Bella is back at No. 1. The familiar name displaced recent leaders in a 2026 national ranking, finishing ahead of Luna and Max and leading in 25 states. Yet Hawaii and Montana chose winners that did not appear anywhere in the national top 100, revealing how much a nationwide result can blur local differences.
The U.S. News & World Report analysis placed Bella first, Luna second and Max third. Coco climbed to fourth, returning to the top five for the first time since 2023, while Daisy took fifth.
The complete national top 10 was Bella, Luna, Max, Coco, Daisy, Milo, Buddy, Lucy, Charlie and Lola. Farther down the chart, animal-themed choices included Bear and Moose. The especially direct name Dog landed at No. 86.
These results suggest that many households continue to gravitate toward short, familiar names. Bella and Luna have repeatedly traded the top two positions since 2023, while Max has also remained near the front. Max led a ranking in 2022 before Milo displaced it, and the American Kennel Club placed Max first among male dog names in 2025.
State favorites complicate the national picture
Bella’s reach was broad: It ranked first in 25 states, including Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. Luna led in 12 states, including California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.
Then there were the outliers. Koa ranked first in Hawaii, and Barron ranked first in Montana, even though neither name made the national top 100. That contrast matters for anyone interpreting a national list. A name can be relatively uncommon across the full dataset while still becoming a defining favorite within one state.
The results also give context to Coco’s move into fourth and Daisy’s fifth-place finish, but they do not establish why either name gained ground. Both names have entertainment connections: Coco is a poodle character in Bluey and was the name of a giant poodle in the 1961 series The Donna Reed Show. Daisy has been used for dogs in the first John Wick film and the second installment of The Secret Life of Pets. Those appearances alone do not demonstrate that screen exposure caused the rankings.
What an insurance-based ranking can and cannot tell us
The national and state results came from more than 500,000 pet-insurance data points supplied in June 2026. The records covered dog names registered from January 2022 through June 2026. For state rankings, names and state residence were filtered by state and then ordered by popularity.
That is a substantial pool of records, but it represents insured dogs rather than every dog in the country. The published methodology does not detail how duplicate records were handled or whether names from different years received equal weight. Its multiyear window also means the ranking is not simply a snapshot of dogs newly named in 2026.
Research published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research offers another reason for caution. Among Dog Aging Project participants, insured dogs and their owners differed demographically from the broader project population. Insured dogs were more often young, single-breed dogs acquired from breeders, while insured owners were more commonly ages 25 to 44 and professional-degree earners. That separate study does not measure this name ranking’s sample, but it demonstrates why insurance records should not automatically be treated as a perfect stand-in for all U.S. dogs.
The American Kennel Club’s 2025 figures are not a direct apples-to-apples comparison either. Its ranking used AKC registration statistics and Canine Partners enrollments, separating female and male names. Luna led its female list, while Max led its male list. Different dog populations, time periods and ranking structures can reasonably produce different winners.
Popularity is not the only consideration when naming an individual dog. A dog must learn that their name is a cue to pay attention. AKC training guidance recommends building a positive association, saying the name once and rewarding the dog for looking toward the person. It also advises against repeating the name before every command or pairing it constantly with corrections.
Bella’s return reflects a strong shared preference for recognizable names, but Koa and Barron keep the picture from becoming too uniform. National charts can capture a broad pattern; state favorites and individual dogs still supply the personality.
Does this sound like your dog’s personality, or did they surprise you completely? Tell us in the comments.
By Nora Patel — Former shelter adoption counselor and canine-behavior writer who helps families match dog traits with real home routines.
