Best Dog Names For 2016 Are Here!

Lori Ennis
by Lori Ennis
Rover.com has released the results of its fourth annual report on the most popular dog names of the year, and this year some of the most popular names were inspired by trendy faves like Pokemon Go, Hamilton, and Stranger Things!


Human and food-inspired names once again topped the charts for Rover.com’s fourth annual report on popular dog names. Rover has one of the nation’s largest databases of dog names and discovered this year that Americans looked to everything from Harry Potter to Supreme Court Justices when naming their furry family members.


Rover says that decades ago, people didn’t put as much into the thought of names for dogs, as they were simply pets, and names like Spot or Rover were popular. The special and unique relationship between humans and their dogs has evolved, though, and now people are ‘pet parents’ rather than ‘dog owners’–with dogs being completely accepted as parts of families deserving individual and unique names.Some of the most popular dog names were also the same as some of the most popular baby names, giving more credibility to the idea that people truly love their pets like family members.


Related: Top 10 Awwwww-Inducing Dog Names


Celebrity names like Apple or Shiloh rose 8% from the number of celebrity names used last year and it seems that this year American pet parents also used food and drink favorites, such as Whiskey, Guinness, Taffy and Twix when thinking of names.


Rover contends that the names we give our pets reflects pet parent personalities, cultural trends of the day, and things we are passionate about, such as politics and celebrities. Names like Harry, Dobby and Ruth Bader Ginsburg certainly cement that contention!



Max and Bella top the list, with Tucker (boy) and Bailey (girl) making each gender’s respective top 10 for the first time this year!

Pet parents clearly turned to popular culture for inspiration, and 75% of polled Millennials named their dog after a TV or movie character, a book character or a celebrity. Pokemon dog names were on the decline but this year’s release of Pokemon GO brought them back on the charts!

It seems the nomination of Hillary Clinton for President brought more pet parents looking for strong female names. While Beyonce trended down, Eleanor Roosevelt shot through the roof!

As part of the name-game fun, Rover launched the Dog Name Generator where you can discover your OWN dog name. Their extensive database matches pet parents with their perfect dog name based on their name and date of birth.



Weird… I’ve always felt like a Fifi!

Lori Ennis
Lori Ennis

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