250 boy dog names
Max, Charlie, Rocky, Cooper, and Buddy lead the male-coded registry profiles.
Browse boy dog namesThe short answer
Bella is Chicago's leading dog name in this snapshot.
Bella appears in 1,328 license-event rows and 1,026 distinct name-and-trait profiles. Max, Charlie, Luna, and Lucy round out the top five.
Popular dog names
The top 20 names in Chicago license records.
Ranks use registry profiles first and license-event rows as the tiebreaker.
#1 Bella 1,026 profiles
#2 Max 861 profiles
#3 Charlie 851 profiles
#4 Luna 846 profiles
#5 Lucy 712 profiles
#6 Coco 672 profiles
#7 Rocky 640 profiles
#8 Lola 607 profiles
#9 Daisy 597 profiles
#10 Bailey 517 profiles
#11 Cooper 495 profiles
#12 Buddy 495 profiles
#13 Milo 471 profiles
#14 Penny 466 profiles
#15 Stella 410 profiles
#16 Molly 398 profiles
#17 Bear 385 profiles
#18 Teddy 385 profiles
#19 Oliver 372 profiles
#20 Ruby 359 profiles
Alphabetical dog names
Choose a letter.
Each page lists the source names alphabetically and shows their citywide rank, registry-profile count, and license-event count.
A 1,078 names B 2,317 names C 1,993 names D 1,074 names E 582 names F 738 names G 847 names H 780 names I 275 names J 834 names K 1,057 names L 1,472 names M 2,298 names N 636 names O 514 names P 1,426 names Q 90 names R 1,365 names S 2,076 names T 1,242 names U 79 names V 226 names W 545 names X 54 names Y 143 names Z 357 names
Common naming searches
Boy and girl dog names, grounded in the registry.
The source uses M and F values. These views translate them into familiar search language while keeping the original counting caveat visible.
250 girl dog names
Bella, Luna, Lucy, Lola, and Daisy lead the female-coded registry profiles.
Browse girl dog namesCounting notes
One row is a license event, not necessarily one dog.
The city export does not contain a dog ID, license/emblem ID, or anonymized owner ID. Renewals can therefore repeat the same dog, while two different dogs can share the same name and traits.
What “registry profile” means: a distinct combination of dog name, breed,
color, gender, ZIP code, and ward. That removes obvious repeated rows and gives a steadier
popularity signal, but it can still merge different dogs or split one dog after a move or
profile change. We publish both the 147,119 license-event rows
and the 116,813 registry profiles,
and never describe either as an exact count of unique Chicago dogs.
Dog name FAQ
How the name atlas works.
What is the most popular dog name in Chicago?
Bella ranks first with 1,026 distinct name-and-trait registry profiles and 1,328 license records.
How many dog names are in the Chicago registry?
This A–Z directory contains 24,098 valid name spellings from the City of Chicago FOIA export. Blank, placeholder, numeric-only, and non-A–Z-leading entries are excluded.
Are repeated dog names the same dog?
Not necessarily. A repeated name can be a renewal for one dog or a different dog with the same name. Because the city did not provide a unique dog or license ID, Tails groups name counts without claiming exact unique-dog totals.
What are the most popular boy and girl dog names?
Max leads the male-coded registry profiles and Bella leads the female-coded registry profiles in this snapshot. The source uses M and F values; those pages use “boy” and “girl” only to match common naming language.
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