Eh? There’s Alpha, Beta and Gamma (and the other letters of the Greek alphabet I assume) so why is Dug named Dug?
I was wondering that too. It would have made more sense to name him Delta. It’s the next letter after alpha, beta and gamma. Although Dug really suits him for some reason.
I think the point is that he’s supposed to stick out and not be like the rest. The name isn’t as “cool.”
There was probably another dog named Delta. There was an Epsilon, ([spoil]the dog chef[/spoil]), and an Omega too. Alpha was called Alpha, since he was the Alpha dog, like in a wolf pack. ([spoil]At the end when Dug defeats him with the ‘cone of shame’, the other dogs refer to him as Alpha.[/spoil])
If Dug was called anything, it would have been Omega, for his status in the pack - but there was already another dog with that name. I think that the pack, led by Alpha in particular, probably considered Dug too low in ranking order to even be called Omega… He is just the dog that doesn’t really fit in the pack. They all act like guard dogs - he acts like a family pet. They all have professional sounding Greek names, Dug is just Dug. He seems to be the only Golden Retriever there too…
- C-3PO
You know, this thread has inspired me. I’d also wondered why he was called Dug, when all the other dogs had the Greek alphabet names. And C-3P0 is right, he does appear to be the only one of his breed in the pack, and he is more “pet” than “guard dog.”
Here’s my basic theory about Dug:
He was not originally one of “Muntz’s Dogs.” He turned up as a stray, from somewhere else. Muntz took him in, fed him, patched him up, and dubbed him “Kappa,” or whatever letter he was on at the time. But, when Muntz put the special collar on his new dog, the first thing the dog said was, “Oh, I am not Kappa! My name is Dug.” Muntz introduced Dug into the pack, but Dug probably immediately did something to annoy Alpha, hence their relationship, and he has never really fit in. My darker (and even more spoilerish) thought was that Dug’s original Master was one of the poor “intruders” who ran afoul of Muntz, and Dug, left behind at their camp by a Master who never returned, ended up tracking his scent to Muntz’s hideout, hence how he ended up there.
I think way too hard about these things!
That sounds like it could be a REALLY good fanfiction! 
Good theory! I think you may be right about…
…Dug not being originally Muntz’s. That would explain why he’s the only dog that isn’t aggressive towards our protagonists initially, and where his name came from.
Dug is the underdog in the pack of dogs.
To the other dogs, Dug is not cool and easily looked down on. So I guess for that, Dug doesn’t get a “cool” name compared to the others.
But then again… There were only about four dogs in the film that were given a name. There are a ton of other dogs in the movie that were never given names. You can’t just assume every other dog has such names. Perhaps Alpha, Beta and Gamma are the only ones with such names.
Yes! You make another good point - [spoil]Dug being friendly to Carl & Russell, not aggressive. And his willingness to “adopt” a new Master. Presumably, most of the pack dogs are descended from Muntz’s original dogs; Muntz has been their Master from birth, and is probably the only human they’ve ever really known. Regardless of where he came from or got his name, Dug just seems like he’s more used to being around people and being a “pet.”[/spoil]
Disney_Guy is right that we don’t know the names of all the other dogs (and it looks like there are too many for them all to have the Greek letter names). But the Greek letters make it seem like Muntz is using some logical sequence for naming them (since there are so many, that would make sense).
Maybe becuase the people at Pixar wanted this creature to be a “dog” named “dug” instead of a aggresive Wild Dog named Alpha…
I think there is some logic behind some of the names, not just because Muntz had an attraction to Greek lettering.
For instance, Alpha is named Alpha because he is the alpha dog in the pack. He is the leader; for dog-lovers out there, we all know that sometimes the term of “alpha dog” will be used to describe the leader or the one that is strongest in a given group.
Beta and Gamma could go towards Muntz’s attraction to the sciences and his sense of entrepreneurship for new technologies.
Dug was probably called Dug, because he might not have been the brightest dog in the pack. This is quite evident by the way all the other dogs treated him, that he was not accepted in the group like everyone else.
Lastly, as I said before, there were simply too many dogs in the movie that we cannot possibly name. We can’t assume all the dogs are named a certain way just because three of them had Greek lettering.
Except that Muntz mentions several more by their greek alphabet names.
Well, honestly, I don’t know. Some of the names are more logical than others. But honestly, their names isn’t something I see why anyone would really care about.
There certainly are way more dogs shown in the movie than the amount of Greek letters.
You’re right - there are way more than just 24 dogs. But they are all probably named as “sets of things”. Epsilon is mentioned, ([spoil]as said before, he is the chef[/spoil]), and there is an Omega too.
- C-3PO
Maybe we’ll learn more in Dug’s Special Mission.
OK, I’ll bite. What’s Dug’s Special Mission? (I’m guessing a short we’ll see with the DVD/Blu-Ray.)
Yeah, that’s exactly that.
I asked my friend Wall-E about this and he went to a number of libraries that I don’t have access too, such as the Antiquarian Philiasts Library and the Order of Archaic Theophilists and such and he Dug Up some obscure references. At first, mischievous as Wall-E is, he told me that he had Dug Up a bone and did his little laugh. I myself am hoping to Dig Up some of my own references so that when all is said and done, it will be noted that I Dug Up something of note.
So there is my theory. Can you Dig it?
Edit: Oh yeah, and his name had to begin with the letter ‘D’ and it had to be different like the other guys said. So that’s the name, now where he came from in the first place, karly05 that’s a nice theory. Why does he insist that Carl must be his ‘master’? It’s a mystery in the storyline, and that’s a clever guess. Maybe Dug’s original master liked prunes.
My theory is exactly the same as DarkHandOfSigourneyWeaver’s, in that Dug’s name is basically a humorous play-on-words.
Other than that, I absolutely love this theory of yours, karly05:
– Mitch
That is a genius theory karly05! [spoil]I actually agree with the second one because of the way Dug rebelled from Muntz when Carl was captured [/spoil]
I also had an idea that maybe he was named Dug because dogs like to dig, and the past version of dig is dug. Its a dumb idea , but who really knows.
PS:
This is way off track, but in a way, Dug is the dog male version of Dory! 
and Carl is an older version of Marlin!