Baby Name Mythbusters is a new Category I dreamed up to replace Celebrity Baby Names, which seems redundant now that we have Celebrity Baby News. I thought it would be a fun way to examine some of the myths prevalent amongst the baby naming community, and see whether they stack up.
I was in an Australian parenting forum where someone was looking for opinions on a baby name they were considering – Sailor, for a girl. One of the responses was ewww not sailor i had a dog called that. This struck me as one of the least useful or helpful things you could say in this situation – I mean I had a horse named Caroline; I don’t expect that name to be forever off limits for babies because I claimed it as a “horse name”. (I also had a dog named Judith, same deal).
It got me thinking about how often “That’s a dog’s name” comes up in discussions on baby names, and how it is designed to end all debate. That’s a dog’s name: a good parent would never give their baby a name suitable for a dog : discussion over, seems to be pretty much how it is supposed to work.
I decided to search through baby name forums to see what names were perceived as “dog names”, and then see how popular they really were for dogs, based on the popularity charts put out by a major dog tag corporation, which is the only national database for pet names that I know. Then I could compare them to the latest available data for baby name popularity.
I hit upon this method because it’s common for people to use popularity charts to decide how a name’s popularity reflects its usage for each gender. So if Matthew has continually charted for males, and never for females, it’s usually decided that makes it a “boy name”, and if there are more girl babies named Harper than boy babies, some would argue that Harper is more of a female name than a male one.
I didn’t see any reason why that method couldn’t be applied to see whether a name was more dog than human. Here is what I discovered:
NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES THAT ARE MORE POPULAR FOR DOGS THAN HUMANS
- Bailey (#36 dog, #47 human)
- Barney (#28 dog, unranked human)
- Bear (#21 dog, unranked human)
- Beau (#17 dog, #71 human)
- Billy (#30 dog, #112 human)
- Buddy (#12 dog, unranked human)
- Buster (#14 dog, unranked human)
- Charlie (#7 dog name, #22 human)
- Duke (#48 dog, unranked human)
- Harley (#25 dog, #126 human)
- Harry (#15 dog, #27 human)
- Jake (#4 dog, #25 human)
- Lucky (#23 dog, unranked human)
- Max (#1 dog, #17 human)
- Milo (#22 dog, unranked human)
- Monty (#10 dog, unranked human)
- Rex (#24 dog, #472 human)
- Rusty (#18 dog, unranked human)
- Sam (#2 dog, #97 human)
- Shadow (#19 dog, unranked human)
- Toby (#5 dog, #56 human)
- Zeus (#50 dog, unranked human)
- Bella (#15 dog, #41 human)
- Belle (#41 dog, unranked human)
- Buffy (#47 dog, unranked human)
- Cassie (#23 dog, unranked human)
- Cleo (#55 dog, unranked human)
- Coco (#11, unranked human)
- Daisy (#9 dog, #149 human)
- Gypsy (#42 dog, unranked human)
- Holly (#13 dog, #42 human)
- Honey (#25 dog, unranked human)
- Lucy (#5 dog, #21 human)
- Maggie (#18 dog, #204 human)
- Millie (#34 dog, #202 human)
- Misty (#27 dog, unranked human)
- Molly (#2 dog, #55 human)
- Poppy (#57 dog, #68 human)
- Sally (#7 dog, #306 human)
- Sasha (# 6 dog, #167 human)
- Sheba (#32, unranked human)
- Tara (#31 dog, #153 human)
- Tess (#8 dog, #260 human)
- Zoe (#10 dog, #15 human)
NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES THAT ARE MORE POPULAR FOR HUMANS THAN DOGS
- Cooper (unranked dog, #7 human)
- Jack (#3 dog, #2 human)
- Riley (unranked dog, #20 human)
- Annabelle (unranked dog, #38)
- Emily (unranked dog, #8 human)
- Maya (unranked dog, #46 human)
- Sophie (#16 dog, #11 human)
A NAME THAT PEOPLE THINK IS A DOG NAME THAT’S EQUALLY POPULAR FOR DOGS AND HUMANS
- Chloe (#3 dog, #3 human)
NAMES THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE DOG NAMES, BUT ARE NOT ACTUALLY COMMONLY GIVEN TO DOGS
- Alfie
- Andy
- Akira
- Bandit
- Barclay
- Baxter
- Bernie
- Bran
- Brindley
- Brock
- Brody
- Bruno
- Buck
- Champ
- Chance
- Colby
- Cosmo
- Dash
- Dexter
- Digby
- Earl
- Eddie
- Elliot
- Elvis
- Gage
- Gunner
- Hunter
- Nico
- Otis
- Pete
- Prince
- Remy
- Rocco
- Roscoe
- Rufus
- Samson
- Shiloh
- Sonny
- Spike
- Winston
- Wyatt
- Zane
- Zeke
- Ziggy
- Abby
- Apple
- Bess
- Betsy
- Bindi
- Bluebell
- Dakota
- Dixie
- Fifi
- Fran
- Gigi
- Ginger
- Jenna
- Josie
- Kiki
- Libby
- Lola
- Lulu
- Luna
- Macy
- Maddie
- Madison
- Madeline
- Maisie
- Mia
- Olga
- Piper
- Raven
- Reba
- Sadie
- Sailor
- Skipper
- Sophia
- Star
- Zuzu
NAMES THAT ARE POPULAR FOR DOGS, BUT PEOPLE DON’T SEEM TO THINK OF THEM AS DOG NAMES
- Oscar #6
- Zac #9
- Tyson #11
- Ben #13
