Dog Names Ending in su

When you look for dog names ending in "su", you know you are entering into challenging territory. It’s a combination of letters that lends itself to a whole lot of cultural and historical events. Take Osu, for example. Osu refers to the Dog of Osu, which is more of a spiritual and folklore dog figure than a dog in pop culture.

However, it’s mentioned so often in movies, TV shows, and radio, that many people know what it means and what it incorporates. It’s a Korean folktale and one that could end up being quite rewarding to tell people who ask how your dog got their name.

The Dog of Osu translates to the tree of a dog and follows a loyal dog that sacrificed himself to save his owner. In the book called Bohanjip written by Choi Ja in 1230, a man named Kim Kae had an exceptionally loyal dog. He lived in Hyeorung-Hyun, Korea, and took his dog everywhere with him.

One day, the man went to a party and fell asleep on grassland on his way home, intoxicated. Near where Kim fell asleep, a forest fire had started. In his inebriated state, Kim didn’t notice the flames or wake up.

Osu tried to wake Kim up too but to no avail. He ran to the water, saturated himself, then used his own body to protect Jim from the flames. He continued the process until there was a ring of water around Kim, protecting him from the fire. Osu then died of his burn injuries.

Jim woke up and saw the fire, and that his dog was dead nearby. He then noticed the ring of wet grass around his body. He cried and buried his dog in a beautiful sunny spot nearby. He then stuck his walking staff at the front of his grave to act as a tombstone.

In the folklore tale, the walking staff grows into a tree, resulting in the story’s name of The Tree of a Dog. The large tree is there to this day, thought to be at least 1,000 years old.

Plenty of tributes flow in for Osu the dog over the years. The region is now called Osu, and the people of Osu-Myun made a monument for the dog, calling it Uigyeonbi – translating to a ‘monument for the loyal dog’.

There has also been extensive research into Osu, with a committee called Research Committee on Osu Dog. They replaced the old statue with a new one that depicted a more certain dog breed, thought to be Tibetan Mastiff.