Looking for an Unique Name for Your Dog?

According to the AKC, the American Kennel Club, the top 5 most popular names for dogs are - Bear, Lady, Blue, Belle and Max. I also found a website that claims to list many rare dog names at Dogs Names list, but after looking them over they almost match the top 40 most common dog names on the AKC list. So they are not unusual or rare at all.

Unless you want to follow the crowd and name your dog the same name like thousands of other dogs then here are some suggestions of unusual dog names.

The name Neko is becoming a popular unique name because of it's Japanese origin. Contrary to popular belief it does not mean the color "black", it is Japanese for "cat". Despite the fact that Neko is Japanese for cat, many dog and even horse owners are naming their pets Neko.

Other unique names for dogs include unusual spellings of common names. Katie becomes Kay-dee or KD. Dogs can have a descriptive name like Quick, Ice or Raisin. Quick of course would be for a herding breed of dog. Ice would be a great name for a white dog or a sledding breed. Raisin would be a great name for a Sharpei dog.

You could also try the human names that start with the rarer letters of the alphabet like Xena, Xeno, Zelda or Zoe.

Going high tech could open up a whole new realm of possibilities like Yahoo, Google, Xerox, USB and Download. I could see the whole family getting in on that one. Each one fighting over their favorite weird sounding website or bit of computer hardware. Of course the kids will want to name the puppy after a well known video game character as well.

Another possibility is naming the dog after a local location like a local lake or river. Tahoe, Crater, Berryessa and Salt comes to mind. Of course I dropped the "lake" part of the name. Local mountains and other natural geographic locations often have native American words as part of the name so it would make those names even rarer.

What you want to aim for is a name that is unique enough to have people repeat what you just told them. If you get the "what did you say?" when you call your dog then you have gotten a rare or unusual name for it. If after you have repeated it to them and then they ask you to explain how you ended up naming your dog that, you now have a conversation starter.