Before the Big Stampede, before riding in a Stagecoach, and way before wearing Green Berets, John Wayne was just a little boy in Glendale, California with a four-legged best friend. Few people know that John Wayne received his famous nickname “The Duke” from his favorite sidekick, his childhood dog.

As a boy, Wayne immediately bonded with his Airedale Terrier, Duke. The duo spent almost every waking minute together. Everywhere Wayne went, his faithful pal Duke was right there with him. The two were inseparable. They did everything together, from playing in the yard to going to work.

Every morning at 4 a.m., Wayne and Duke would deliver the Los Angeles Examiner. The entire town of Glendale began to associate them together, since wherever one was, the other was normally right there with him. The local firemen playfully started calling them “Big Duke” and “Little Duke;” which is how Wayne’s nickname “The Duke” actually originated. As John “The Duke” Wayne was quoted in an interview, “There’ve been a lot of stories about how I got to be called Duke. One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play, which I never did. Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty! It was all a lot of rubbish. The truth is that I was named after a dog!” The nickname stuck, and from then on, he was known as “The Duke.”