How Doggy is Your Name? 🐶

And cool name data graphics

Jan 29, 2023

How Human is Your Dog’s Name?

…or, how doggy is your name?

My favorite discovery of the week is this fun tool at The Washington Post.

I’m proud to say I have the most human name of the Nameberry editorial team. (Emma is mostly human, Pam is half-and-half, and Sophie and Brynn lean more canine.)

So if you’re looking for a truly unexpected name for your dog, I can recommend Clare, along with other all-human names like Maria, Rachel, Laurence, and Steven.

A stadium of 100,000 people and 100,000 dogs — just imagine!

Speaking of cool tools, this week while writing our guide to 50 sites every name nerd needs, I revisited lots of name sites I’d bookmarked over the years. Among them were a load of fun graphics and animations about name popularity that onomaphiles like you might enjoy.

Some are a few years out of date, but they’re still fascinating ways to visualize, for example, the top names in each US state, or the most popular letters in names, over 100+ years.

The Popularity of Baby Names by US State

Watch each state’s favorites change over time, from 1910-2014. Then — my favorite part — a more nuanced graphic where names bounce about all over the country as their popularity changes.

Most Popular Gender Neutral Baby Name in Each State

Sure you know about gender neutral names like Riley and Charlie. But who’d have thought Johnnie, Gail, Shawn and Baby were once the most popular unisex names in a state or two?

Gender-Neutral Names Over Time

On the more sciency side, here’s a chart by Georgios Karamanis plotting all the names given to both genders from 1880 to 2017. The thick dark patch on the right shows that, in recent years, more unisex names have been truly gender-balanced in use.

The Evolution of US Baby Names: Bubbled

A mesmerizingly gentle way to watch names grow and fade from 1880-2014. Just sit back and enjoy the bubbles!

Last Letters of Baby Names Over Time

Ever wondered how the final letters of boy and girl names compare? And how they’ve changed over time? Sociology professor Kieran Healy has the answer. One of the biggest trends is the rise of boy names ending in N in recent years (like a giant middle finger).

Popular Letters in Baby Names

In similar vein, this gently-moving chart shows the changing popularity of letters anywhere in baby names over time — and highlights how unusual it really is to have a name containing, say, F or P.