Football Fans Score a Touchdown When Naming Their Dogs [Infograph]

Diana Faria
by Diana Faria
Whether you’re an armchair quarterback or you coach from a tailgate party, the Super Bowl brings out the fan in all of us. And that passion translates to what we name our dogs – just ask Bacon, Miller and Falcon!

Woo hoo! It’s time for Super Bowl! And to help get us in the mood, our friends at Rover.com have conducted a survey and put together an infograph that proves our love of the game and all things NFL. It turns out that football influences what we decide to name our dogs!


The number one Mascot-related name for pets dogs was Raven, followed by Rowdy (Dallas Cowboys), Blitz (Seattle Seahawks) and Bronco (Denver). Despite the Baltimore Raven’s mascot name being the most popular in the nation, I doubt that is the case in San Francisco after 2013, when the Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers in the nail-biting 2013 Super Bowl game which ended at 34-31 – that was ruff (ba-zing!).


Not to worry, San Franciscans! While you can’t exactly call you dog “49” (please don’t prove me wrong, that dog would be teased for the rest of its life!), there was a silver lining that year: Beyonce! That’s right; if you can recall, Queen B performed in the 2013 Super Bowl and ever since that year, the dog names “Beyonce” and “Sasha Fierce” have steadily been increasing in popularity. The city who had the most dogs named after Bey was Dallas, Texas!


If you thought that was cool, check this out: Denver had twice as many dogs named Peyton (after NFL star Peyton Manning) than Indianapolis. This is all despite the fact that Peyton had been the Indianapolis Colts’ starting quarterback for over 10 years, while he’s only been with the Denver Broncos for little over three! How’s that for some neat football trivia?


Now, some people claim that they only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Did you know that the top brand name for dogs was Nike? Names such as Pepsi and Miller also score pretty high, with rival names being Coke and Budweiser. Now while I can’t justify calling any dog Budweiser, I can understand the allure after watching the beer company’s heart-wrenching “Lost Dog” commercial that aired in last year’s Super Bowl. Oh, the feels!


But the star of the Super Bowl would have to be the pre-game snacks. I remember working in retail and staring in horror at the morning lineups while also in awe at the suddenly empty chip and candy aisle, wondering if the sugar-pocolypse was about to hit… Oh no, I whispered, It’s here…. Super Bowl day has arrived. Run for your lives!


Believe it or not, Seattle, Washington is the number one city of snack-themed dogs names. The top ten snack names for dogs in the nation, in order, are Olive, Chip, Bacon, Miller, Meatball, Corona, Pretzel, Cheese, Cheeto and Potato. Wait, who on earth would name their dog after a dairy product? The phrase “the dog cut the cheese” would have an entirely different, complicated meaning. Also, props to those beer companies – when people are naming their dogs Miller and Corona that means the ad guys did something right!


Did football inspire your dog’s name? See if your dog’s name is on the list by clicking on the infograph. If they missed one, put your pick in the comment section below.

Diana Faria
Diana Faria

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