K and hard C are the same sound. English keeps both, and this catalogue shows what that costs: 919 names start with C at 69 registrations each, while 529 start with K at 50. Fewer names, and each one carried by fewer animals. If you want a familiar sound that is not a familiar spelling, this is where it lives.
Half the letter is a respelling
Kody for Cody, Koko for Coco, Kira for Kiera. The substitution is so routine that the two letters function as one pool with two entrances, and the K entrance is the quieter one. Nothing is lost in the mouth; the difference is entirely on the tag.
The other half is not English at all
Kobe, Koda, Kona, Kiki, Kimba. K carries a lot of the catalogue's Japanese, Hawaiian and invented names, which is where its 131 names ending in -a come from. That is a high share for a letter that leans as it does elsewhere.
The most evenly split letter here
161 measure male and 148 female. Nothing else in this catalogue divides that cleanly, and it follows from the two halves above pulling in opposite directions — King and Kobe against Kiki and Kira.
Should I spell a name with K or C?
They sound the same, so the question is how expected you want it to look. C holds 919 names at 69 registrations each against K's 529 at 50 — the K spelling is the less crowded one.
What are good pet names starting with K?
King, Kobe, Koda, Kiki and Kira lead the list, ordered by how many animals carry each across eleven public registers.
Are K names male or female?
Neither — this is the most evenly divided letter in the catalogue, at 161 male to 148 female.
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 four 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. Five of the eleven registers are North American and they supply 86% of the records, so read the ordering as naming in those places rather than worldwide. Browse the whole catalogue or read how the data is put together.