“You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen.” The beginning of this classic holiday song may be referring to reindeer, but there are a lot of dogs that would respond to those names, too. That is, according to a recent study.
Online pet gift shop Yappy.com recently analyzed its internal data, comprised of nearly 170,000 pet names, to see how many dogs had names linked to the holiday season. It turns out, quite a few did, so many that they were able to compile a top 95.
The top three names were Holly, Rudy – a nickname for Rudolph, and Cookie. A well-known group of Christmas chipmunk singers made the cut, too, with Simon appearing on the top 10. The remaining six were Sugar, Cocoa, Comet, Elsa, Pumpkin, and Pearl.
Elsa is, of course, the name of one of the characters in “Frozen”, and hers wasn’t the only popular name gleaned from the wintry tale. Olaf made the top 20 and was found to be common among Shih Tzus, with their largely white fur. Other wintry-themed monikers on the top 100 included Frosty, Snowball, Snowy, Frost, and Icy.
When it comes to Christmas specifically, many classic characters were represented by canine counterparts. All of Santa’s reindeer, including Rudolph, made the cut, as did Grinch, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and Kringle. There was also a Hanukkah moniker: Dreidel.
Certain names were more common among particular breeds, as well. Many Siberian Huskies, Cockapoos, and Goldendoodles were found to be named Holly, while Dasher was prevalent among Boston Terriers, and there are apparently quite a few French Bulldogs named Comet running around.
