30 Sep Bold Beasts: The 10 Most Popular Names for Dogs & Cats in 2018

Although owning a beloved pet is one of the greatest pleasures in life, the prospect of naming your furry bundle of joy can be really difficult. Do you go old-school, and give your dog a name like Fido? Or do you go silly, and call your cat Professor Flufflesworth? The possibilities are endless.

What’s always interesting is finding out what other people have gone for. Recently, British retailer John Lewis conducted a survey of its pet insurance customers, and there are some very intriguing trends emerging.

Dog names

Dogs have traditionally been associated with names like Rover or Rex – names that you wouldn’t expect to find attributed to a human being. However, this seems to have changed, and this year’s list of most popular dog names is comprised entirely of names that you might come across within your friend circles. Let’s take a look at the list:

1. Poppy

2. Bella

3. Molly

4. Alfie

5. Charlie

6. Daisy

7. Rosie

8. Teddy

9. Lola

10. Millie

Cat names

There are obviously a great deal of differences between cats and dogs, but when it comes to names, they have more in common than you’d think. Just as with dogs, it seems that the most popular cat names are those that we might also assign to newborn babies. Let’s take a look at the most popular cat names of 2018:

1. Bella

2. Tilly

3. Lola

4. Coco

5. Daisy

6. Poppy

7. Luna

8. Molly

9. Rosie

10. Phoebe

As you can see, the two lists have a great deal of overlap – Molly, Rosie, Poppy, and the extremely popular Bella are all present on both lists. I’d like to think that this trend of naming pets with human names is indicative of the fact that most people see their pets as part of the family. I know I certainly do!

Sadly, Caractacus didn’t make the list, but we like to think of him as a trailblazer.

Did you spot your pet’s name in the list? Which is your favourite of the ones that are up there? Let us know in the comments on our Facebook page!

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