This book is a monument to the animals who, some 15,000 years ago, decided to live in unconditional coexistence with and service to humans.

The introduction treats linguistic insights about the Slovene word pes ‘dog’, including derivatives and synonyms. Further, it gives terms, phrasemes, and sayings connected with dogs. While focusing on the Slovene language, it also peers over the fence. Further chapters feature dogs in Slovene literature and folklore, communication between dog and human, a historical sketch of dog names in antiquity and among the Slovenes, as well as provides numerical data, including the origins and motivations for Slovene dog names. Also discussed are the grammatical features of dog names and instructions for how to read the dictionary.

The dictionary contains 12,815 names of 196,312 Slovene dogs, written in 17,505 different ways. Every name used for 50 or more dogs gets an etymological explanation.

The book is scholarly, but accessible to all readers. It can be a resource to choose a pet’s name, which is a splendid cultural act: a dog’s name in a family will be, for the next 10 to 15 years – hopefully longer – one of the most oft-uttered words.