The most popular people names for dogs
If you meet a Kevin, he’s probably a human. Bella, Luna or Max, though? Don’t be so sure.
Some names are used for people. Some names are used for dogs. And then there are the Jacks and Rileys and Angels of the world, who live in the magical place where people and dogs overlap.
Our friends at the Atlantic recently noticed the trend of dogs named after humans, and we wondered: How common are dogs with human names? To find out, we explored the names of 61,000 dogs available for adoption on the website Petfinder, and compared them with baby names in Social Security Administration records stretching back to 1880.
How human is your dog’s name? How doggy is your name? Enter either name below to find out.
Enter a name:
Derek is a human name
In a stadium of 100,000 people and 100,000 dogs, 7 dogs and 65 people would be named Derek.
See adoptable dogs named Derek.
Note: Data includes the annual list of 500 most popular baby names since 1880 and any name shared by three or more adoptable dogs
As it turns out, about 1 in 7 Petfinder dogs had names that also are commonly given to babies. But within this subset of dogs named after humans, there’s enormous variation in the popularity of certain monikers.
For example, only about 1 in 2,000 of the Petfinder pooches were named Kevin. But other names — Bonnie, Jackson, Hunter — had substantial overlap between babies and pups.
George: the people-est dog name
Top 300 adoptable dog names, by percent of Americans born since 1880 with name
Percentage of dogs with name
0.3%
Buddy
Benji
Lady
Zeus
0
Romeo
Rocky
Lucky
Bear
Luna
Joy
Penny
Bella
Sadie
Zoe
Daisy
Chase
Stella
Max
Hunter
Charlie
Jackson
Lucy
Cody
Ruby
Austin
Angel
Rose
Olivia
More common among dogs
Jerry
More common among people
Emma
Jack
Henry
Frank
Betty
Kevin
0.4%
George
Percentage of people with name
George is the people-est names for dogs
Top 300 names among adoptable dogs, by percentage of Americans born since 1880 with name
Percentage of dogs with name
0.3%
Zeus
Benji
Lucky
Lady
Bear
0
Buddy
Romeo
Rocky
Cookie
Bruno
Rex
Luna
Joy
Penny
Bella
Sadie
Chase
Zoe
Max
Daisy
Charlie
Stella
Lucy
Jackson
Cody
Hunter
Bonnie
Ruby
Angel
Austin
Rose
Olivia
Grace
More common among dogs
Walter
Jerry
More common among people
Emma
Jack
Henry
Frank
Betty
Kevin
0.4%
George
Percentage of people with name
George and Kevin are the people-est names for dogs
Top 300 names among adoptable dogs, by percentage of Americans born since 1880 with name
Percentage of people
with name
George
0.4%
More common among people
Kevin
More common among dogs
Betty
Frank
Henry
Jack
Emma
Walter
Jerry
Grace
Olivia
Rose
Austin
Angel
Ruby
Bonnie
Hunter
Cody
Jackson
Lucy
Stella
Charlie
Daisy
Zoe
Chase
Max
Joy
Sadie
Penny
Rocky
Luna
Bella
Rex
Bruno
Zeus
Romeo
Buddy
0
Benji
Bear
Lucky
Cookie
Lady
0.4%
Percentage of dogs with name
George and Kevin are the people-est names for dogs
Top 300 names among adoptable dogs, by percentage of Americans born since 1880 with name
Percentage of people
with name
George
0.4%
More common among people
Kevin
More common among dogs
Betty
Frank
Jack
Henry
Emma
Walter
Jerry
Peter
Grace
Olivia
Rose
Austin
Taylor
Angel
Ruby
Bruce
Bonnie
Cody
Jackson
Hunter
Stella
Lucy
Molly
Charlie
Riley
Zoe
Chase
Max
Sam
Daisy
Sadie
Bailey
Hope
Joy
Rex
Penny
Sandy
Bella
Luna
Bruno
Zeus
Rocky
Romeo
Buddy
0
Benji
Tank
Lucky
Lady
Cookie
Bear
0.4%
Percentage of dogs with name
In the frenzy of trying to find out whether our dogs were secretly people (or we were secretly dogs), we noticed two trends.
[No one wanted Princess Fiona. Then the balding, potbellied pitbull met a little girl.]
First, we saw a lot of feminine people names among the adoptable dogs. The data bore this out: About 20 percent of female dogs had names that also were common among American humans, compared with about 10 percent of male dogs.
And second, there weren’t many 20th-century human names among the dogs. It turns out that if adoptable dogs have people names, those names tend to be either very old-fashioned or very modern.
Many current favorites for dogs such as Daisy and Charlie were in the top 50 baby names around 1880, the earliest year of baby names in the Social Security Administration’s data. But at the other end of the spectrum, the three most common people names for adoptable dogs are extremely au courant: Bella, Max and Luna all reached the height of their popularity for babies on or after 2010.
