What Are the Most Popular Dog Names?

What are the most popular names for dogs? Well, like the answer to so many questions, that depends just who you ask and where you live!

Unlike with human baby names which are registered with the Social Security Administration, there is no one central database that records dog names. Instead there are many lists, ranging from dogs that are registered with AKC to lists of dogs that receive subscription boxes. Many groups compile lists of the top dog names but those results are based on their own database.

Whether you’d like to choose one of the most popular dog names–making the name extra easy for others to understand–or you’d like to avoid the most popular names (so half the dog park doesn’t come running when you call), we’ve got you covered with numerous lists of the most common dog names!

Most Popular Dog Names

Surveying its database of more than 740,000 insured pets, Trupanion compiled a tail-wagger of a top 10 list. As with many US lists, Luna sits at the top of the pack, and Charlie and Bella round out the top three. One new name on the list is Teddy, especially interesting because Theodore just moved into the top 10 spot of most popular baby names in the US, according to the Social Security Administration!

1. Luna
2. Charlie
3. Bella
4. Daisy
5. Milo
6. Lucy
7. Cooper
8. Bailey
9. Teddy
10. Max

MetLife Pet Insurance also noted that their list of most popular names featured a growing number of “human” names. “There’s a long-standing discussion about giving names normally found in humans to pets – things like Oliver, Charlie or Jack versus names like Oreo, Coco and Smokey. Based on this year’s results, more people are naming their pets like they’d name a human child – another clear indication that pets are family.”

Here’s a look at the top 25 names in their database:

1. Luna
2. Bella
3. Charlie
4. Max
5. Daisy
6. Bailey
7. Lucy
8. Cooper
9. CoCo
10. Milo
11. Buddy
12. Penny
13. Maggie
14. Lola
15. Molly
16. Sadie
17. Stella
18. Rocky
19. Teddy
20. Bear
21. Chloe
22. Ruby
23. Rosie
24. Zoey
25. Oliver

Rover put out their own list based on customer data–and that list showed a few new monikers. In 2021, their top female names (including many that shared the top spot with human baby names) were Bella (top baby name), Luna (top baby name), Lucy (top baby name), Daisy, Zoe (top baby name), Lily, Lola, Bailey, Stella and Molly. Top male names included Max (top baby name), Charlie, Milo, Buddy, Rocky, Bear, Leo (top baby name), Duke, Teddy and Tucker.

Does the Most Popular Name Vary by State?

It’s interesting that the most popular dog names vary little to state.

A study by Bark showed that every state except Hawaii and Mississippi had either Luna, Bella, Charlie or Daisy as a top choice.

And what were the most popular names in those two states? In Hawaii, Kona was the top choice while, in Mississippi, Sadie took top honors.

Similarly Healthy Paws Pet Insurance looked at their customer list state by state and, as you can see, most of the country seems to be on the same wavelength when it comes to dog names:

Most Popular Dog Names in England

And, in case you were wondering, the most popular dog names in the UK are pretty similar–but do include a few additional names that don’t make the top 10 lists in the US.

Tails.com, a UK dog food subscription company, tallied their most pup-ular names; as you can see in the infographic below, Bella, Luna, Max, Daisy and Charlie are making a lot of tails wag across the pond.

However, you’ll see some popular UK names that don’t make all of the US lists including Alfie, Milo, Roxy, Rosie and Buster.

As in the US, in the UK there’s a little fluctuation in popularity based on location. Here’s a look at the top names by city. Only Edinburgh, with Dexter, had a top name that wasn’t in the top 20 list:

Within the cities, the top lists varied a bit; Tails noted, for example, that these are the top 10 most popular dog names in Cambridge: 

1. Alfie
2. Bella
3. Ruby
4. Maisie
5. Poppy
6. Lola
7. Luna
8. Milo
9. Molly
10. Murphy

Most Common Names by Dog Breed

Of course, the popularity of a dog name doesn’t just vary by location–it also varies by the breed of dog!

Yappy.com, a company that produces personalized items for dogs, studied their many customer profiles and looked at the popularity of the names by each breed:

Most Popular Dog Names Compared to Baby Names!

We’ve looked at the most popular names for dogs both by place and breed–but how do those compare to the most popular names for human babies? Not surprisingly, there are several similarities between human baby and fur baby names!

In the US, these are the top 10 baby names according to the Social Security Administration:

In England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics names these as the top 10 baby names (with a lot of similarities in the top spots):

What do you think: popular or unique?

In looking at the list of names, the only ones we’ve had in our family are Coco and Daisy. Coco was one of our dear cats and Daisy was the name of my childhood duck (who later became the subject of an article called “The Duck and The Dachshund” that I wrote for Reader’s Digest.)

It’s clear, however, that a lot of people love the same pet names. What do you think? Do you want a more common dog name or one that’s different and unique?

More Dog Names You Might Love

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