Australia's most popular and unusual pet names revealed

To celebrate Love Your Pet Day on 20 February, Pet Circle, Australia’s largest online pet supplies store, has revealed the most popular and most unusual dog and cat names that Australians have lovingly called their pet in 2022, as well as the most popular breeds.

Topping Pet Circle’s list of names for both dogs and cats born in 2022 was Luna, which was also the most popular name in 2021.

The biggest movers were Daisy, which moved from eighth position to third in the dog list and Coco, which moved from seventh to third in the cat list.

“With pets increasingly being seen as ‘fur children’, it should come as no surprise that the names we use for our pets, especially our dogs, are beginning to imitate some of Australia’s most loved baby names,” says Pet Circle Head Vet Dr Teagan Lever.

Some of the most popular choices for both fur babies and human babies were: Luna, Charlie, Daisy, Frankie, Bella, Millie, Ruby, Molly, Rosie, Lola, Willow, Archie, Teddy, Ollie, Leo, Max, Alfie, Jasper and George.

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Favourite names for pets imitate some of our most loved baby names.

Pet Circle’s Vet Squad and Customer Service team has also shared some of the more unusual names that they came across last year.

“Some interesting dog names we’ve seen include Hiccup, Marshmallow, Olaf, Moo, Wombat, Cerberus, Toast and Colin the Relentless. My personal favourites are Dyson, considering many dogs do act like vacuum cleaners, and a Mini Dachshund called Bratwurst,” says Dr Teagan.

“For cat names, some owners can get really creative and this year we’ve seen some really fun, unique names, including Meow, Principessa d’affettuoso which means affectionate princess, cat siblings named ‘fish’ and ‘chips’, and Dwayne the Cat Thompson, which a customer’s son cleverly came up with.”

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Archie is one of the top picks for dog names.

When it comes to dog breeds, the most popular breeds born last year were the Cavoodle, followed by the Golden Retriever, Border Collie, Labrador and Dachshund.

For cats, Domestic Short-hair, Ragdoll and Domestic Medium-hair were the top three breeds born last year, with the line up staying the same as 2021.