the unique baby name guide by the world's leading experts

Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana

2008 NAMES OF THE YEAR »

MEET MY BABY BUSTER AND MY DOG DAISY

When the latest starbaby was announced the other day, Michele Hicks and Jonny Lee Miller’s boy Buster, I wasn’t as surprised as I would have been a few years ago. Already on our celebrity kids’ roster, after all, are Buck and Lucky and Marmaduke and Duke and King and Prince and Princess and Count and Countess, names once reserved for other species. On the other hand, few of these names appear on pooch popularity lists.

And neither do Fido or Rover or Spot or Lassie, the old traditional canine favorites, which have been replaced by top-listed Maggie and Molly and Max and Jake. Is there some kind of switch going on, or is this just a way of affirming to our pets that they are indeed full-fledged members of the family, so that in addition to getting spiffy wardrobes, health insurance, doggy day care and spas and shrinks, they get a real kid’s name too? For the first time ever, 50% of all pet names come from the human name pool, and a recent survey showed that 74% of participants viewed their dogs and cats as family members rather than merely family pets.

Celebrities have jumped into this people’s-names-for-pets phenomenon with particular enthusiasm. For example,the following have or have had dogs named Bob and Stan (David Letterman), Flossie (Drew Barrymore), Milo (Diane Lane), Martha Stewart (Jennifer Garner & Ben Affleck), Lloyd (Courtney Love), and Chloe (both Lindsay Lohan and Lauren Conrad). Hey, wait a minute–Chloe is my daughter’s name!

Here are some of the most popular human names for dogs, Max being the overall favorite:

SAM/SAMANTHA

ZOE

Tags: baby names, dogs, Jake, Maggie, Max, Molly, pampered pets, pet names

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 1:15 am and is filed under boys' names, girls' names, name trends, pet names . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “MEET MY BABY BUSTER AND MY DOG DAISY”

Chloe Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 1:29 am

Ahhhh, yes. All through the years how when i tell people my name is Chloe, the typical reply of, “oh my cat or bulldog has the same name!!!. But i still love you very much mum for you and dad giving me a name i still till this day love..X.

susan Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

I’ve known dogs named Sadie, Jake, Charlie, and our cat that died was named Maggie. This is how I know I don’t like popular names because almost every cat and little dog back then was a Maggie. It was exasperating to go to the vet. I would be sitting there in the waiting area with Maggie in her cat carrier, and some lady in a smock would come out and say, “Maggie?” and five people would start to get up to follow her. So we tried to be very original the next time we named pets, and we named our dog Roxanne Louise, Roxie for short. But there are tons of dogs named Roxie. I’m surprised it’s not on your list. We named our cat Moses, and we call him Mokie for short. Now that is original. I haven’t heard of any Mokies. I wonder what the hipster list and yupster list is for pets, and I also wonder how many people go on Nameberry to look for names for pets rather than for babies of the human variety. If I had a new pet, I would look at the lists to find a name for it.

rosey Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

I try to give my pets non-human names, except for a fish I had once named Karen. I have a dog named Cookie (short for Cookie in Milk)- something that I HOPE will never get on the baby name charts…

linda Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 7:33 pm

Not very likely, but the way things are going, you never know!

L Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

I’ve always given pets people names in my family. I think it’s partly because I like names so much, and it’s a great opportunity to use a name that you love. My 17 year old Abyssinian is named Tatiana (the prettiest name i could think of at 10 years old). We adopted another cat at 3 who was already named George. Our other Abbys that have passed on were named Sophia and Samsara. We also had a pug named Zia. All the names fit the personalities of our pets, and I still love the names to this day. My fiance chastises me for “wasting” the name Tatiana on a cat, but who’s thinking babies at 10 years old?

Shelly Says:

December 9th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

My lovely little dog was named DaisieMae. Sadly she passed on 11/22/08. In the past, we had a Mindy Sue (dog), and also a Precious Baby Blue Eyes whom we called Blue for short. She was a great dog. other names for our pets include Zeke, Trapper, Bucky, Scraps, Freddie, and Tasha.

Sxia Says:

December 29th, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Who knew when I named my dog Trinity in 2000, just after the Matrix had come out, that people would be naming their kids that in a few years? And any name can be taken by a kid. I named my red dog “Peaches” and some kid down the street said her dad called her Peaches.

So, now, when I’m about to name my son Max, I don’t care. I like the name Max (and Jack and Jake) because it sounds like someone’s best friend. And just look at Marky Mark in Max Payne and say that Max is not a name for a grown man.