Top Trending Pet Names in the U.S.A

Does your pet have a trendy name? What we name our pets is deeply personal—and also deeply impacted by what’s happening around us. From sports icons to blockbusters, current trends are a fun, surprising source of new dog and cat names worldwide.

This year we decided to really dig into the trends and separate them from classic, popular names. Why? After looking at more than a decade of data, we noticed that the most popular dog names and cat names haven’t change much. In fact, the #1 names (Luna and Charlie) have grown less than 5% year over year. In other words, popular names are classics and favorites but they aren’t necessarily reflecting future naming trends.

So to find out what—or who—the winners of this year’s cultural zeitgeist really are, we at Rover looked at our growing database of over a million dogs and cats to see what’s hot—and what’s not. Let’s dig in!

Digging Into the Data to Surface Trending Themes

To identify the themes pet parents in the USA were leaning into, we analyzed all of the new pets added to Rover’s database in 2025. By looking at pets under the age of 2 years old and applying a minimum threshold for names added from August 2024 to September 2025, we were able to get a good look at overarching themes to see what inspiration comes from brand new beginnings. 

In a survey of 1,000 pet parents, 33% of pet parents said they already had a name in mind. Nearly half (45%) of pet parents chose a name based on their pet’s personality or appearance — and when it comes to personality, entertainment plays the largest role (30%). Other factors include breed (21%), human names (18%), and nature (14%).

This echoed some of the top names for female and male puppies, with 90s favorites (Mufasa, Oswald), blockbuster hits (Elphie, Caesar, Luther), and nature (Shirley, Rowan) topping the list.

A similar pattern surfaces for cats. Pet parents said entertainment (33%), breed (20%), humor (17%), nature or space (16%), and food (12%) were sources of cat name inspiration. Much yet like dogs, 90s culture and inspiration also took reigns on cat names, but there was also an uptick in food and color-inspired cat names.

Looking at Naming Patterns Across the States

After seeing the national trends, we decided to get even more granular and look at what patterns surface by state and region. This perspective offers us a unique look into how people’s interests differ or remain the same across the country. 

In the western United States, people are leaning into a Wild West, rugged outdoors theme. We see this in puppy names like Aspen in Alaska, Boots in Oregon, Remington in Idaho, and Bandit in Montana. Kittens are in on the action too with names like Ducky in Washington, Sunny in Utah, and Ranger in Colorado.

Things get sweet in the southwest, with puppies named Chiquita topping the list in Arizona and kittens named Cocoa in Texas and Clementine in Oklahoma. 

The midwest appears to be heavily inspired by pop culture, from movies to favorite snacks. North Dakota loves Simba as a name for kittens, with South Dakota preferring Loki. Food names are popular in Nebraska, while in Illinois, Butters is popular for puppies and Nimbus takes top spot for kittens.

Human names are big in the southeast, with top puppy names including Ava (Arkansas), Gordon (Florida), Chuck (South Carolina), Bruce (Kentucky), and Harvey in Washington D.C.

Kitten names are also people-focused, including Bobbi (Arkansas), Gunnar (Mississippi), Jack (Alabama), Skye (Florida), Benjamin (North Carolina), Archie (South Carolina), and Kenny (Tennessee). Phew! That’s a lot of adorable animals with good government names.

The northeast has an eclectic mix of all of these categories, including puppies and kittens with names inspired by the outdoors, food, pop culture, and human names.

If you’re wondering whether there’s a risk of meeting another pet with a trending name, it’s unlikely. More than half (53%) of pet parents claim they’ve never encountered another pet with the same name while only 6% say this happens often.

With each region, we were able to get a bigger picture of the threads to unravel. This helped us build specific categories like Midwest nostalgia to comfort movies to food tastes. From there we dug into our list to see if there were enough names with large year over year growth to validate the category shifts.

Trend 1: Future Retro Is In

Ope! Between the top dog and cat names this year, we noticed the two themes come together in a pattern that we’re calling Future Retro. Depending on your interest niche, you might know this category by other names, such as retrofuturism or “Vintage Americana“.

For dogs, the Midwest made its mark, likely due to the growing population and subsequent influencer focus on the region. For cats, the story is much more chronically online: The biggest thing in cat names is Y2K, influenced by the cyclical nature of fashion culture on the internet.

Ahead of the curve, we have these special mentions: Double names for dogs and early-aughts for cats. These double names didn’t make the top trending list, but they made us smile big time: Big Mack, Tucker Joe, April May, Davy Crockett, and Yukon Cornelius.

And the cat names are giving us a longing for the future of flying cars a la Jetsons’ family: Proton, Lo-fi, Okami, C-3PO, and Unity.

As anxieties about AI increase, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more pet parents name their companions after more comforting, nostalgic, and vintage call backs in 2026. Other names we’re seeing creep up the list for dogs and cats are Sega (81%) and Cache (82%).

Trend 2: Pop Culture Casts 90s Favorites

Star power has always been a driving force. Movies inspire pet names every year, but this time around we’re seeing a mix of names from current releases and 90s favorites. Despite recent blockbusters inspiring popular names from Superman and Wicked, it appears pet parents preferred to lean into 90s nostalgia this year—possibly for comfort and due to ongoing franchise fatigue.

