120+ Smart Dog Names For Your Brainy Pooch

Dogs are incredibly amazing creatures, but you already knew that, right? Not only are they loyal companions, devoted friends and great snuggle buddies, but they also have an astounding capacity to learn. 

Whether you teach them the basics of “sit” and “stay”, train them up to perform tricks or whether you have an A+ pup who can learn to read and count, we have no doubt that your new dog will amaze you in how well they can understand and communicate back to you.

This list has gathered together all the best smart dog names to honor your furry Einstein. So grab your poochie and settle in to read him or her this great list – we know they will understand it!

♀️ Smart Dog Names For Girl Dogs

Your wise and all-knowing lady friend would suit any one of these awesome girl names that all have meanings related to intelligence. We simply adore the female dog names “Cassidy” and “Tomo”.

Athena	the Greek Goddess of wisdom
Cassidy	an Irish name that means “clever” or “curly-haired”
Fahima	an Arabic name meaning “quick-witted”
Farzana	a Persian name that means “wise; intelligent”
Kyna	a Gaelic name that means “intelligent”
Labeeba	this Muslim name means “wise and intelligent”
Minda	the Native American meaning of this name is “knowledge and wisdom”
Minerva	the Roman Goddess of wisdom and justice
Pearl	for pearls of wisdom
Pragya	this Sanskrit name means “intelligence, wisdom, insight, prowess”
Prija	the Thai meaning of this name is “intelligence”
Saga	an Old Norse Goddess who was associated with prophecy and wisdom
Sana	an Arabic name meaning “brilliant” and “praise”
Seshat	the Egyptian Goddess of wisdom, knowledge and writing
Shannon	an Irish name that means “wise river”
Sofia	a name of Greek origin that means “wisdom”
Tomo	a Japanese name that means “friend; wisdom”
Tomoko	a Japanese name that means “intelligent”

♂️ Smart Dog Names For Boy Dogs

Who’s a clever boy? Of course your boy dog is! Then give him one of these great names to highlight his intelligence. Our top picks are “Enki”, “Hugo” and “Zeki”.

Alfred	an English name that means “sage” and “wise”
Alvis	an Old Norse name meaning “all-knowing”
Bertrand	one of the meanings of this French name is “intelligent”
Coeus	the Titan God of the inquisitive mind in Greek mythology
Einstein	universally held as one of the cleverest people ever
Enki	the Sumerian God of wisdom, intelligence, mischief, healing, creation, art, and fertility
Fitan	this name means “brilliant, intelligence and wisdom”
Frode	Old Norse name that means “wise”
Haziq	a Muslim name meaning “skillful, intelligent”
Hugo	this name has many origins and means “mind” and “intellect”
Kenji	a Japanese name that means “intelligent; second son; strong”
Nabu	a Mesopotamian God of literacy and wisdom
Nibodh	an Indian name that means “intelligence, knowledge, understanding and awareness”
Olander	this Swedish name means “the one who is having a quick and penetrating intelligence”
Praket	an Indian name that means “intelligence”
Tenjin	the Japanese deity of academics, learning, intelligence and scholarship
Uso	this Italian name means “intelligent”
Vivek	a Sanskrit name meaning “wisdom”
Zeki	a Turkish name that means “clever, intelligent”

🐶 Name Your Dog After These Real-Life Clever Pooches

These dogs are simply incredible. If you can, we highly recommend looking up the videos on Youtube of these dogs performing their amazing feats. Mia from Britain’s Got Talent can read numbers and bark them out correctly, completely unprompted – she can count to 20! But all these dogs are amazing in their own right – Google rabbit hole coming up – you have been warned! 

Akira	a dog that can recognise numbers and do sums
Bailey	a Yorkshire Terrier who can understand spoken words
Chaser	The world's smartest dog – she could identify more than 1000 nouns
Gaia	a dog from Brazil who took part in the Genius Dog Challenge
Max	a dog from Hungary who took part in the Genius Dog Challenge
Mia	Mia can count and read
Nalani	a dog from the Netherlands who suffers epileptic seizures yet still was able to participate in the Genius Dog Challenge
Rico	a German Border Collie that could figure out the names of things as fast as a 3 year old human
Squall	knows the names of more than 55 toys
Tilly	she can bark out numbers
Vicky Nina	she is a Yorkie who can learn new words after only hearing them 4 times
Whisky	a Norwegian Border Collie shows exceptional talent in learning new words
Willow	Willow the Wonder Pooch can count to 10, identify shapes and spell her own name

🦧 Dog Names Inspired By The Smartest Creatures In The Animal Kingdom

It’s not only dogs who are smart, other animals can do incredible things that point to a higher level of intelligence than I think most people give them credit for. We love the dog names “Squirrel” and “Pig”, but would also totally have a girl dog named “Ellie” – especially if she always manages to remember where you hide the pup treats!

