Call “Buddy” or “Bella,” and hundreds of Spokane County dogs might come running

Don’t just give a dog a name.

Give a dog a good name. Always.

That’s the golden rule at Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, where volunteers are tasked with naming adoptable animals.

So no Snicker Poo, Mr. Bigglesworth or Mister Kibbles. The name has to have personality, pizazz and class.

“If it doesn’t have a good name, people don’t really stare at it as much” in the shelter, said Janet Dixon, a special programs manager at SCRAPS. “When the volunteers name them, they try and give them a personality name.”

So you might find Sparky, if the dog has a sparkling personality, or Jingles if the dog comes in around Christmas. Volunteers scoff at obvious names like Rusty, Scout or Gus. And they steer clear of names they can’t say quickly, since they’re certain to say them often.

But once a dog walks through the exit door with a new family, the rules go with them – and so does their name. What SCRAPS workers find from the approximately 39,000 licensed dogs is that most owners choose completely predictable names.

“We have a ton of Bellas, Mollys, Daisys, that kind of name,” Dixon said. “People are using older, more traditional names. I think it mirrors what they’re naming their kids too.”

In fact, the most popular dog name for females is Bella. And right above that is Buddy for males. As Dixon said, the rest follow a predictable trend: Lucy, Max, Molly, Daisy, Charlie, Sadie, Sophie and Bailey – there are hundreds of each among dogs currently licensed, according to SCRAPS records.

Recently, trends have been following along with popular culture.

“Right now we’re getting a lot of Chewies, Chewbaccas or BB8s,” she said, referencing popular characters from the “Star Wars” franchise. “Harry Potter was really popular a couple of years ago. People were naming their dogs Snape, Gryffindor, that kind of stuff.”

But then there are those who are slightly more off the wall who chose fittingly off-the-wall names. Names like Thursday, Friday or Wednesday – there are 12 of these calendar critters running around. Or, the three dogs named Gypsy Rose, probably after the burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. Better yet, the lone dog named Foxy Elvis, after, well, the regular Elvis Presley.

And those aren’t even the weirdest. There are dogs named Honeybabee, Lassen’s Gold Rush, Itsy Bitsy Bootsey, Chester Leroy Blanck and Skah Bigsmoke-Rivero.

There are guns (Ruger and Colt), historical figures (Winston Churchill and Wolfman Jack) and cartoons (Hobbes and Dori). And yes, there is one dog named Bae (but sadly, no Harambe).

Whichever the name people choose, Dixon said it usually comes down to creativity and putting a little bit of themselves into the naming process – predictability or not.

“Most of the owners just get their own personality into the dog,” Dixon said. “Some of them are a lot cuter than what I would ever go with.”