The pug was called a “Pai” according to one of my sources. Is it possible that the western tongue got so tangled up in trying to pronounce a Chinese word that “pug” is the mispronunciation of the original Chinese? I suppose that anything is possible!

There’s another theory about the name. This has to do with the Latin named for fist which is pugnus. I guess to some people’s eyes a pug face resembles a clenched fist. I’m just telling what some people think, which I think is kind of “out there,” myself!

One reason that they were sometimes called monkey dogs is that the popularity of another pet at the time, a kind of monkey called a marmoset, seemed to bear some similarity to the pug’s face. I guess it’s all in people’s perception.

There are probably dozens or even hundreds of names of endearment for this little pooch. I think it’s inevitable with a face like that.

This example of  gold dog earrings is one addition to the art of the pug (my gold pug earring head being the other). This art has a long and noble history itself!