Lincoln's Dog Fido

[Liz Rosenthal]

I have what may be a very stupid, silly or inconsequential question.

Is it possible - does anyone think - that the dog-name "Fido" became fashionable as a result of the Lincolns' dog being named Fido? I always wondered why, in literature and conversation, even today, the dog-name Fido has appeared so often as a sort of typical name for a dog. Yet I don't think I've ever actually met a dog named Fido, or read about any other real-life Fidos, other than the Lincolns' Fido.

It seems that a number of terms and phrases uttered by Lincoln or people associated with him are still in the lexicon. It's kind of exciting to discover more examples of these, such as:

"better angels of our nature"
"lame duck session"
"It's best not to swap horses in the middle of a stream"
"hooker" (synonym for "whore," supposedly after General Joe Hooker)

So what about "Fido"? Can this name be added to the list?