5 most popular dog names in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (STACKER) — These days, it’s hard to take your dog for a walk without hearing a fellow dog dad or mom calling out certain popular names, like Max, Milo, or Luna.

Similar to baby name trends, dog monikers have changed immensely over the years. For example, one of the earliest recorded dog names belonged to a sloughi called Abuwtiyuw in ancient Egypt. The name is believed to be an onomatopoeic representation of the breed’s bark, according to research from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The idea of giving dogs names that represented them in some way continued to be the norm for centuries, like Rover for pups who tended to wander or Spot for those who appeared with such marks.

Nobility-inspired names started reigning the dog park in the 1960s and ’70s, with many people naming their canine companions Duke, Lady, or Princess, according to FirstVet’s study of names at one of America’s oldest pet cemeteries. Then, in 1985, The New York Times noticed a growing trend: People had started giving their canines more humanlike names.

Now, almost all of the most popular dog names in the U.S. are more traditionally human names, according to research from U.S. News & World Report.

Bella is currently leading the pack, with around 5% of dogs in the country sharing their name with “Twilight” heroine Bella Swan and beloved “Harry Potter” character Bellatrix Lestrange. The data also shows that it’s becoming increasingly popular to name dogs after mythological movie characters, like Loki, Zeus, and Thor.

Of course, naming trends do vary across the country—what’s popular in Milwaukee may be very different from the #1 name in Maui. To find out the five most common dog names in Indiana, Stacker consulted U.S. News & World Report’s data.

The outlet analyzed nearly 811,800 data points from a pet insurance company in September and October 2023 to determine the ranking. All spelling variations for the same name (e.g., Charlie and Charley) were counted and ranked as separate names.

Read on to see if your dog’s name is one of the most popular monikers in the Hoosier State!