes, or the rivers Swale, Nidd, Wharfe and Esk. Dialect words are popular too, such as Tyke, Bairn, Lass and Champion. For something softer, try a moorland name like Heather, Bracken or Bilberry.

Who were Huddersfield Ben and Smoky?

Huddersfield Ben was a Yorkshire show dog and ratter born in 1865, and he is regarded as the foundation sire of the breed. Smoky was a Yorkie found in New Guinea in 1944 who spent the rest of the Second World War with an American serviceman, Bill Wynne, and became one of the best-known war dogs. Both names are in the list, along with plain Ben.

What are funny names for a boy Yorkie?

Big-dog names are the classic joke for a small terrier: Tank, Brutus, Goliath, Bruiser and Bloodaxe, after Eric Bloodaxe, a Viking king of York. Yorkshire humor works as well, with Nowt, By Eck, Flat Cap, Chip Butty, Gaffer and Lord Muck.

Are the odd-sounding place names real?

Yes. Wetwang, Blubberhouses, Crackpot, Giggleswick and Appletreewick are all real places in Yorkshire, as are the dales, rivers and hills in the list. Pen-y-ghent, Ingleborough and Whernside are the Yorkshire Three Peaks. A few names come from stories tied to Yorkshire, not from the map: Darrowby, Herriot, Siegfried, Tristan and Tricki Woo are from James Herriot's vet books, Misselthwaite and Dickon from The Secret Garden, Compo, Clegg and Foggy from Last of the Summer Wine, Kes from the Barnsley novel and film, Thrushcross, Gondal and Angria from the Brontës, and Mina, Ivanhoe, Crusoe and Shandy from classic novels with Yorkshire ties.

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