Friday Funny: A Dog Named Taylor Swift

Rover.com’s seventh annual popular pet names and trends report shows pet owners were inspired by pop culture in 2019: Taylor Swift, Lizzo, and “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” are trending.

Regardless of species or breed, the names we choose for our pets often reflect what we care about most, from the food we eat to the celebrities we love. Rover.com’s seventh annual report of the year’s most popular dog names illustrates this point, and includes a new twist for 2019—the addition of the year’s most popular cat names.

This year’s data reflected pet owners’ appetite for pop culture and what’s trending in the celebrity news scene. Names inspired by star-studded musicians like newcomer Lizzo (up 100 percent) and Beyoncé (up 78 percent) made huge gains, and Taylor Swift’s reputation is on track with a 400 percent increase. TV shows were also one of the top sources of inspiration: The name Maisel of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel rose 1000 percent and Westeros-savior Arya Stark increased by 150 percent.

dog names“The names we give our pets provide a peek into our passions, aspirations, happy places, and guilty pleasures, reinforcing what we at Rover know to be true: our pets are as unique as the names we lovingly bestow upon them,” said Kate Jaffe, trend expert for Rover.

The more things change, however, the more they stay the same: Bella, Luna, Lucy, and Daisy kept the top spots for female dog names. Max, Charlie, Cooper, and Buddy also held onto their top ranks for male dogs in 2019. For cats, Luna, Bella, and Kitty were the top three names in 2019.

The humanization of pets was also a trend for 2019, a survey by Rover revealed. The majority of pet owners (55 percent) said their pet either has a human name or they would consider giving their pet a human name. Pet owners (25 percent) also would consider giving their pet a name they had considered for their child. Trending baby names that inspired pet names included Dorothy, Elaine, and Dennis.

The legalization of marijuana is growing in the U.S., and is also impacting pet name choices. Marijuana-inspired names like Budder, Dank, Doobie, Blaze, and Kush are on the rise for dogs, while Kush, Doobie, and Blaze are trending for cats.

If you’ve got a new pooch at home that still needs a name, give Rover’s Dog Name Generator a try. Enter your dog’s breed and gender, and you’ll get three names to choose from: popular, trending, and unique.

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