Dogs borrow very old and very new names from humans
Names common for both dogs and humans, by year of top popularity as baby names
Percentage of adoptable dogs with name:
0.1%
0.2%
Maggie
Charlie
Daisy
1880
Sam
Lucy
Hazel
Ruby
1915
Bonnie
1950
Bella became most popular as a baby name 5 years after “Twilight” published
Holly
1985
Jasmine
Bella
2020
Jack
Luna
Leo
Nova
Willow
Dogs borrow very old and very new names from humans
Names common among both adoptable dogs and humans, by year of top popularity for babies
Percentage of adoptable dogs with name:
0.2%
0.1%
Daisy
1880
Lucy
The eighth-most- popular dog name, Charlie, was most popular as a baby name in 1881
Hazel
Ruby
1915
Bonnie
1950
Cody
Bella became most popular as a baby name in 2010, five years after “Twilight” was published
Holly
1985
Jasmine
Bella
Nova
2020
Jack
Leo
Luna
Human names for dogs tend to be very new or very old
Names common among both adoptable dogs and humans, by year of top popularity for babies
2020
Percentage of adoptable dogs with name:
0.2%
0.1%
1915
1950
1985
1880
Nova
Ellie
Bella became most popular as a baby name in 2010, five years after “Twilight” was published
Ivy
Daisy
The eighth-most-popular dog name, Charlie, was most popular as a baby name in 1881
Riley
Jack
Bella
Charlie
Mia
Ruby
Luna
Sadie
Lucy
The baby name Jasmine reached the height of its popularity in 1993, a year after “Aladdin” was released
Stella
Leo
Human names for dogs tend to be very new or very old
2020
Names common among both adoptable dogs and humans, by year of top popularity for babies
Percentage of adoptable dogs with name:
0.1%
0.2%
Nova
Ellie
1880
1915
1950
1985
Ivy
The #1 name for dogs, Bella, became most popular as a baby name in 2010, five years after “Twilight” was published
Riley
Daisy
The eighth-most-popular dog name, Charlie, was most popular as a baby name in 1881
Jack
Bella
Charlie
Mia
Ruby
Luna
Sadie
Lucy
The baby name Jasmine reached the height of its popularity in 1993, a year after “Aladdin” was released
Stella
Leo
To verify that these trends weren’t specific to shelter dogs, we checked our findings against the names of dogs living with their owners in New York City and Seattle, where owners register their dogs’ names to get pet licenses. Bella, Max and Luna were the top three dog names across both the shelter dogs and the NYC/Seattle dogs.
We did see some differences further down the list: The adoptable dogs featured more Dukes, Brunos and Bears, while the dogs with owners had more Teddys, Luckys and Princesses.
Department of Data
We here at the Department of Data are dedicated to exploring the weird and wondrous power of the data that defines our world. Read more.
The most popular human names, including James, Michael and Mary, were barely present in either list of dogs. And, out of 61,000 adoptable dogs, only three were named Robert.
Why are these very common baby names so uncommon among adoptable dogs? The name Jack — common among both dogs and babies — gives us a clue. Nicknames tend to be much more popular among dogs than formal given names. There were 10 times as many dogs named Bobbie as dogs named Robert, and three times as many Billys as Williams.
Even these nicknames, though, rarely make it into the top 100 dog names.
So what makes a dog a Michael, an Edward or a Mary? We reached out to the shelters to find out.
Some dogs have human names because they were, well, named after humans. A Labrador-shepherd mix in California was named Michael after a kennel worker. Others got their names because they matched specific characters from pop culture. The Mary pictured at the top of our story was named after a similarly cross-eyed character in a Jethro Tull song. Michael and David in Oklahoma were rescued together as strays, which earned them names from the 1987 film “The Lost Boys.”
But shelter workers said the human names usually aren’t based on the traits or circumstances of specific dogs. Rather, these dogs are named in themed batches to help deal with the sheer volume of pets moving through animal welfare organizations. One shelter we spoke to switches themes every month, using names inspired by soups, street names and country and western singers.
So Edward, a shepherd, got his name as one of a batch of Jane Austen dogs (along with Darcy and Marianne). Another Michael was part of a litter of puppies named after the Jackson 5. One of the Marys was one of three sister dogs named after the witches in the 1993 film “Hocus Pocus.”
In some cases, a human name can help clinch an adoption. Leslie Granger, president and CEO of the animal welfare organization Bideawee, said, “We often hear from adopters that they felt an instant connection, because the dog shares a name with their mom or best friend.”
“We give human personality traits to our dogs and cats,” said Granger, who herself has cats named Maximus and Harry. “They’re more a part of our family now, so human names are more fitting.”
Acting undersecretary of data Andrew Van Dam is on a top-secret mission this week to decode a data treasure trove. But don’t fret, Department of Data Special Agents Alyssa Fowers and Chris Alcantara are here to quell your data curiosities. Welcome Agents Fowers and Alcantara!
Howdy, data fiends and data friends! The Department of Data depends on your quantifiable questions. What are you curious about? Does anybody repair anything themselves anymore? Why did the Census Bureau stop tracking births at sea? Which states have the most electric cars per capita? Just ask!
If your question inspires a column, we’ll send an official Department of Data button and ID card. This week’s first button goes to Amber Thomas, who generously made public the code for her 2019 story on transporting shelter dogs. The second button goes to Andrew Van Dam (at long last!) for his guidance and encouragement (and suggesting there might be something to this dogs-with-people-names thing).
To read more about the dogs pictured in the story, check out their adoption profiles here: Derek, cross-eyed Mary, Gustavo, Nora, Michael (named after a kennel worker), Michael (named after a “Lost Boys” character), Michael (named after the singer Michael Jackson) and Mary (named after a witch in “Hocus Pocus”).
Some eagle-eyed readers have noticed that our baby name data starts decades before the Social Security Administration came into existence in 1935. The SSA tracks names by birth year, so the pre-1935 data refers to anyone who was born before the agency existed but applied for a Social Security card later in life.