Dog names

Dog names are the most-searched naming question there is, and almost every answer online is somebody's taste dressed as a ranking. The list below is a count: each name appears in public pet-licence registers and shelter records, and its position comes from the share of those registers it holds.

Two rules do more work than any list. A name should carry across a park — a clear vowel at the end travels further than a clipped consonant — and it should not rhyme with a command you intend to teach. The guides underneath go into both.

The order is the whole point. A list assembled by an editor tells you what one person likes; a list counted from licence records tells you what thousands of owners actually did, and the two look nothing alike. The famous names are famous for a reason, and the reason is visible in the counts.

What the counts cannot do is pick for you. Nothing here measures whether a name suits a temperament, a size or a breed — the registers record what animals are called and never what anybody concluded from it. Any page offering names for a guard dog is offering an opinion with a filter attached.

Rare dog names, and why the rare band is not the rare end

One-syllable dog names: the shortest, strongest, most male slice here

Human names for dogs, and how much more they are used

Dog names ending in -o: the most male ending in the catalogue

Two-syllable dog names: the shape two thirds of them already have

Long dog names, and the one kind that costs you nothing

Elegant dog names, and the one thing the tag is really measuring

Dog names ending in -a: the sharpest female signal here

Dog names ending in -y, where the ending decides the sound

Unique female dog names, and how they differ from the male ones

Unique male dog names: 2,284 nobody else picked

Unique dog names: 8,053 that almost nobody uses

Short dog names, and the one test that decides between them

Easy-to-say dog names

Playful-sounding dog names

Unisex dog names, measured rather than assumed

Strong dog names, classified by sound rather than attitude

Male dog names that people actually register

Female dog names, ranked by how often they are actually used