• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Is it okay to name a dog Huckleberry?

Is it okay to name a dog Huckleberry?

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
Clay

Clay

Member
Oct 29, 2017
8,107
I'm getting a puppy in a couple weeks and I've been thinking of names for him.

I like Mark Twain, I'm not a huge fan and haven't read most of his work, but I appreciate his humor. I would be using the name moreso because I think it's funny and fun to say than as a reference to the book.

I think the name is hilarious and I also think it's fitting for the dog. He's a merle Great Dane. They just look like a Huckleberry to me.

u6iTNhU.jpg


My wife is pretty iffy about it. She had never read the book and started it when I brought up the name. She seemed to be liking it but then decided to Google "Is Huckleberry Finn racist" and is now convinced the name is problematic and that we should choose a different one.

I'm not sure how many people have actually read the book. I love the name, but now I'm getting a little worried that I'll call for him at a dog park and people will say "What the fuck, did you name your dog after that book that has the n-word 200 times?"

I'm curious to get some opinions. Is Huckleberry an acceptable dog name?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rassilon

Rassilon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,584
UK
tbh my first thought on reading thread title was that it was going to be a Tombstone reference
0a46c712f6ea36dd9ca609cf2af9479b.gif
 
yogurt

yogurt

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,789
This is one of those "thread title question is opposite of poll question" situations.
 
Luxorek

Luxorek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,162
Poland
Who says it has to be in honor of Huckleberry Finn? All you need to do is put on Tombstone for your wife and let her fall in love with Doc Holliday.

TglySYW.gif
 
iWannaHat

iWannaHat

Member
Jul 1, 2019
1,327
Huckleberry Finn is a white dude if i remember my 5th grade reading. Huckleberry isn't a racist term. It is a perfectly fine dog name. especially for a blue dog
 
Toxi

Toxi

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
17,547
The term "huckleberry" didn't come from the book. Most people will assume you named him after the cartoon character.

Huckleberry Finn is a problematic book. It's also a well-meaning one. Mark Twain clearly wrote it as a takedown of the southern way of life, including the dehumanization of black Americans. But the ending of the book is a horrific failure that goes back to the cozy romanticism that Twain had previously been skewering. It's so bad that even fans of the book hate it.

Fuck Tom Sawyer.
 
Cat Party

Cat Party

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,403
The usual response is, "If you have to ask..."

But, dude, no. Huckleberry isn't problematic. It isn't even problematic-adjacent.
 
Lionel Mandrake

Lionel Mandrake

Prophetic Lionel Mandrake
Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,678
Huckleberry Finn is about a boy who is brought up being told that slavery and racism is fine and Christian and that, if he goes against the norm, he'll go to hell.

In the climax, Huck realizes that without his help, Jim is doomed to be placed back in slavery, and says, "All right then, I'll go to hell," before setting off to help him.

The book uses horrible language of the era and it's depiction of Jim and slaves is definitely offensive, but it's ultimately a strongly abolitionist work that calls for a reformation of thinking supported by Americans and the church.

Mark Twain was a product of his time, but was also a revolutionary in a lot of ways. He abandoned the Confederacy after realizing that he would have been fighting to save slavery. He tried to tell stories that gave a voice to the oppressed, and he was always quick to point out hypocrisy and flaws that supported racism. I always felt "All right then, I'll go to hell," was one of the greatest lines in literature, and find it inspiring in day to day life.
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,019
Luxorek said:
Who says it has to be in honor of Huckleberry Finn? All you need to do is put on Tombstone for your wife and let her fall in love with Doc Holliday.

TglySYW.gif
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I always heard the line is suppose to be "Huckle Bearer", Huckle being another term for "Casket". Makes a lot more sense
 
ElectricBlanketFire

ElectricBlanketFire

What year is this?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,816
Bladelaw

Bladelaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,694
The poll question and thread title should continue changing every few minutes.
Also OP's dog is very photogenic.
 
Tobor

Tobor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
28,405
Richmond, VA
Clay said:
Oh wow, I totally forgot about Huckleberry Hound. Is a Huckleberry an actual berry as well? I'm only familiar with the name from the Mark Twain book, it's nice to see it's more common than I thought.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Huckleberry Hound is itself a reference to Huckleberry Finn:

Wikipedia said:
Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic coonhound that speaks with a North Carolina Southern drawl and has a relaxed, sweet, and well-intentioned personality.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Wikipedia said:
Huckleberry's name is a reference to classic American novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain. Hanna and Barbera almost named Yogi Bear "Huckleberry Bear".[4]
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

en.wikipedia.org

Huckleberry Hound - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
You must log in or register to reply here.