The test for a dog name is not how it looks written down, it is how it sounds on the fourth shout across a field. Names that pass have open vowels and consonants that do not collide — the site derives this from the letters, so the filter is exact rather than editorial. See also strong dog names for the opposite end of the same scale.
Say it out loud before you decide
Read a shortlist aloud at a normal speaking distance and then at a shout. Names lose different things at volume: a soft ending disappears, a doubled consonant turns into a stutter. The short names hub covers length, which is the other half of this.
What makes a dog name easy to say?
Open vowels and consonants that do not collide. This site classifies a name's sound from its spelling — easy, soft, strong, playful or elegant — so the label describes the letters rather than anybody's impression of the dog.
Does an easy name help with training?
It helps indirectly: a name you can say quickly is a name you say sooner and more often. The rule that matters more is avoiding a name that rhymes with a command you intend to teach.
Every count on this site is a tally of real registrations: pet licences and shelter intakes published as open data by New York, Seattle, Austin, Montgomery County, Cambridge, Zurich, Basel and three Australian councils. Popularity here is the average share a name holds across those registers, so a name common in a small city is not buried by one common in a large one. Nine of the eleven sources are North American, so read the ordering as naming in those places rather than worldwide. Browse the whole catalogue or read how the data is put together.