Dog owners are ditching traditional canine names
Dog owners have stopped calling their pets names like Patch, Scamp and Lassie - and naming them after soap stars, it has been found.Researchers discovered the days of dogs being called Shep, Lady or Blackie are long gone, with the number of pooches called Roxy, Alfie, Max and Molly is on the rise.
Names Roxy, Alfie and Max are familiar to fans of EastEnders while Molly is currently a character in Coronation Street.
The trend was found after a report was carried out looking at 80,000 names given to pets in the past 30 year.
But will the soap star naming of pets continue, or will traditional dog names like Rover return? See what we did there.
The study also found nearly half of today's dog owners choose current or contemporary names for their puppies rather than traditional ones.
The main inspiration for four out of ten dog owners was the appearance of the dog, while 40 per cent said they drew ideas from television shows - or the characters in them.
A further 27 per cent name their pooch after their favourite pop star, 16 per cent look to children's movies for ideas and 25 per cent of dogs have been named after TV pets.
Stephen Ebbett of protectyourbubble.com, which conducted the study, said: "Naming a dog Millie, Daisy or Oscar does seem surprising, particularly as these sorts of names appear in the top 100 baby names for children in the UK.
"It is getting to the point where naming a child will get harder and harder, as parents struggle not to give their little ones the same name as the family dog.
"This survey reinforces the fact that dogs really are a man's best friend.
"It is therefore understandable that dog owners seem to agonise over the name of their new puppy as they would a new child."
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protectyourbubble.com
The main inspiration for four out of ten dog owners was the appearance of the dog, while 40 per cent said they drew ideas from television shows - or the characters in them.
A further 27 per cent name their pooch after their favourite pop star, 16 per cent look to children's movies for ideas and 25 per cent of dogs have been named after TV pets.
Stephen Ebbett of protectyourbubble.com, which conducted the study, said: "Naming a dog Millie, Daisy or Oscar does seem surprising, particularly as these sorts of names appear in the top 100 baby names for children in the UK.
"It is getting to the point where naming a child will get harder and harder, as parents struggle not to give their little ones the same name as the family dog.
"This survey reinforces the fact that dogs really are a man's best friend.
"It is therefore understandable that dog owners seem to agonise over the name of their new puppy as they would a new child."
LINKS
protectyourbubble.com
