Trend Watch: Food-Inspired Dog Names

Would you name your dog Kale? Food-inspired dog names are apparently all the rage, according to an annual dog-name survey.
Trend Watch: Food-Inspired Dog Names

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Photo by: darak77

darak77

Would you name your dog Coconut? How about Kale? Stoli? Scotch? Barley?

Forget Fido. Slide over, Spot. Food-inspired names are apparently all the rage on the puppy scene. Rover.com, a site that helps match pet owners (the site refers to them as “pet parents”) with local dog sitters and calls itself “the nation’s Airbnb for dogs,” has released the results of its annual survey of popular dog names. And while pop-culture-rooted names (think: Rocky and Chewbacca) were de rigueur for dogs last year, in 2014 the naming trend is all about food-themed dog names, which rose in popularity 37 percent this year.

Yes, although human-appropriate names — Max, Buddy, Charlie and Jack (for male dogs) and Bella, Lucy, Daisy and Molly (for females) — remain atop the list, increasingly we are naming our dogs after what we eat..

According to the site’s number crunchers, the 10 most-popular food names for dogs are Ginger, Pepper, Peanut, Cookie, Olive, Oreo, Honey, Mocha, Sugar and Snickers, indicating that we think of our pooches as both sweet and savory.

Pet owners (sorry) found inspiration in the produce section (Pumpkin, Peaches, Coconut) and the spice rack (Sage, Basil, Nutmeg), the liquor cabinet (Whiskey, Jameson, Martini – as well as the aforementioned Scotch and Stoli), the wine cellar (Merlot, Bordeaux, Riesling, Malbec) and the beer fridge (Guinness, Porter and Corona, not to mention the possibly brew-referencing Bud).

The cities with the highest rates of food-related dog names include San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Baltimore; Portland, Ore.; and San Francisco. Alcohol-related dog names are also especially popular in Portland and San Jose, as well as in Denver, Phoenix and New York City — though it may not surprise you to learn that 20 percent of dogs named Kale live in Seattle.

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