If you often pay attention to names given to dogs, you would have heard of the name ‘Astro’ before. It is a dog name that has a movie-based history and it is worth taking a closer look at to understand its history and meaning.
Background of the name ‘Astro’
The name Astro was given to a dog in an American animated TV series called The Jetsons which was produced by American animation studio, Hanna-Barbera. The cartoon series was aired firstly from 1962 to 1963, and later from 1985 to 1987. In The Jetsons, the character was voiced by the late reputable voice actor Don Messick who also voiced the dog Scooby in another popular animated show called Scooby Doo, Where Are You (from 1969 to 1975).
The dog was originally named Tralfaz by his former wealthy owner Mr. J.P Gottrockets, but he was later adopted by the Jetson family and renamed Astro. Notably, the name Astro is a Greek word for ‘in the star’. Before being accepted fully as part of the family of the Jetsons, the father of the family, George Jetson, was against its adoption. George cited unavailability of room to keep him as his major excuse. However, Elroy, Jane and Judy, who were the other members of the family, wanted to keep him with the family. After Astro accidentally helped the family to catch the Cat Burglar, George had no option than to accept him into the family. George and his son, Elroy, later grew fond of Astro, and he was their close buddy all through the TV series.
The character – Astro
Astro, as depicted in the animated TV series, was not your typical dog as he was definitely much more intelligent than others. He was capable of uttering words to communicate with people instead of merely barking. However, his words were some kinds of grumbling rudimentary English words that had the letter that started each word turned into the letter ‘R’. Typically, if Astro wanted to say “George and Astro went home”, he would rather pronounce the sentence as “Reorge and Rastro rent rome”. Astro was shown as a happy, lively and intelligent dog that was able to live well with humans.
Nowadays, Astro is a good name for dogs whose owners love things that concern space or star as the name means ‘of the star’. Without doubt, Astro is a suitable, cosmic dog name with good meaning and interesting history.
