King Kong Inspired Dog Names

King Kong will always have a special place in history. It helped to further the monster movie genre, inspired others of its kind worldwide and better yet, had well-developed enough narrative to spawn decades of spin-offs, remakes and reimaginings. 

At the time, King Kong’s presence in the entertainment industry was magnified not only due to its place in the development of film and Hollywood movies, but also because the silver screen made his image, backstory and undeniable size all that much bigger. It also didn’t hurt that much of the inspiration for King Kong stemmed from reality, thanks to Paul Du Chaillu, the anthropologist whose work sparked the imagination of King Kong creator Merian Cooper. 

But giant gorillas weren’t the only ones to live up to the mythic proportions that surrounded them. Dogs, too, also had a relative in history that was best known for its gigantic size: the Molossus. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the breed, that’s because it went extinct centuries ago. It eventually went into disuse after the age of the Greeks, who often used the massive dogs’ intimidating size and power for war. Though their use is different, its large relatives such as the Mastiff and Great Dane, still live on today. 

The Molossus itself, however, may soon see a resurgence. Recent breeding efforts have produced a dog believed to be quite similar to the original: huge-boned and massively muscular dogs with excess skin and a black brindle coat. And although they’ve only been recently recognized by the American Dog Federation, a few members of the group are already making news. 

One of which is Euphrates, an American Molossus who may be giving “big dogs” a whole new standard. At just 9 months old, she stood nearly 32” at the withers and weighed a whopping 180 pounds, veritably making her the largest puppy in the world — which was confirmed by owner Jared Howser after making calls to breeders and the Guinness Book of World Records. Because the American Molossus is such a new breed, there is no way of knowing exactly how large she will grow. 

But despite her intimidating size, Euphrates is said to be quite gentle, caring and loyal, albeit a bit clumsy, though she is gaining better control now that most of her largest growth spurts have finally slowed. Given that Howser was one of the first to adopt the new breed, only time will tell how well Euphrates and others of the breed will develop.