Short pet names

Short names win at the one thing a name has to do: arrive before the animal's attention goes elsewhere. Four letters or fewer and no more than two syllables is the definition used here, and it is computed from the spelling, so nothing on this list is short by opinion.

The catch is that a single syllable is also what most commands are. Check a shortlist against the cues you plan to use — sit, stay, down, no — before you check it against anything else.

Length is measured from the spelling, not judged: four letters or fewer, counted the same way for every name in the catalogue. That is the whole of the claim, and it is why this section can say what it says without an editor's opinion anywhere in it.

The trade is recognition. A short name is easy to call and easy to share with three other animals in the same street, because short names are a small pool that a great many people draw from. The pages below say how small, letter by letter and ending by ending.