5 Peanuts facts you may not have known about Snoopy and friends

Are you a fan of Snoopy and Charlie Brown? Do you read the Peanuts comic strip in the paper? If the answer is yes, you may be interested in these facts about one of our favorite four-legged friends.

Snoopy might be one of the most iconic dogs in pop culture. With holiday specials that have aired for years and a story that dates back to 1950, this is a pup that has a long and fascinating history. But what do you really know about the Peanuts comic mainstay?

In October, Mental Floss pulled together a number of interesting facts about Snoopy that we found fascinating. And now we have put together the five facts that we think might just be some of our favorites.

Snoopy almost had a different name

So, it turns out that the iconic name Snoopy almost didn’t exist. It seems that originally Charles Schulz wanted to name the pup Sniffy. (Who else can almost hear Snoopy talking about the indignity of that name?)

When talking about the early days of his comic strip, Schulz revealed to the Star Tribune that what actually stopped him from giving his comic strip dog the name Sniffy was the fact that he saw a magazine stand that revealed that someone else had used the name already. (And we are not upset by this at all.)

Peanuts is not a name that Schulz liked or used

It turns out that the name of the comic strip was actually “foisted” on to Schulz by someone else. In fact, according to The Atlantic, if you ever asked the artist about his work, he would say he drew the comic featuring Snoopy and Charlie Brown, rather than calling it Peanuts.

While we don’t really know what he would have preferred to have his comic strip called, it is clear that Peanuts is not it. And yet, after all these years, this is the name that lives on to this day.

Snoopy has a total of seven siblings

We all know that Snoopy has a brother named Spike, since we have met the other pup in a few different comics and specials. But did you know that there were six other siblings as well?

It probably comes as no surprise that Snoopy has that many siblings considering dog births are always litters, and the pup is clearly a beagle, which means we expected him to come from a litter. It turns out that the other siblings are Marbles, Belle, Andy, Olaf, Rover, and Molly. The first five siblings were introduced in 1975, while Rover and Molly didn’t get named until much later on.

And while Snoopy may have had siblings, it turns out that Schulz regretted the decision to introduce them because of the way it impacted the pup’s relationship with Charlie Brown and the other kids in the comic strip.

Snoopy owns an original Vincent van Gogh painting

You know how we never see the inside of Snoopy’s house in the comics? Well it turns out that the pup has some impressive things inside that dog house, including an original painting by Vincent van Gogh.

Even though the comic strip didn’t want to do a deep dive into the dog house, a special from 1981 called It’s Magic, Charlie Brown showed off the inside of the pup’s house and the painting was finally shown. It looks like Snoopy either has some impressive connections, a lot of money, or maybe he just has some incredible luck to be able to get his hands on a van Gogh.

Snoopy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

He may not be the first animated character to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but we still love the fact that Snoopy was popular enough to warrant this kind of love. In 2015, the pup got his star not far from his creator, and if you are wondering what his plaque number is, it’s 2,563.

Honestly, this might be our favorite fact about Snoopy, as it is a permanent reminder of just how famous and beloved this dog really is. And of course, we can’t help but appreciate the fact that this also means we can definitively call Snoopy a star!

Did you know these five facts about Snoopy and the Peanuts comic strip? Which of these facts surprised you the most? Tell us what you think in the comments.