Sixteen names here have a source stating a Spanish origin. They average 295 registrations each, four times the catalogue rate, and not one carries a meaning. That last part is the honest headline.
The names
Lola leads at 1,075, then Pablo at 660, Paco at 631, Diego at 511, Cesar at 246 and Dulce at 236. Nine measure male and seven female, and 10 of the 16 are two syllables.
The sound spreads unusually evenly \u2014 5 soft, 4 easy-to-call, 3 elegant, 2 strong, 2 playful \u2014 where most origins here bunch at one end.
Why there are no meanings
Because English Wiktionary's entries for these names state the origin without glossing the word, and this site publishes a meaning only when every content word of it appears on the page it cites. Dulce means sweet and everybody knows it; the page the site reads does not say so, so the field is empty.
It is a limitation of the source rather than of the language, and it is the next thing worth fixing here. Until it is, an empty field is the correct thing to print.
What are the most popular Spanish pet names?
Lola at 1,075 registrations, then Pablo 660, Paco 631, Diego 511, Cesar 246 and Dulce 236.
Why do Spanish names have no meanings here?
The pages this site cites state the origin without glossing the word. A meaning is published only when every content word of it appears on the cited page, so these stay empty rather than being filled from general knowledge.
Do Spanish pet names skew male or female?
Slightly male: nine of the sixteen measure male and seven female.
How common are Spanish names overall?
Well above average — 295 registrations per name against 68 across the catalogue, on a set of only sixteen names.
Half of them end in -o
Eight of the sixteen end in -o, the highest share of any origin here: Pablo, Paco, Diego, Benito, Pedro, Kiko, Mateo, Sancho. Three end in -a. That is the whole reason the list reads male — nine of the sixteen measure male, and the ending is doing the work.
Both endings are open vowels, which is the best possible final sound for a name you have to shout. Whatever else this slice lacks, it does not lack carrying power.
The ones that are words
Dulce at 236 registrations, Cocoa at 118, Jade at 142 and Mercedes at 102 are Spanish words before they are pet names, and six of the sixteen carry a style tag as well as the origin.
One name sits in the popular band, seven in common and seven in rare, so this is a middle-weight list with no crowded end. Lola at 1,075 is the outlier rather than the pattern.
Do Spanish pet names sound male?
The endings make them read that way: eight of the sixteen end in -o against three in -a, and nine measure male. Both endings are open vowels, so they carry well whichever way they read.
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.