Phteven is the meme nickname for Tuna the Dog, a Chihuahua-Dachshund mix with a severe overbite whose photos are captioned in a phonetic lisp, most famously 'Hello, my name is Phteven'.

Where did Phteven come from?

The nickname came from an unrelated 2013 Reddit post of a takeout receipt where a cashier wrote 'Steven' as 'Phteven'; a follow-up post on September 25, 2013 paired the receipt with a photo of Tuna, and the name stuck.

What does Phteven mean?

It's the name 'Steven' spelled the way it sounds when spoken with a severe lisp, matched to Tuna's pronounced overbite as a visual joke.

How do you use Phteven?

You caption a photo of Tuna (or any dog with an overbite) with phonetic lisp misspellings, swapping 's' for 'ph,' often adding a bowtie, wig, or costume to lean into the character.

Is Phteven still popular?

The meme peaked in late 2013 and now lives on as a classic; the official TunaMeltsMyHeart store still sells 'Hello My Name Is PHTEVEN' sweatshirts and mugs.

Tuna is a Chihuahua-Dachshund (Chiweenie) mix with an aggressive overbite and lower jaw dysfunction, adopted in 2011 at a Southern California farmers market by Courtney Dasher.

Who owns Tuna the Dog?

Courtney Dasher, a graphic designer from Los Angeles, adopted Tuna as a four-month-old puppy after his rescuer found him on the side of a road.

When was the TunaMeltsMyHeart Instagram launched?

The account was launched on November 22, 2011, and passed 46,000 followers by late 2012, when Mashable first profiled it.

Yes; Tuna is a real Chiweenie with a documented jaw condition, and Dasher has openly discussed his rescue story in interviews with Mashable, Daily Mail, and MSN.

Does buying Phteven merch help animals?

A portion of every purchase from the official TunaMeltsMyHeart store is donated to no-kill animal rescues and shelters, per the store's own FAQ.

Phteven

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Published September 21, 2026

In November 2011, Courtney Dasher launched an Instagram account for her adopted Chihuahua-Dachshund mix Tuna, whose pronounced overbite pulled in hundreds of thousands of followers. Two years later, a Reddit post fused his lopsided face with a receipt that misspelled 'Steven' as 'Phteven,' birthing the lisp-caption dog format that ran dog Tumblr through late 2013.

dogs misspelling memes instagram memes celebrity animal memes

Overview

Phteven, also known as Tuna the Dog, is a Chihuahua-Dachshund mix whose severe overbite and dysfunctional lower jaw made him one of the earliest Instagram-native pet stars1. The 'Phteven' format layers phonetic lisp misspellings of standard English over photos of Tuna, mimicking how someone with a pronounced overbite might sound out words. Captions swap 's' sounds for 'ph,' so 'Steven' becomes 'Phteven,' 'sorry' becomes 'phorry,' and 'hello, my name is Steven' turns into the meme's signature line: 'hello, my name is Phteven'5.

The joke lands because Tuna's jaw genuinely looks like it would give him a speech impediment, and Dasher's photos frame him as a well-groomed subject rather than a punchline6. Tumblr fans built the visual template out of costume shots, wigs, bowties, and Halloween outfits, all captioned in Phteven-speak7. The nickname stuck so hard that the official TunaMeltsMyHeart store still sells a 'Hello My Name Is PHTEVEN' sweatshirt more than a decade after the receipt image first surfaced3.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Instagram (Tuna origin) / Reddit (Phteven meme)

Creator

Unknown

Date

2013

Tuna was found on the side of a road as a puppy and adopted at a Southern California farmers market in 2011 by Courtney Dasher, who was drawn to the roughly four-month-old Chiweenie despite (or because of) what she described as an 'aggressive overbite and lower jawline dysfunction'2. She had planned to foster him, but ended up keeping him after realizing his crooked face was unusually expressive on camera6. On November 22, 2011, she launched the @tunameltsmyheart Instagram account so friends could follow along5.

The 'Phteven' angle emerged nearly two years later, and did not originally involve Tuna at all. On September 4, 2013, Redditor Lightbrite08 posted a photograph to /r/funny of a takeout receipt where a cashier had written the customer's name 'Steven' as 'Phteven,' turning a lisp into a spelling gag5. On September 25, 2013, Redditor Eli2cute followed with a two-panel image titled 'Phteven? Is that you Phteven?' that placed the receipt above a picture of Tuna, arguing his face matched the name perfectly. That post pulled over 11,200 upvotes and 270 comments in its first two months, and the nickname stuck to Tuna permanently5.

How It Spread

Tuna's Instagram audience built slowly before hitting an inflection point in December 2012, when Mashable published a piece about him crossing 46,000 followers and flagged him as a possible Invisalign endorsement candidate1. Within days, Dasher launched a TunaMeltsMyHeart web store selling merchandise, with a portion of proceeds routed to the ASPCA and to the woman who originally rescued Tuna2. He appeared on the American morning show Today on January 18, 2013, and follow-up coverage from Daily Mail, MSN, and BuzzFeed ran through the summer, by which point his follower count had cleared 375,0002 6.

The Phteven meme wave itself began in September 2013 on Reddit and jumped to 9gag within days, where the original two-panel image was reposted on September 29, 20135. Tumblr picked up the format shortly after: users started captioning costume-heavy Tuna photos in phonetic lisp, with posts like blrout's October 2013 'I will never tire of Phteven memes' entry using the tags #phteven #memes #dog #cute #tie #wig7. Individual fan posts from this run are mostly preserved through Web Archive snapshots rather than live Tumblr pages, so specific viral counts beyond the original Reddit post are not archived in available sources.

Tuna kept growing on Instagram through the mid-2010s, and the official TunaMeltsMyHeart store still lists the 'Hello My Name Is PHTEVEN' sweatshirt alongside standard Tuna apparel, keeping the receipt joke commercially alive3. Older assets from the account are still findable via the September 2012 YouTube upload of Tuna trying to walk in dog shoes, which was one of the first cross-platform pushes for the brand4.

Timeline

2011-11-22

Courtney Dasher launches the @tunameltsmyheart Instagram account for her adopted Chiweenie.

How to Use This Meme

A typical Phteven post pairs a photograph of Tuna, often costumed with a bowtie, wig, or Halloween outfit, with a caption written in phonetic lisp: 's' sounds swapped for 'ph,' 'r' softened to 'w,' and hard consonants smoothed over7. Common openers include a self-introduction ('Hi, I'm Phteven'), a compliment, or a mock-formal statement written as if delivered through a severe overbite. The tone stays affectionate rather than mocking because Tuna is presented as the star, not the joke1.