Just curious how Dobbin came to be the generic horse name. Is that specific to COTH? Anyone ever met a real-life Dobbin?
@rhymeswithfizz That’s interesting, thanks!
So if a horse is Dobbin, a dog is Fido, what do you use for a cat?
From Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice 1596
“what a beard hast thou got!
thou hast got more hair on thy chin than Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.”
A fill-horse being a cart horse. So it at least goes back that far.
A cat could be Puss or Kitty, Tom or Tabby.
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There was a famous Dobbin that evented quite successfully through Rolex, and apparently made it up to Grand Prix in dressage:
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Dobbin (Scottish form of Robert) is the standard traditional name for Pantomine horses in British Pantomines. It also shows up in some early Mother Goose rhymes and in the book “Vanity Fair”.
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“Bad Horse” in Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is named Dobbin according to the credits :lol: I wonder if that’s actually his name.
Finding the origins of sayings is such fun. 
I can say that for my family in England and Ireland- Dobbin is like Fido for dogs in America. Maybe that’s just the region
Always interested in this stuff.
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Cats individuals, each and every one.
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I think a poetic name for cats is Greymalkin or Grimalkin. Also used by Shakespeare, in Macbeth.
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Isn’t FIdo a Latin pword for I am faithful. Or I serve or something?
Felix is the traditional, generic name for cats. It’s just Latin for cat. So if you wanted to be boring, you could name your dog Fido, your cat Felix and your horse Dobbin.
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Very close, in Latin, “fido” means “trust”.
“Fidelis” is “faithful”, as in the Marine Corps’ motto “Semper Fidelis” (Always Faithful)
I think Felix comes from the early 20th century cartoon Felix the Cat, a little newer than some of the poetic names we are talking about. Felix is the masculine version of Felicity, isn’t it? as in happy, lucky, felicitous?
ETA: or maybe it also has origins with feline? My HS latin is shaky and minimal!
or, Phydeau
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