New to the list this year are dogs named Amelia Pond, Dr. Indiana Bones, Patch Adams, and Edward Cullen. And grab your popcorn for cats: Regina George, Mr. Bigs, Ramona Flowers, Catherine the Great, and Blair Witch are all new to the trending list in 2025.

A pop-prediction for 2026

We expect to see quite a few of these names again next year. As the final installment of Wicked hits theaters this fall, Elphie, Fieyro, and Glinda may take more of the center stage. Or the pop culture crown may go to K-Pop Demon Hunters. The super hot Netflix movie is rumored to get a sequel, so we are going to be keeping an eye on names like Rumi, Zoey, Mira, and more.

Fun fact: Derpy (everyone’s favorite silent blue tiger) is up 49% this year. And when it comes to TV shows, we expect to see more Severance names, as Helly has crept up 397% this year. On the heels of the new The Life of a Showgirl album, we’ll be on the look out for Taylor Swift-inspired pet names like Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, or Opalite. 

We’re also keeping an eye consumer trends. Labubu and Zimono are brand new to the list this year, so we are curious to see more blind box-related names in 2026.

Trend 3: An Obsession with Natural Wonders

Next, let’s reduce our screentime with some nature-inspired names. When we say pet parents are inspired by the world around us when it comes to naming their pets, we mean it literally. For dogs, the nature-inspired names gaining ground while cat parents had their heads in the clouds—or rather, the cosmos—a bit this year.

The natural world is full of creative names ripe for the taking. Here are the ones that really took off this year.

New to the list for dog names this year: Wild Thing, Earthquake, Snowcap, and Peachtree. New to the list for cat names this year: Aeon, Luna Ray, Skya, and Silverbelle.

Will our sense of humor merge with nature next year?

While trees and stars were a popular source of inspiration in 2025, we’re curious to see how the natural world might influence pet parents in 2026. We wouldn’t be surprised to see more breed-specific names for dogs rise by way of other animals like Birdie, Grizz, and Duck.

As for cats, we suspect they’ll go their own way next year. We saw an increase in random object-inspired names like Cinderblock, Pewter, and Quarter, although not enough of them to call it a trend.

Trend 4: A Battle Between Tastes

Food is a consistent annual category, though the specific selections always differ. This year, dog names leaned savory, while cat names swung sweet. We’re not sure why that is, but we do know these names are as adorable as they are delectable.

New to the list for dog names: Mr. Beefy, Soondae, Cheez-It, and Oreo Beignet Jackson. And these popular foodie names for cats didn’t make the top ten, but we’d order them anyway: Cacao, Mochaccino, Muffin Man, and Snacktime.

We predict an international palate for 2026

As global food trends continue to grow across the USA, we anticipate dog and cat names to reflect the culinary roots or travels of their pet parents even more next year. Japanese food-inspired names like Maitake and Wasabi are on the rise but so are foods from other countries like Kebab, Ghee, and Esti.

Trend 5: Sport Icons Score Big

Every year, pet parents name their pets in honor of their favorite sports icons. If we use pet names to see what America’s favorite sport is, then football takes the lead with dog and cats named after quarterbacks. After football is basketball, with top NBA draft picks on the list, and then surprisingly, golf.

New to the game for dog names this year are Barkley Saquon, Cee Dee Little Lamb, and Nacua. And for cats who love the field, new names include Catrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Ja’Marr, and Scottie Scheffler.

Sounding It Out: The Phonics of Popular Pet Names

Now let’s take a step back and look at a common thread that all pet names share: the melody of their name. Majority of pet parents (85%) do not regret the name they chose for their pets and 78% do not wish their pet’s name was easier to say. This got us curious about what might be trending in the world of pet name phonics—like, what sounds make up the most popular pet names?

As Julie Andrews famously put it: Let’s start at the very beginning—of the names, of course!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, cat names begin with X, U, or Q less than 1% of the time. 

Let’s take a look at syllables. When it comes to how long names are, two syllables is the most common, happening 47% of the time for dogs and 45% for cats. Length might be one reason for this, but for pets adopted into families, there could be another obvious reason: kids. Survey results show 54% of parents have kids pick the name of their pet.

Name endings tend to be more varied, though one particular ending sound is more popular than the rest: ee sounds end trending dog names 26% of the time and 27% of the time for cat names. This could be influenced by the common advice to avoid giving pets names that sound like commands or cues (Kit sounds like sit, for example), but we can’t say for sure.

Trending Names Across the Globe

Did you know Rover is available in 16 different countries across the world? Digging into the global data, we’ve decided to highlight some of the fastest growing pet names for dogs and cats of all ages across some of our fastest growing markets. This global view shows cultural differences and similarities amongst names.

Dog Name Quiz Generator

Read More From Our Pet Names Library

Inspired by these categories? Using the millions of names in our dataset, we’ve pulled more name examples and inspirations for you to peruse. These names are listed by order of popularity so you can get a sense of how common a name may be.

The Top Pet Names 2025 report was developed by Rover between August and October 2025 and a Rover survey of 1,000 pet parents in the United States, conducted via Pollfish in October of 2025. Results are based on an analysis of millions of user-submitted pet names provided by pet parents on Rover.com. This report is not endorsed or sponsored by any of the brands, celebrities, and businesses mentioned within. If you use any of our data and findings, we kindly as you to link back to our pet names page.

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