C does not have a sound. It has two, and the list below silently interleaves them: Cooper, Coco, Cody and Chico open on a K, while Charlie, Chase, Chester and Chewy open on a ch. Sorting by first letter puts them together. Nothing else about them is together at all.
The half you cannot see in the filter
This matters when you are picking a name to call rather than to write. A hard C cuts; a ch does not. If you are shortlisting from this letter for a name you will use outdoors, the alphabet has grouped your options by spelling and you will have to ungroup them by ear.
The letter K is the same sound with a quarter fewer names
919 names start with C and 529 with K, and a good share of the K list is the C list respelled — Cody and Kody, Coco and Koko. The density differs too: C averages 69 registrations per name and K averages 50. The spelling with the longer history is the one more animals carry.
Balanced, and unusually long
305 male to 268 female is close to even, and 158 of the letter runs to eight letters or more — Chester, Charlotte, Clementine. C is one of the few large letters that does not lean.
What are the most popular pet names starting with C?
Cooper leads the list above, then Cody, Charlie, Coco and Chico. The order is by registrations across eleven public registers and updates with the catalogue.
Should I pick a C name or a K name?
They are frequently the same name. C holds 919 names against 529 for K and is carried by more animals per name, so the C spelling is the more expected one and the K spelling the more distinctive.
Do C names sound hard or soft?
Both, and the filter cannot separate them. Cooper and Coco open on a K sound; Charlie and Chase open on a ch. Read a shortlist aloud rather than trusting the initial.
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.