What’s the Best Dog Name for Your New Best Friend?

Crowd-Sourced Canine Behavior Study

 

  1. Charlie
  2. Coco
  3. Daisy
  4. Bailey
  5. Lola
  6. Molly
  7. Sadie
  8. Toby
  9. Sophie
  10. Bear

The success of last year’s Marvel movies inspired a lot of dog names, according to Banfield Veterinary Hospital, however none of them made the top 10 list of the most popular dog names of 2018. While coming up with the *perfect* name is one of the exciting parts of getting a dog, names aren’t just about a title, they’re a tool that you’ll use for many years. 

  • Prepare for the worst…behavior. Like us, dogs are not perfect. So, it’s very possible there will be times that you’ll need to yell this name very loudly…in front of company, down the hall, out your back door, and in the park. Make sure it’s a yellable name.
  • Avoid names that sound like commands. Think twice before choosing a name that rhymes with “No” or “Stay”. Dogs are smart, but we don’t want to confuse them.
  • Keep it curt. Dogs will eventually learn just about any name, but you’ll make training and life in general a lot easier on them—and you—if you choose a one- or two-syllable name. You’ll do even better if it has a hard consonant. 
  • Make it last. It may be tempting to borrow a name from today’s hottest celebrity or a character from this season’s blockbuster movie, but you will likely have your companion well past that star’s expiration date, and that could get awkward. 

No matter what name you choose, be sure to spend time with your dog teaching it to him or her—especially for adult dogs who come to you with a different name. And don’t forget your secret weapons—plenty of praise and lots of dog treats!

25 thoughts on “What’s the Best Dog Name for Your New Best Friend?

  • Robert Coen
    January 15, 2019 at 5:00 am

    Quality of life.

  • Carol Riedel
    January 15, 2019 at 6:17 am

    Lily

  • Pattie Fuester
    January 15, 2019 at 6:32 am

    I have a beagle name Rosie, a chow/shar-pei mix dog named China.

    A tuxedo cat named Tux, and a tabby mix cat I call Striker.

  • Patricia
    January 15, 2019 at 7:30 am

    To Daisy and Lola! You both made the list

  • joyce
    January 15, 2019 at 8:59 am

    My recent dogs’ names: Females: Susie & Riley; Males: Bailey & Scotty.
    Horses: KoKo (Kokopelli) & Cody.

  • Barbara Duke
    January 15, 2019 at 9:42 am

    Most of my dogs past had a single name, but my newest adoptive girl, from MACC in Nashville TN, had a double name. I’m sure her original owners had their reason, so I just let her keep her original given name by her previous owners, Apache Princess. They may have been native American, I don’t know. But it seemed to fit her and she was an older girl, 6 or 7 years old. She’s a Cattle dog mix. But my dogs of past who have crossed the bridge arranged were: Buffy Marie, (the little girl my mother was baby sitting at the time added the Marie), Toby, Chico, Penny, Joe-Joe, Princess, Jody, Tipper, Oreo, Lady, Rose and the one from my childhood, we named her after an Airedale my mom had as a child, Trippy Lee. She was a peek-a-poo. We got her as a puppy because for some reason my sister was afraid of dogs. My dad’s aunt bred and raised pick-a-poos. She had the Pekingese and bred her female with their family friend’s Standard black male Poodle. Trippy Lee was a black ball of fur. It did help my sister’s fear of dogs, but still today, she rather not have a dog. I’m the opposite, I have always had dogs, and can’t imagine my life without one.

  • Larry Petz
    January 15, 2019 at 10:07 am

    I read that when renaming a dog to try and have the new name sound like the old one. We got a dog that was named Pedro. We renamed him Pogo and he learned his new name in no time, so I guess it worked.

  • Robert H Powell
    January 15, 2019 at 10:07 am

    what about Oona or Dexter, Geisha,Moby?

  • Patricia Caraballo
    January 15, 2019 at 10:25 am

    Dogs make life so much better. Unconditional love is the best medicine.

  • Martha
    January 15, 2019 at 10:26 am

    We adopted a pair of wedgie Siamese brothers named Mike and Ike. We call them Mikey and Ike-Ike so the names
    sound different. They can now definitely distinguish between the two.

  • BarbaraJean
    January 15, 2019 at 10:59 am

    I always change my adopted dog’s name. I wait to see her personality and character. It sometimes takes a little while, but it’s always worth it.

  • RJMc
    January 15, 2019 at 12:54 pm

    We got a new puppy and my adult son got one of her brothers. We named her Bella Mae (Mae only when she’s in trouble – like when we were growing up!) And he named his puppy Conan which is apt since they are a mix of English Mastiff and German Rottweiler. They will be BIG!

  • Christi Moore
    January 15, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    When I’ve adopted dogs, I’ve actually LIKED the names they came with. When asked by the shelter if I wanted to change their name, I’d say, “Why? I like the name and she knows her name, why confuse her?” Now, with found kitties (almost all of my kitties have come to me as strays or just weaned kittens with no names yet), I do sort of like BarbaraJean and let the kitty tell me their name, or at least the name they want me to use for them. If I got a dog as a no-name puppy or as an unclaimed stray, or one from a shelter who’s name I didn’t like, I would apply the same naming method – personality traits, coloring, behaviors, and something emanating from their eyes that “tells” you a name, just open your mind and let it appear on its own.

  • dolores
    January 15, 2019 at 3:14 pm

    I think I have run the gamut from a, Alfie to z, zebra in my life time. I am in my late 70’s and I have owned to many to list here. But I always waited to see how a name would fit before bestowing it. Worked with both my dogs and my cats.

  • Elizabeth Rupe
    January 15, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    one friends dog is named Koda and my other friends dogs are Daisy Mae and Lily and at one time we had a German Shepard/ collie mix that we named Baby, a small dog named Chi-Chi.

  • Barbara Cobb
    January 15, 2019 at 5:51 pm

    I adopted a 5lb. Chihuahua on 11-21-18. her name was Princess but I changed it to Lily

  • Sue
    January 15, 2019 at 6:32 pm

    We adopted our dogs over 50 years ago from the Animal Rescue League in Boston. They came spayed or neutered – maybe a new thing for back then. They were Neilly – male; Dixie – female terrier mix: and Brandy – female.

  • Cindy
    January 15, 2019 at 8:04 pm

    If you adopt a dog and you know he’s had his name since birth, why change it to suit you. It’s bad enough that he’s been given up for adoption, even worse is being given a new name on top of that. Just my opinion.

  • Marnae Jorgensen
    January 15, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    I’ve known a Lola, Molly, and Sadie, but our dog was named Joey.

  • Lori Kegler
    January 16, 2019 at 12:59 am

    I disagree. My Violet has no problem with her name, three syllables. Neither does my Peony, nor Persephone, four syllables, or Little Geedub, four as well. Yes, I have Ziggy, Chloe, Tips, Charlie, Olive, Reno, Hammie, and Bruce, (I have several fosters) but the syllables don’t really matter, love does.

  • El Cuadro
    January 22, 2019 at 1:17 am

    Quality of life.

  • Easy -
    January 25, 2019 at 12:48 am

    Quality of life.

  • Go Ear
    January 25, 2019 at 12:52 am

    Quality of life.

  • Maya Mdaka
    June 3, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    Dogs make lifes much better that’s why they are a man’s best friend.

  • Karen
    June 6, 2020 at 1:01 pm

    My dogs name is radar

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