Some origins in this catalogue hold ten names, not a hundred. Putting them on one page is honest about that; giving each a page of its own would mean padding three lists with names no source supports.
Arabic: one name, four spellings
Eleven names carry a recorded Arabic origin and they average 357 registrations each. Look at the top of the list, though: Layla at 1,321, Leila at 428, Lyla at 261 and Laila at 261. Four spellings of the same name, all counted separately because the registers wrote them separately.
Nala at 832 sits between them. Nine of the eleven measure female and 7 classify soft-sounding, which makes this the softest and most female-leaning origin here after French.
Nordic: the strong end of the catalogue
Ten names, and 6 of them classify strong-sounding \u2014 the highest share of any origin on this site. Loki at 410, Thor at 242, Odin at 203, Freya at 166, Astrid at 38, Fenrir at 16. Four are single syllables and none runs past two.
Thor is the Norse god of thunder and Odin the chief god of that pantheon, both checked against their cited pages. This is the one origin where the mythology and the sound point the same way.
German: eight names, mostly male
Eight names with a recorded German origin, averaging 322 registrations. Six measure male. Milo leads at 1,015, then Elsa at 518, Bruno at 401, Otto at 189, Wolfgang at 151 and Mitzi at 142. Bruno means brown and Otto means wealth, both checked.
Seven of the eight are two syllables, which is the least surprising fact on this page and the reason these names travel.
And the ones with almost nothing
Irish holds four names, Hebrew two, Dutch two, and a handful of languages hold one apiece. They are in the catalogue and in the origin filter; they are not on a page of their own, because four names is a list nobody needs and padding it would mean inventing.
What are the most popular Arabic pet names?
Layla at 1,321 registrations, then Nala 832, Leila 428, and Lyla and Laila at 261 each. Four of those five are spellings of the same name, counted separately because the registers recorded them separately.
What are the most popular Nordic pet names?
Loki at 410, Thor at 242, Odin at 203 and Freya at 166. Six of the ten classify strong-sounding, the highest share of any origin here.
What are the most popular German pet names?
Milo at 1,015 registrations, then Elsa 518, Bruno 401, Otto 189 and Wolfgang 151. Bruno means brown and Otto means wealth.
Why are these three on one page?
Because each is genuinely small — eleven, ten and eight names. Three separate pages would mean padding each with names no source supports.
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.