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"Faithful" and "Bold" are implications that some people have come up with for the supposed reasons why someone would have named a child "dog". It's certainly legitimate for people to express such ideas IF they don't present them as being actual etymologies. If you want to interpret Caleb as "man's best friend" for yourself, that's fine, but it's not the origin of the name in Hebrew. To say that Caleb meant something like faithful, bold, or courageous in ancient Hebrew is frankly a lie (by the original person who came up with it; most baby name sites are just ignorantly repeating the false information without deliberately lying) made up in order to get parents to think more positively about the name.

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And I have no idea where the "light-hearted" comes from, as I don't think that's part of the stereotype of dogs in American culture.

This message was edited 1/25/2007, 10:34 AM