Dogs Named After Food

When choosing a name for your dog, what criteria do you use? For many dog owners, food is the first thing that comes mind when naming a dog.

That's according to a recent survey, in time for National Dog Day, from Whistle, the team behind the all-in-one pet GPS tracker and activity monitor, and Rover.com, the nation’s largest network of pet sitters and dog walkers. They learned that our pets often bear the namesakes of some of their humans' favorite things.

For example, I know three different owners of three different chocolate labs that named their dogs after something chocolate. Their names are Hershey, Bosco and Tootsie (for Tootsie Roll). These were dogs named after food.

Dog Lovers Have a Sweet Tooth

Actually, there is a trendy towards naming dogs after candy and not just from Hershey's. That aforementioned survey discovered a real sweet tooth among dog owners.

Junk food names are on the rise! They’ve increased by 2% in the US, and the top junk foods dogs are named after are Taffy, Twix, and Milano. Even just the generic name Cookie is popular.

Meanwhile, health food names for dogs have declined by 17%. This latter stat doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure I would name my dog Quinoa or Kale, though these names are popular in the crunchy Pacific Northwest

Welcoming a new dog to your family? Buy our birthday bundle to get you all the supplies you'll need to celebrate.

Coffee and Booze Names

I once knew pets named Heineken and Molson, and dogs named after alcoholic drinks continue to be popular. Surveys show that people like naming their dogs Brandy, Guinness and Whiskey. I wonder if these latter two names are for Irish Setters only. My own grandparents had a Springer Spaniel named Brandy.

Coffee drinks are also popular name inspirations. While I've yet to meet a mochaccino mutt, I do know dogs name Mocha and Kona. Espresso seems to be a popular doggy name, too.

We sell five flavors of Puppy Cake brand dog-friendly cake mix. They are peanut butter, red velvet, pumpkin, carob and banana. Maybe one of these flavors will be inspiration for your new dog's name.

Game of Thrones Inspired Names

Getting totally away from dogs named for food, there's a huge pop culture phenomenon affecting the names people choose for their dogs. That phenomenon would be HBO's hit TV series "Game of Thrones."

Thrones' fans find inspiration in lots of places when naming their dogs. The Whistle/Rover survey found that Arya and Snow remain popular names.

It isn't just the humans in Game of Thrones that lead fans to name their dogs after characters. More than six in 10 of the dogs in Whistle’s database with Thrones’ inspired names were actually named for the Stark Family’s Direwolves - Lady, Ghost, Nymeria, Greywolf, and Shaggydog.

According to a 2016 study, 75 percent of consumers in the United States, ages 30 to 39, own a dog. A recent Rover poll reveals that 95 percent of pet owners considered their pets to be part of the family. It’s no surprise then, that as we share more of our daily lives, homes, and activities with our pets, their names reflect a little more about our priorities and favorite things.

Celebrating Dog Birthdays

It's also no surprise why so many dog owners celebrate their dog's birthday each year just as they do for their human children. It's the whole reason we started this business in 2015--to help the 10 million Americans celebrating their dogs' birthdays to do so with unique dog-theme cake pans and unique birthday candles shaped like a dog bone. No one else is selling these products so we proudly do.

Stay tuned for the launch of our three new dog cake pans coming in September. They are shaped like a pit bull, a Corgi and a French bulldog. They are significantly larger than our popular dog bone shaped cake pan and our dachshund cake pan. We think they're awesome--or should be say pawsome--and we think you'll feel the same way, too.