Most common dog names in NYC's 2026 license extract
By Marvin Tang · Published September 20, 2026 · Data snapshot: September 20, 2026
Among 93,902 eligible name-bearing rows in NYC's 2026 active dog-license extract, Luna appears 1,177 times (1.253%). Bella appears 991 times and Coco 784 times. These are license-record counts, not confirmed unique dogs or newly named puppies.
The original NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Dog Licensing Dataset supplied 96,459 rows with extract_year=2026 when checked. After excluding missing names and two placeholder strings, 93,902 rows remained, representing 14,659 distinct case-normalized name strings. The dataset may be revised after this dated snapshot.
Top 20 name strings
Share uses 93,902 eligible license rows as the denominator. Equal counts are ordered alphabetically; a later position does not imply a meaningful difference when counts tie.
| Display position | Name | License rows | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luna | 1,177 | 1.253% |
| 2 | Bella | 991 | 1.055% |
| 3 | Coco | 784 | 0.835% |
| 4 | Max | 754 | 0.803% |
| 5 | Milo | 728 | 0.775% |
| 6 | Charlie | 721 | 0.768% |
| 7 | Teddy | 605 | 0.644% |
| 8 | Lola | 542 | 0.577% |
| 9 | Rocky | 521 | 0.555% |
| 10 | Daisy | 513 | 0.546% |
| 11 | Lucy | 507 | 0.540% |
| 12 | Leo | 445 | 0.474% |
| 13 | Bailey | 413 | 0.440% |
| 14 | Lucky | 396 | 0.422% |
| 15 | Toby | 394 | 0.420% |
| 16 | Buddy | 378 | 0.403% |
| 17 | Penny | 378 | 0.403% |
| 18 | Oliver | 377 | 0.401% |
| 19 | Rosie | 368 | 0.392% |
| 20 | Cooper | 355 | 0.378% |
How this table was made
- Select records where
extract_year='2026'. This label describes the source's extract, not a cohort of dogs born or registered during 2026. - Trim surrounding spaces, convert names to uppercase for grouping, and exclude blank values,
UNKNOWN, andNAME NOT PROVIDED. Other spelling and punctuation variants remain separate. - Count source rows for each remaining name string. Sort by count descending, then name alphabetically, and retain the first 100. Divide each count by 93,902 eligible rows for the displayed share.
The reproducible NYC Open Data aggregate query supplies the name counts. The JSON download records the filter, denominator, source URL, and all 100 aggregates. The CSV contains only aggregate name counts, not individual license records.
What the counts cannot say
The source does not provide a stable public identifier for deduplicating one dog across records. Counts therefore describe rows in one active-license extract, not unique dogs, annual registrations, or a census of every dog in New York City. The seven extract years available in the source have different row totals and missing years; this page does not infer a continuous trend from them.
Attribution
Cite NYC DOHMH for the underlying licensing data and iDogNames for this filtered top-100 calculation. A natural link to this page is welcome when it helps readers check the method; plain-text or nofollow attribution is also fine.