A New Dog Name Poll
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 According to a new Associated Press-Petside poll, more than half (51 percent) of American dog owners now give their pets “human” names.
Apparently, in recent years, people have moved away from traditional dog names like Bingo, Sparky, and Spot in favor of names such as Max, Bob, George, Shirley, and Joyce. (I actually sort of made that up. Max ranks the highest, but the study didn’t indicate what the other human names were. Shoddy poll work, no doubt.)
I once knew a dog named “Dog.” Also knew a “Cujo”—poor thing was clearly owned by a family with a creepy sense of humor. I’m still shocked when I meet people who have dogs with names like “Muffin” and “Snowflake.” It just seems mean. But that is neither here nor there…
A Veterinary Pet Insurance poll conducted in January found that the top dog names of 2008 were as follows:
1. Max
2. Bailey
3. Bella
4. Molly
5. Lucy
6. Buddy
7. Maggie
8. Daisy
9. Sophie
10. Chloe
A few other tidbits from the AP-Petside poll, in case you’re curious:
- 19 percent of pet owners have bought an outfit for their pet.
- 43 percent of pet owners feel their pet has his or her own sense of style (whatever that means).
- 27 percent celebrate their pet’s birthday.
- 35 percent have included their pet in a family portrait.
Thoughts? What are the best and worst pet names you’ve heard?
Reader Comments (1)
True Story: In the early 50's my dad, age 7-8 found a very shaggy dog, that went unclaimed. He and his siblings kept the dog and named it "Apple" because they were to shy/embarassed to look through the shaggy fur to see if it was male or female!! xx KK