Pet Names · Dog Names
By Sophie Kihm · Updated September 2026
Across 370 pages
of 370
African place-name, Maasi
"cold water"
Kenya is fairly commonly heard as a girl's name, but its capital city makes a much more exceptional choice. The name comes from the Maasai phrase "Enkare Nairobi," which translates to "cold water."…
English, place name meaning "bright town"
"bright town"
Brighton has long been known as a holiday resort town on the south coast of England. A cheery unisex name, it was used for his daughter by Jon Favreau, but was a boy on the TV show The Nanny .
English, diminutive of Coburn or Jacob or Jacoby
Actor Coby Bell gives this short but sweet name a hefty amount of street cred. Can also be spelled Koby or Kobe, as in Kobe Bryant.
Latin
"faithful"
The association with the Cuban leader Castro is still strong, but he's by no means the only Fidel. This name was in the Top 1000 for over 80 years, from 1919 to 2005. From the late Latin name…
English variation of Casey, Irish
"brave in battle"
Kasey was a modestly popular choice among Millennial babies, particularly girls.
Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese
"river or place of the cherry blossoms"
Rio is one of Japan's most popular girls' names, constantly sitting in that country's Top 10. Of course, Rio may also stem from the Portuguese and Spanish word for river, and the Brazilian city Rio…
English from French
"Saint Denis"
While Sidney in this spelling has a long history as a girls' name, it fell off the Top 1000 from the early 50s until 1990. Then it reemerged as one of the newly chic androgynous names for girls,…
Irish
"war"
A predominantly male name in the US until the late 1950s, the name continued to rise for both sexes for both sexes for a further decade, before starting to decline for boys. Despite dropping out of…
Japanese
"light; vermilion"
Akari is a gender-neutral Japanese name used fairly evenly between the sexes in the US. There are several well-known female singers and actors named Akira in Japan, and Akira Watanabe is a popular…
Klay is a masculine name that represents a modern variant spelling of Clay. The traditional Clay derives from the English surname referring to someone who worked with clay or lived on clay-rich soil.…
Cornish
"joy"
Could Lowen be the next Owen, Rowen, and Cohen? This Cornish name certainly has the right sounds to be an American hit, and is rising dramatically for both boys and girls. About 80 baby boys were…
Spanish variation of Denise, French from Greek
"god of Nysa"
Denisse was the fastest-rising name for girls of 2020 — influenced by Denisse Novoa, a contestant on the 2019 season of the popular reality TV show Exatlón Estados Unidos . Traditional spelling…
English
"little village near the bridge"
A distinguished sounding place and surname borne by religious leader Brigham Young, second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Word name
Divine seems more proper a name with the rise of Heaven and its turned-around twin Nevaeh. Though superlative names like Divine -- Unique, say, or Precious -- sometimes seems as if they're trying to…
"meadow of deer"
An attractive North Carolina unisex place name, Raleigh's soft sound is particularly appropriate for a girl.
Scandinavian from Latin Laurentius
"crowned with laurel"
Lars is a perfect candidate for a cross-cultural passport: it has been heard often enough here to sound familiar and friendly, yet retains the charisma of a charming foreigner. In this country Lars…
German surname or Hebrew
"landlord, farmer; bringer of light"
More common -- when it was common -- with the Meyer spelling.
Animal name or diminutive of Wolfgang, German
" traveling wolf"
Wolf is a name with a split personality. It can be seen as one of the fierce animal names, like Fox and Bear and Puma, with a touch of the werewolf, or it can be viewed as a quieter, Wolf Blitzer…
Diminutive of Isabel and Isabella
The longer Isabella stays in the Top 10—and it's been there for more than a decade—the more we hear the nickname Izzy (especially if we watch Grey's Anatomy ). it's just a matter of time before it…
Variation of Megan, Welsh
"pearl"
Megan was one of the first trendy names to spawn lots of spelling variations and this form of the name is less popular than its streamlined counterpart, but nevertheless familiar to those in the…
