Loki, Lady and Lil Nas - the Unusual Trending Dog and Cat Names This Year

It appears the days of hearing pet owners call for Molly, Lola, and Rex are officially behind us. There’s a whole new gang of canines heading to a dog park near you.

And their names? Well, let’s just say we are surprised to say the least!

According to leading dog and cat trend-seekers, Hill’s Pet, the trending dog and cat names are often found in pop culture and popular drinks, with Disney and musicians paving the way for “pawtential” pet names.

Surprisingly enough, Bruno (Encanto) didn’t make this list but I can put money on it being on the list next year. And probably Mirabel too.

trending dog names 2021 — Source: Hill’s Pet

Here are the names that did make the list:

Top 25 trending dog names

Loki
Autumn
Moxie
Chewy
Lady
Ava
Gimlet
Sophie
Odie
Mimi
Coffee
Bianca
Tyson
Cider
Juno
CJ
Vinnie
Zeke
Hawkeye
Zoey
Felix
Mochi
Brew
Joey
Pepper

Now, there really is no way to determine why so many pet owners went for these names. Sure, Loki, Hawkeye and Pepper are all names from the Marvel Universe, but it could also very well be that Hawkeye the dog was actually named after Grandpa Hawkeye.

You never really know.

A tall glass of Gimlet

What we do know is that a lot of these names pay homage to some pretty delicious beverages. We’ve got:

Brew
Cider
Coffee
Gimlet (a cocktail for anyone feeling the urge to Google)

Marvel madness

On the movie front, we see a whole heck of a lot of inspo:

Loki (Marvel universe)
Hawkeye (Marvel universe)
Pepper (Marvel universe)
Chewy (Star Wars)
Lady (Lady and the Tramp)
Odie (Garfield)
Mochi (Big Hero 6)

The leading ladies

We also see quite a few vintage names on there – names often associated with heroines both in literature, mythology and in real life, such as:

Ava
Sophie
Lady
Mimi
Juno (Roman mythology)
Bianca (Shakespeare)

What about the cats?

Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about the fickle felines. Here are the top 25 trending cat names, according to Hill’s.

Cruella
Olivia Rodrigo (yes, the full name)
Loki
Shang Chi
Raya
Wanda
Lady
Dominic Toretto (again, the full name)
Agnes
Lil Nas (No, I’m not making this up).
Glass Animals
Bucky Barnes
Sophie
Dodger
Sza
Dababy
Mimi
Diana
Coffee
Wonder Woman
King Kong
Felix
Joey
Pepper
Vision

Music to our ears

Okay, so it would appear cat owners like to take the piss out of their pet’s names with some very odd choices making the top 25 including bands and musicians. Triple J, I blame you for this…

Glass Animals
Olivia Rodrigo
Lil Nas
Dababy
Sza

I mean, Billie (Eilish), I get. But Dababy? Really???

TV tabbys

Like our dog friends, our cats are also being named after popular TV and movie characters including:

Felix (the cat)
Loki, Shang-Chi, Bucky Barnes and Pepper (Marvel)
Agnes (possibly Despicable Me, or possibly just after Great Aunt Agnes)
Joey (Friends, maybe…)
King Kong
Wonder Woman
Wanda and Vision (Wandavision)
Raya (Disney)
Cruella (Disney). This is actually pretty fitting for a cat.
Dominic Toretto (Fast and the Furious)

Classy cats

And, finally, we’ve got the sophisticated cats coming to the party too:

Diana
Mimi
Sophie
Lady

Where is this data even coming from?

Science, my friends. According to Hill’s Pet,

To work out the top trending names right now, an extensive list of well-known male, female & classic cat & dog names as well as those across categories such as Movie/ TV, music and food were analysed. A search popularity index score based on growth in search and YoY change was applied, in order to reveal a top name list.”

See. Science.

Okay, so now you know the trending names, but what about the most popular breeds?

I’m so glad you asked! Hill’s has this figured out for us too.

Drumroll please…

And the winning most popular dog breeds of 2021 are…

Golden Retriever
Border Collie
German Shepherd
Rottweiler
Cavoodle
Pomeranian
Bulldog
Shiba Inu
Labrador
Greyhound

What dog breed is right for you? Find out here!

Hill’s has also calculated the most popular cat breeds, which baffles me because I thought all cats are the same breed of part asshole and part lazy. But, turns out, nope #ClearlyADogPerson.