A Hunting Pack With Human-Sounding Names
Drunkard, Tipler, and Sweet Lips were among the names George Washington gave dogs in his hunting kennel. “Tipler” was an old word for someone who drinks often, so the names can sound like comic portraits of people rather than labels for working animals.
Washington was a committed foxhunter, and his hounds were part of an organized pack, not simply household pets. Giving individual dogs memorable names made it easier to distinguish them in the kennel and in accounts of the hunt. The names also show that practical use and amusement could coexist: a dog could have a job in the pack and a name with a joke in it.
What the Names Do—and Don’t—Tell Us
The surviving names invite guesses about each dog’s personality, but they do not establish why Washington chose them. “Sweet Lips” may sound affectionate; “Drunkard” and “Tipler” suggest a teasing human comparison. Without evidence for his specific reasoning, the safest conclusion is that the names were colorful and personal, not that they described particular habits.
That small detail makes the hunting kennel feel less like a formal institution and more like a place populated by recognizable individuals. Even an elite pack could include dogs whose names might have raised a laugh when they were called out.
