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Caleb 
The name Caleb occurs twice in the Bible. The most famous Caleb is a son of Jephunneh and a chief of Judah who joins the contingent that Moses assembles to have the promised land spied out. The other famous member of this group is Joshua, who later becomes Moses' successor. The contingent consists of twelve members, ten of whom condemn the coming campaign. Joshua and Caleb remind Israel that God is on their side, but the Israelites are not convinced. Only after God intercedes, executes the ten fear mongers and states that the Israelites then alive except Caleb and Joshua, will not see the land, they move on. Caleb is awarded Hebron, longevity and a substantial posterity, which in time forms the Judahite sub-clan of the Calebites. Nabal, the man who foolishly opposed David, was a Calebite (1 Sam 25:3).
The other Caleb is also a Judahite. He is a son of Hezron (2 Chr 2:18).
The name Caleb comes from the root (klb 981). What that root means is unknown and some scholars suggest that it was formed after the sound that a dog makes (the Hebrew equivalent of woof!). The derivation of this root that most likely has to do with the name Caleb is (keleb 981a), meaning dog.
It is curious that a Biblical hero is known by a name that is absolutely negative. Dogs in the Bible are always vile (Pr 26:11), aggressive (Jer 15:3), worthless (1 Sam 17:43), or worthy of distrust (Ps 59:6).
A solution to this conundrum may be offered by the observations forwarded by Graham Hancock in his book Fingerprints of the Gods, concerning the origin of a certain story that occurs in many cultures, and of which the Osiris saga is an example. The Egyptians believed that their dead pharaoh's would incarnate as stars in the constellation of Orion. In the Bible stars have few literary functions, one of them being the image of the seed of Abraham (Gen 15:5, comp Dan 12:3). Paul makes it overly clear that this seed of Abraham is Jesus Christ (Gal 3:16), and the Body of Christ is comprised of the believers in Him (Col 1:24). In other words: the famous re-birth/ born-again principle of Christianity entails an incarnation into the Body of Christ. When we then realize that the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, and that the legendary Orion-figure is always accompanied by a dog (the star we call Sirius), the existence of Caleb in the Joshua cycle may be explained.
An additional note: in the NT as well as in the OT dogs are always negative (see for instance Rev 22:15). But in Matt 15:26 (Mark 7:27), Jesus Himself likens the gentiles to dogs that feed off the crumbs dropped from the table by children who are Israel.
A word that both BDB and TWOTOT list under the root , but of which the connection to this root is 'dubious' (says BDB), is  (kelub 981b), denoting a basket and a cage, specifically with contents (birds in Jer 5:27; fruit in Am 8:1,2).
Whatever the etymological origins of these words are, the result of them looking alike is quite revealing. Even though the Biblical tradition loathes dogs, the Israelites were not unfamiliar with their services or companionship. Job 30:1 speaks of shepherd dogs and in Matt 15:27 dogs are reported to exist under the table from which people ate. Certainly, the Israelites knew that dogs could learn many a trick or skill, or even show compassion and affection for its master, and this in contrast to other animals that lived around the house.
If indeed the word is onomatopoeic (= designed to imitate the sound it denotes), and was imported from cognate languages, these transactions may have been lubricated by the notion that dogs may appear to be endowed with reason, like a basket that contains fruit or a cage that contains birds. On top of this, the word may be (mistakenly) seen as a combination of the particle  (ke 937), meaning 'like' or 'as if,' and the noun  (leb 1071a), heart or understanding. That way the word (dog) means 'as if it has a heart' or 'as if it understands.'
The name Caleb means Dog.
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