Christmas Themed Pet Names

Press for a Christmas themed name for pets, with a line on what it is or where it comes from.

Christmas Themed Pet Names

  1. JollyFor a round pet with a good mood.
All 115

Next step Draw a Christmas song

How it works

Christmas themed pet names in six kinds: greenery, food and spice, lights and trimmings, the reindeer of the 1823 poem, carols, and Christmas around the world, with Noel and Navidad. Every card carries a line on the name.

Read the full guide

Pick the kind of name

You can narrow the draw to one kind. Greenery gives Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe. Food and spice gives Nutmeg, Figgy and Stollen, a German fruit bread. From the 1823 poem gives Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, named in A Visit from St. Nicholas.

Christmas names for pets: girl, boy or either

You can also narrow the draw to names for a girl or for a boy. Nine names, among them Holly, Ivy, Carol, Joy and Gloria, are marked for a girl and four, Noel, Angel, Douglas and Noble, for a boy, by counts of US birth records. The rest are for either.

Questions and answers

What are the reindeer names from the poem?

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet and Cupid, then two first printed as Dunder and Blixem and now known as Donner and Blitzen. Seven are on this list; Comet stands on the night-sky list of this site.

What does Noel mean?

Noël is the French word for Christmas. Navidad is Christmas in Spanish, Natale in Italian, Jul in Swedish, Nollaig in Irish and Nadolig in Welsh.

What are Christmas food names for a pet?

Nutmeg, Clove, Cinnamon and Gingerbread from the spice shelf, and Panettone, Pandoro, Lebkuchen and Shortbread from the bakery. Candy Cane is a cane-shaped stick candy, most often white with red stripes.

Are film and cartoon characters on the list?

No. No character of a film, of a song still in copyright or of a brand is listed. The reindeer come from a poem published in 1823, and the carols named on the cards are old ones.

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All 115 names

Greenery 20

  • Balsam The balsam fir, a North American fir tree.
  • Bough A branch, as in the boughs of holly that deck the halls.
  • Douglas For the Douglas fir, a conifer of the pine family native to western North America.
  • Evergreen Green all year. For a pet whose mood never drops.
  • Fir A coniferous tree of the pine family.
  • Fraser For the Fraser fir, a tree of the Appalachian Mountains.
  • Garland A rope of greenery. For a long pet who drapes over things.
  • Hellebore One kind is called the Christmas rose.
  • Holly A genus of more than 570 kinds of flowering plants. One name, many hollies.
  • Ivy An evergreen climbing plant.
  • Laurel The leaf of the winner's wreath.
  • Mistletoe A plant that grows on the branches of a tree or shrub and takes water and nutrients from it.
  • Noble For the noble fir, a tree of the Cascade Range and the Pacific Coast Ranges.
  • Paperwhite A bulb plant native to the Mediterranean region, one of a few kinds known as paperwhite.
  • Poinsettia A plant from Mexico and Central America with red and green leaves, much used in Christmas displays.
  • Sprig A small cut twig of holly or mistletoe. For a small pet.
  • Spruce A tree, and a word for neat. For a pet who always looks tidy.
  • Tannenbaum Fir tree in German.
  • Wreath A ring of branches on the front door.
  • Yew A dark green tree with a three-letter name.

Food and spice 26

  • Buche From bûche de Noël, the Christmas cake made to look like a log.
  • Candy Cane A cane-shaped stick candy, most often white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint.
  • Chestnut The nut that gets roasted. Also a red-brown coat.
  • Cinnamon A spice from the inner bark of several kinds of tree.
  • Clementine The small orange in the toe of the stocking.
  • Clove The dried flower bud of a tree, used as a spice.
  • Figgy From figgy pudding, a Christmas dish that goes back to medieval times.
  • Fruitcake A cake made with candied or dried fruit, nuts and spices.
  • Gingerbread A baked good flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon.
  • Gingersnap A biscuit flavored with ginger.
  • Kringle A Northern European pastry in a twisted pretzel shape.
  • Krumkake A Norwegian cookie. The name means curved cake.
  • Lebkuchen A honey-sweetened German cake or cookie, part of Germany's Christmas traditions.
  • Lefse A soft Norwegian flatbread.
  • Linzer For the Linzertorte, an Austrian pastry named after the city of Linz.
  • Nutmeg The seed of a tree, or the spice ground from it.
  • Pandoro An Italian sweet bread typical of Verona, most popular around Christmas and New Year.
  • Panettone An Italian sweet bread tied to the city of Milan, usually made for Christmas and New Year.
  • Peppermint A cross between watermint and spearmint.
  • Pizzelle An Italian waffle cookie.
  • Satsuma A small, loose-skinned orange.
  • Shortbread A Scottish biscuit made of sugar, butter and flour.
  • Speculaas A biscuit that comes from the Low Countries, today's Belgium and the Netherlands.
  • Springerle A South German biscuit with a design pressed into it by a mold.
  • Stollen A German fruit bread of nuts, spices and dried or candied fruit.
  • Sugarplum A small round piece of hard sugar candy. Visions of them dance in the 1823 poem.

