A baby named Rover?
Apparently, using dog names as human baby names is a rising trend in baby naming, according to baby name consultant Colleen Slagen.
Slagen shared in a TikTok video that one of the most common insults she sees in comments or direct messages is that a name is a dog’s name, not a human’s.
“Dog names are in, OK?” she declared. “That’s a compliment now.”
She noted that when she thinks about dog names, a few specific trends come to mind.
The first is “cutesy nickname” names — which is also a huge trend with babies right now. For example, Charlie, Daisy, Sophie, Ruby, Sadie and Archie.
Then there are the “short and sweet” names, such as Leo, Max, Chloe and Luna.
“Luna is a huge dog name, and the No. 10 ranked baby name for girls,” she pointed out.
Another trend is “true” dog names, like Bear, Banjo and Blue — names which “against your best instincts,” you’d start to like.
The “cool, edgy” names include Cooper, Maverick and Duke. She pointed out that Maverick and Cooper are both in the top 100 boy names.
“I also get people who are in the pickle of: My mother-in-law’s dog is Teddy, that was our baby name,” Slagen said.
“My dog growing up was a golden retriever named Rosie, which would be super cute for a little girl,” she shared.
People in the comments mostly agreed that some names can work for both a dog and a human.
“My son’s name is Samson…definitely a dog’s name but I don’t care,” one said.
“I’m obsessed with Lucy and my husband’s reaction was ‘that’s a dog name,'” another wrote.
“As a Molly, I meet more dogs with my name than people. I love it!” someone shared.
“My daughter’s name is Pepper and while I was pregnant I kept meeting dogs named Pepper. I love dogs, it made me like the name even more,” a user wrote.
Dog names for humans aren’t the only bizarre baby-naming trend right now.
BabyCenter revealed the names that will be hot for Beta babies born in 2025 and beyond, including Eclipse, Sol and Orion, which are among the fastest-rising names for girls and boys thanks to the Total Solar Eclipse.