Twenty-two names here have a source stating a Greek origin, and 14 of them carry a meaning checked against its cited page. That is 64%, second only to the Slavic set, and it happens because Greek roots are the ones dictionaries actually gloss.
Half of them are gods, half are words
Apollo is the god of light and music, Sophie is wisdom, Zoe is life. The list runs from mythology to ordinary vocabulary and back, which is what Greek does in English generally.
Maggie leads at 461, then Sophie at 406, Zoe at 320, Angel at 313, Apollo at 268 and Cleo at 246. They average 145 registrations each \u2014 above the catalogue's 68, below the Latin and Italian sets.
The most elegant-leaning origin here
8 of the 22 classify elegant-sounding, which is the highest share of any origin in this catalogue. Elegant in this classification means length and soft consonants, and Greek names carry both: 14 are two syllables and 4 run to three or more, with only 4 single syllables.
Six classify strong-sounding, which is the other end and mostly the gods \u2014 Apollo, Ares, Zeus by way of the mythology tag rather than this one.
What are the most popular Greek pet names?
Maggie at 461 registrations, then Sophie 406, Zoe 320, Angel 313, Apollo 268 and Cleo 246.
What do Greek pet names mean?
Fourteen of the twenty-two have a checked meaning: Sophie is wisdom, Zoe is life, Apollo the god of light and music. Greek roots are the ones dictionaries gloss most reliably.
Are Greek names elegant-sounding?
More than any other origin here: 8 of 22 carry that tag, which the site derives from length and soft consonants rather than from anyone's taste.
Is a mythological name the same as a Greek name?
No, and the site keeps them apart. Mythology is a style tag recording which figure a name points at; Greek is an origin, recorded only where a source states the language.
Stones, sky and spices
Greek reaches English through vocabulary as much as through given names, and the list shows it. The gemstones are Greek: Onyx at 145 registrations, Sapphire at 44, Topaz at 34. So is most of the sky: Cosmo, Comet, Atlas, Orion, Lyra, Nyx, Zephyr. So are the spices: Basil, Cinnamon, Cassia.
15 of the 22 also carry a style tag — the highest overlap of any origin here — because a word that names a real thing is exactly what the style lexicon can file. Greek names are rarely only names.
Small, and mostly rare
Three sit in the popular band, seven in common and eleven in rare. Maggie at 461 leads, and Cassia at 3 is the smallest entry in any origin list on this site.
Only five are four letters or fewer, and four run to three syllables or more. That length is where the elegant classification comes from, and it is why this list reads dressier than the Latin one despite sharing half its roots.
Are Greek pet names about mythology?
Only partly. The gemstones, the sky words and the spices are Greek too — Onyx, Comet, Atlas, Basil, Cinnamon — and 15 of the 22 carry a style tag as well as an origin.
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.