This was Sparky, looking like a dork, before I figured out his true name.  It’s hard to imagine him being called anything else.  In this post, I covered how A good dog takes a name.  An article like this RD: The Most Popular Dog Names in Each State would not have helped me figure out the right name.  Now, the article is interesting.

Here’s the list:

“Sparky” is not on the list.  He and I like it that way.

The director of the orphanage from which Sparky came, said that he made up names for dogs who wouldn’t divulge that information.  His guidance was to keep it short, two syllables, and end in a vowel.  Many of the top 100 dog names adhere to that convention.

Uncommon people names, like Toby or Lola, work well for dogs, along with descriptive names like Honey or Bear.  The only name that sounds dumb is #59, “Oreo”.  First, it is an unpleasant racial epithet meaning someone who is Black, but acts White.  It has too many vowels to roll off the tongue, and it isn’t descriptive. 

Scanning the list, Sparky has seven cousins and one aunt with names from the Top 100 list.  I may have missed a couple, and am counting those who are no longer with us.

For dogs, a cousin is the dog of a family member or close friend.  The family member or close friend is an aunt or uncle. 

“Sadie” is one of the top 3 most popular dog names in Mississippi and Wyoming.