- Jasper #26
- Jackson #29
- George #34
- Casper #38
- Angus #39
- Jesse #40
- Cody #42
- Basil #45
- Gus #47
- Jock #49
- Bronson #51
- Henry #53
- Casey #54
- Clyde #60
- Ralph #58
- Bonnie #4
- Rosie #14
- Ruby #17
- Penny #24
- Gemma #28
- Jasmine #32
- Roxy #33
- Kelly #38
- Tessa #35
- Emma #48
- Chelsea #51
- Ellie #52
- Amber #53
- Jedda #58
- Heidi #60
From this we can see that although people were able to correctly identify some names as “dog names” that had greater popularity for dogs than humans, there were many more names that they were wrong about. Much as people might imagine that dog owners call their pets Spike and Fifi, these names did not even make the Top 60.
Even more revealingly, there were a number of names that were very popular for dogs that didn’t seem to earn them the title of “dog name”. Henry and Emma are both names commonly given to dogs, and yet I couldn’t find any examples of parents being warned off these names as “too doggy”.
You might argue that’s because these names are so popular for humans, and yet you can see from the first list that very popular baby names like Charlie and Zoe were correctly identified as names commonly given to dogs. You can also see from the second list that popular baby names like Cooper and Emily were incorrectly identified as “dog names”. Moreover, names such as Bonnie and Basil are many times more often given to dogs than humans, yet they were not perceived as dog names.
Because people seemed to do so poorly at correlating baby names perceived as “dog names” with names that were actually given to dogs, I am calling this
MYTH BUSTED
Disclaimer: Information for entertainment purposes only; results may not be scientifically accurate and further studies need to be done with better data. There is no connection between Baby Name Mythbusters and the television show “Mythbusters”, so nobody needs to sue me or anything.
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
Pingback: Famous Name: Gunner « Waltzing More Than Matilda
Great analysis! I think we talked about it a while back when Spike Myers was born, how human nicknames tend to become dog’s names, but now human nicknames are becoming first names so it’s all just a big misunderstanding! We name our animals as if they are part of our family, anyway 🙂
So true! They are family members, not just pets! 🙂
My dogs both have “people” names Brandy and Gemma and my cat is Tommy they are all “people names”
My pets all seem to have people names too – I think it makes them easier to relate to!
None of them were named by my family they already had names as I live on a farm and the owners moved away. And tommy was found on the streets and the women who found him had 2 other cats that did not like tommy so we got him
Fascinating! It’s funny how many “dog names” are good “people names”; it’s not as if names such as Rover or Littliest Hobo, etc are ever put forth in these debates. In fact, rather than saying these are “dog names” used for people, I’d say most of them are “people names” used for dogs!
That’s the part the “it’s a dog’s name!” brigade seem to have trouble understanding ….
I always enjoy reading articles discussing dog names vs human names. Especially since a name I love is thought of as a dog name! What is your opinion on using names that ACTUALLY have been used for a dog within your family? My husband had a childhood dog with the name of one of my top baby name choices…
I think it could be sweet, if he’s like “Well, baby [name], my family always loved your name, we gave it to everything! Even the dog! It suits you so much better though.”
That’s a very cute of doing it! I like!
I think that would be perfectly fine. It’s just a matter of making it into a nice name story for your child, the same as your child having the same name as great-grandma or your friend from college.
You have to stress that both the name and the dog were greatly loved, just like them!
I do know a couple of people who ended up being given the name of a family pet, and they seem perfectly content with it.
That’s really interesting. My name is Chloe, and there is a dog on my street named Chloe 😛 I found a book at a secondhand store about pet names, and when I looked at it further, some of the names were so outrageous – but a select few were “human names”.
I have a dog named Annie, and I actually love Annie for a human, too! As well, my step dad is a dog trainer, so a lot of names pass by on that side, the latest bunch containing King, Kegan, Maggie, Bart, and Jett.
I think Annie is sweet for both dogs and girls! Kegan is interesting, it looks like the Megan-Tegan-Regan names.
I only really like Chloe on a person though; it doesn’t seem “doggy” enough for dogs to me.