Nov. 14 (UPI) — The top trending names for dogs and cats in the United States for 2025 were mainly inspired by entertainment, and linked to the animals’ looks and personalities — and they’ve remained consistent for more than a decade.
For its 2025 analysis of the top names given to new pets in the country, the animal boarding company Rover used the results of this year’s survey to focus on names that are trending up, rather than focus on longtime options that remain popular.
“This year, we decided to really dig into the trends and separate them from classic, popular names,” Rover said of this year’s survey.
“The #1 names — Luna and Charlie — have grown less than 5% year over year,” the company said. “In other words, popular names are classics and favorites, but they aren’t necessarily reflecting future naming trends.”
To determine the top trending names for the last year, the folks at Rover analyzed all pets younger than 2 years of age that were added to the company’s database between August 2024 and September 2025.
From there, the names were split into a variety of categories ranging from overall top names and trending names by state to those referencing entertainment, sports and food, among others.
Additionally, a survey of pet parents, which Rover conducted via Pollfish, included 1,000 people who gave the company some insight to how they selected a name for their dog or cat.
For new puppies, about 33% of people already had an idea of what they would name their new animal, and nearly half — 45% — based it on their pet’s personality or appearance.
For those who named their dogs based on personality, the most common sources for names were entertainment, breed, human names and nature — and the same was true for people with new kittens.
For male puppies, the three highest trending names during the 12-month period were Caesar, Mufasa and Oswald, while the top three for female puppies were Elphie, Tsuki and Rumi — all six increased more than 100% in use over the last year, and Elphie was up by 244%.
For kittens, the top three male names were Tater, Milton and Stewie, and for females they were Priscilla, Snowball and Pickle.
When considering popular names in individual states, people in the western United States leaned into “rugged outdoors” names — Aspen was tops for puppies in Alaska, Boots in Oregon, Remington in Idaho and Bandit in Montana.
For kittens, Washington named a lot of cats Ducky, Utah residents went with Sunny and in Colorado, Ranger was the top choice.
Other trends included sweets in the Southwest — Chiquita topped the puppies list in Arizona and Cocoa was popular for cats in Texas — while the Midwest leaned pop culture, choosing names like Simba, Loki, Butters and Nimbus.
For pop culture across the United States, the top puppy names included Forrest Gump, Gracie Lou Freebush and Willie Wonka, with kittens receiving Bill Murray, Mary-Kate, Fat Louie and Jack Sparrow.
For 2026, Rover said it expects to see many of the same names on the list next year, specifically noting that the new Wicked movie and K-Pop Demon Hunters are likely to influence pet names, as will others from Severance — Helly — and Taylor Swift references such as Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor and Opalite.
“We’re also keeping an eye [on] consumer trends,” Rover noted. “Labubu and Zimono are brand new to the list this year, so we are curious to see more blind box-related names in 2026.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.upi.com ’
