Sirius Grooming? Why ‘Sirius’?

Canis Major featuring Sirius, The Dog Star

Some people have asked “Why did you call your Dog Grooming company Sirius Grooming?” It’s a good question! When I decided I wanted to set up a grooming company, I wanted to choose a name that was fairly unique and had some meaning.

After going through the usual ‘pooch’ and ‘doggy’ related names, I decided to look in to synonyms and other words associated with dogs. I looked at foreign words for dog like ‘chien’ in French, ‘kyon’ in Greek and then found ‘canis’ in Latin. My partner knows a bit about everything and remembered that Canis is a word in two star constellations: Canis Minor and Canis Major or The Lesser Dog and The Great Dog. The major star in Canis Major is a sun called Sirius.

Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, almost twice as bright as Canopus, the next brightest. Other than its brightness, what makes Sirius interesting is its other name, The Dog Star, and its association with dogs in general.

Cultures throughout history have attached a dog-themed significance to Sirius. The Ancient Greeks depicted Sirius as Orion’s dog, positing that Sirius’s emanations could affect a dog’s temperament and cause them to behave strangely during the hottest days of the year.

In Chinese astronomy the star is known as the Celestial Wolf.

Some indigenous peoples of North America depict it as a dog that follows mountain sheep, others called it Dog-face. The Cherokee knew it as a dog-star guardian of their Path of Souls. Even the Alaskan Inuits called it Moon Dog.

With such a rich heritage of association with dogs, Sirius seemed like a perfect name for the business. Pairing it with Grooming was just the logical next step since that’s what I do!

So there you have it: the reason why I named the company Sirius Grooming.