Bee	There is evidence to suggest that bees can feel emotions in response to positive and negative stimuli. There are bees in a colony who learn tasks faster than others and they have been observed teaching the rest of the colony
Chimp	the chimpanzee is a socially complex creature, that work cooperatively in a group and have even been shown to develop cultures that vary between groups
Collie	the Border Collie is one of the smartest breeds of dogs and excel at obedience training because they understand commands really quickly and follow them most of the time
Croc	crocodiles have sophisticated hunting strategies and appear to coordinate their actions according to individual abilities within the group
Crow	crows have different dialects according to region, they can remember the face of a human for years and even sometimes use tools
Dolphin	“Dolly” for short – dolphins have long held the title of smartest animals on earth – they can recognise themselves in the mirror, solve problems, recognise language and there is evidence that they have memories
Elephant	“Ellie” is a great nickname – elephants are known to have exceptional memories
Parrot	African Gray parrots are able to mimic sounds and words and have been shown that they can make inferences through various scientific experiments
Octopus	octopuses can solve puzzles and can use tools
Orangutan	these primates can use language to communicate, have cultural behaviors unique to each group and can use tools
Orca	they have been observed to have different behavior patterns from pod to pod – hunting strategy also appears to be passed down from older members of the family to younger ones
Pig	pigs are extremely intelligent and social creatures and have even been trained to play videogames
Pigeon	pigeons have been shown to be able to learn differences between styles of paintings and apply what they’ve learned to pieces of art they've never seen before
Rat	rats brains are apparently quite similar to humans only smaller – there are many experiments that show rats can problem solve and utilize what they have learned quite quickly
Raven	ravens are clever birds on par with many primate species – they even performed comparably to human toddlers when given the same tasks in a research setting
Squirrel	when they think they're being watched, they use deception to pretend to bury their nuts when in fact they're hiding them under their arms
Wolf	wolves work in cooperation for the survival of the pack

🎬 Dog Names Inspired By Smart Characters From Movies, TV Shows and Books

Pop culture is full of super clever characters who not only get themselves into trouble, but also manage to get themselves out of it. If we had to assume fictional roles in world domination, you know you would be “Pinky” and your pooch would be “The Brain”. We like the boy dog names “Dexter” and “Fletcher” and the girl dog names “Princess Leia” and “Miss Marple”.

Amy	The Big Bang Theory – she is a neuroscientist
Batman	Batman Comics and Movies
Belle	Beauty and the Beast – she is highly intelligent
Bernadette	The Big Bang Theory – she is a microbiologist
Dexter	From the TV Show Dexter (psychopathic but smart nonetheless)
Elizabeth	Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice – book and movie
Elle	Elle Woods from the Legally Blonde movie franchise
Enola	Enola Holmes (she is the sister of Sherlock Holmes)
Fletcher	Jessica Fletcher from Murder she Wrote
Hannibal	Hannibal Lector from the movie Silence of the Lambs
Hercule	Hercule Poirot is from Agatha Christie novels
Hermione	Harry Potter Books and Movies
Howard	The Big Bang Theory TV Show – he is an engineer
Jerry	Tom and Jerry – this little mouse always outwits the cat
Jimmy Neutron	from the TV Show Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Leonard	The Big Bang Theory TV Show – he is a physicist
Lisa	Lisa Simpson from the TV Show The Simpsons
Macgyver	from the Macgyver TV Show – he can make anything out of nothing!
McDreamy	Derek Shepherd's nickname – he was a brain surgeon
Merideth	Merideth Grey from Grey's Anatomy
Michael	Michael Schofield from Prison Break TV Show
Miss Marple	Miss Marple is from Agatha Christie novels
Mr. Peabody	The Mr. Peabody and Sherman Show – he is a highly intelligent and witty anthropomorphic dog
Mulan	from the movie Mulan – she outwits the enemy
Princess Leia	she is the brains of the operation in Star Wars
Rafiki	The Lion King – he is the sage, wise advisor to the King
Raj	The Big Bang Theory TV Show – he is an astrophysicist
Sheldon	The Big Bang Theory TV Show – he is a physicist
Sherlock	Sherlock Holmes Books and Movies
Spock	Star Trek franchise
Tony Stark	Avengers franchise
Urkel	Steve Urkel from Family Matters TV Show
Walter	Walter White from Breaking Bad

😜 Quirky and Unusual Smart Dog Names

These names wouldn’t be the mainstream choice, but are certain to get tongues and tails wagging. We love the name “Ace”, but if you want something a little more quirky, how about “Whiz-Kid” or “Smarty Pants”?

Ace	if you ace a test it means you have done really well
Brainy	this is another way to say a person is clever
Cato	this gender neutral name has Latin origins
Dara	a gender-neutral name of mixed origin that means “pearl of wisdom”
Genius	an exceptionally clever person
IQ	this is the acronym for Intelligence Quotient
Mensa	an exclusive club of smart people
Prodigy	someone who has achieved exceptional mastery at a young age
Savvy	means you are clever and shrewd
Smarty Pants	what a clever person is often called
Whiz-Kid	if you're a whiz at something it means you are very bright

😎 Dog Names Inspired By The Word “Smart” In Other Languages

Other languages are always a rich source of inspiration for dog names that nobody else will have. Our favorite foreign word here is “Wajanja” – it’s a super cool name for a pup!

Akilli	the Turkish word for “smart”
Cerdas	the Indonesian word for “smart”
Fiksu	the Finnish word for “smart”
Kaval	Estonian word for “clever”
Matalino	the Filipino (Tagalog) word for “clever”
Okos	the Hungarian word for “clever”
Pandai	the Malay word for “clever”
Pintar	the indonesian word for “clever”
Slim	the Afrikaans word for “clever”
Tark	Estonian word for “smart”
Wajanja	the Swahili word for “clever”
Wayo	the Hausa word for clever – Hausa is spoken in West Africa

Last Thoughts

We had so much fun researching all these clever pups and we hope you had fun reading all about them. Let us know your favorite smart dog name in the comments below.