Dogs named Carlo, thanks to “Jane Eyre”

dog, pointer

Did you know that Emily Dickinson got a dog in 1849 and named him Carlo after the dog in the novel Jane Eyre (1847)?

The fictional dog created by Charlotte Bronte was a pointer, while the nonfictional dog owned by Emily Dickinson was likely a brown Newfoundland.

Many other dogs (both real and fictional) were named Carlo around this time as well, no doubt due to the influence of Jane Eyre.

At least five of the dogs residing in Amherst, Massachusetts (Dickinson’s hometown) in 1858 were named Carlo, for instance.

Dogs named Carlo were also featured in books such as Cranford (1851) by Elizabeth Gaskell and Reveries of a Bachelor (1850) by “Ik Marvel” (pseudonym of Donald Grant Mitchell).

Source: Carlo (1849-1966), dog – Emily Dickinson Museum

Image: Adapted from Kenzo cazando en sanbernardo (public domain)

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]

4 thoughts on “Dogs named Carlo, thanks to “Jane Eyre””

  2. Yes, thank you Elizabeth!

    “Good Dog, Carl” was first published in 1985. Here’s how the author came up with with the name Carl:

    It was on one such trip to Zurich in 1984 that the Darlings chanced upon an 1860s German broadsheet titled Der Brave Karo, about a cartoon canine that charmingly cares for a baby whose mother has stepped out on an errand. Later, Day remembered the helpful poodle-type pooch but misremembered his name as Carl. Which is why she didn’t create a book called Good Dog, Karo.

    Source: “Day’s Dog.” Entertainment Weekly 27 Sep. 1991.

  3. There was also a dog named Carlo in LM Montgomery’s “Anne’s House of Dreams” (1917), part of the Anne of Green Gables series. He is integral to the story as he recognises that George Moore, who suffered a head injury, is not his real owner (Dick Moore).

    Presumably it’s another tribute – Jane Eyre’s reach is long indeed!

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