Hobbes is the stuffed tiger who comes to life in Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes — one of the most beloved comic strips in American newspaper history. For owners who grew up reading Calvin and Hobbes, naming a pet Hobbes is a direct tribute to a character who was loyal, philosophical, and a little sardonic: qualities that owners apparently project onto their cats and dogs alike. At rank 1020, it's a name with a clear intellectual pedigree.
The Calvin and Hobbes Legacy
Watterson's strip ran from 1985 to 1995, and its cultural footprint remains enormous. Hobbes the tiger is, depending on your reading, either Calvin's imaginary friend or a genuinely living companion — the strip never resolves this. That ambiguity maps interestingly onto pets, who occupy a similar space between what they are and what we project onto them. Cats are the most common recipients of the name, for obvious reasons, but large dogs also appear in the registries as Hobbes.
The Philosopher Association
Watterson named the tiger after Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century English philosopher who wrote about humanity's natural state. That layer of reference is available to owners who want it, adding depth to a name that already works on the surface level. It sits in the same register as Socrates or Aristotle for owners who lean literary.
Audience-Specific Appeal
Hobbes lands strongest with owners who know the strip. For those who don't, it reads as an old-fashioned surname — which is fine but loses the resonance. If you want a tiger-adjacent name without the cultural dependency, Tiger is the blunter alternative. The full pet names list has both.