Lights, trimmings and cheer 29

  • Advent A season of waiting and preparation before Christmas in most Christian churches.
  • Angel The other thing that goes on top of the tree.
  • Bauble A round ornament. Often found under the couch with tooth marks.
  • Candle A small flame in the window.
  • Cheer What the season is supposed to bring. A pet helps.
  • Cracker A table decoration that snaps when pulled open and holds a small gift, a paper hat and a joke.
  • Elf Small, quick and found in the wrapping paper.
  • Festive For a pet who puts up with the sweater.
  • Jolly For a round pet with a good mood.
  • Lametta Tinsel in German.
  • Luminaria A simple paper lantern with a candle inside, set out at Christmas.
  • Mantel The shelf the stockings hang from.
  • Merry The first word of the greeting.
  • Ornament It hangs on the tree until the cat finds it.
  • Parcel A wrapped box, tied with string.
  • Parol A Filipino ornamental lantern displayed during the Christmas season.
  • Present The thing under the tree. This one moves.
  • Ribbon The part of the present the cat wants.
  • Santa The man in the red suit. For a pet with a white beard.
  • Sleigh The ride with the bells on it.
  • Sparkle For a pet who has been in the glitter.
  • Star What goes on top of the tree.
  • Stocking Hung by the chimney. Also for a pet with one white leg.
  • Tidings News, as in glad tidings.
  • Tinsel A decoration of thin sparkling strips, made to look like ice.
  • Topper The ornament at the very top. For a cat found in the same place.
  • Twinkle What the lights do.
  • Yule Goat A Scandinavian and Northern European Christmas symbol.
  • Yule Log A specially chosen log burned on the hearth, a winter tradition in parts of Europe.

From the 1823 poem 8

  • Blitzen The eighth reindeer of the 1823 poem, first printed as Blixem, from a Dutch word for lightning.
  • Cupid The sixth reindeer named in the 1823 poem, after Comet.
  • Dancer The second reindeer named in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.
  • Dasher The first of the eight reindeer named in the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, published in 1823.
  • Donner The seventh reindeer of the 1823 poem, first printed as Dunder, from a Dutch word for thunder.
  • Prancer The third reindeer named in the 1823 poem.
  • St. Nick Short for St. Nicholas, the visitor in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.
  • Vixen The fourth reindeer named in the 1823 poem.

Carols and the ballet 15

  • Carol A Christmas song. For a pet who sings along.
  • Drummer For the drummers drumming in The Twelve Days of Christmas.
  • Fa-La-La The line everyone knows in Deck the Halls.
  • Gloria The long word in the chorus of the carol Angels We Have Heard on High.
  • Hark As in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, a carol from 1739.
  • Herald A messenger. The angels are heralds in the carol of 1739.
  • Jingle From Jingle Bells, written by James Lord Pierpont and published in 1857 as The One Horse Open Sleigh.
  • Joy As in Joy to the World, a carol written in 1719.
  • Nowell An old spelling of Noel, as in the carol The First Nowell.
  • Nutcracker For The Nutcracker, an 1892 ballet with music by Tchaikovsky.
  • Partridge The gift of the first day in the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas.
  • Piper For the pipers piping in The Twelve Days of Christmas.
  • Turtledove Two turtle doves are the gift of the second day in The Twelve Days of Christmas.
  • Wenceslas The king of the carol Good King Wenceslas, who goes out in harsh weather on the Feast of Stephen.
  • Yuletide The Christmas season, as carols call it.

Christmas around the world 17

  • Befana In Italian folklore, an old woman who brings gifts to children on the eve of Epiphany.
  • Joulu Christmas in Finnish.
  • Jul Christmas in Swedish.
  • Kalikimaka Christmas in Hawaiian.
  • Kerst Christmas in Dutch.
  • Krismasi Christmas in Swahili.
  • Nadal Christmas in Catalan.
  • Nadolig Christmas in Welsh.
  • Natal Christmas in Portuguese.
  • Natale Christmas in Italian.
  • Navidad Christmas in Spanish.
  • Noel Christmas in French, where it is written Noël.
  • Nollaig Christmas in Irish.
  • Pasko Christmas in Tagalog.
  • Sinterklaas A legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children.
  • Tomte The Swedish name of a household spirit of Nordic folklore.
  • Yule A winter festival of the Germanic peoples, and an old word for Christmas.