A new survey suggests that animal movies, ranked as household favourites, may have influenced pet owners when naming their furry friends.
Onlinecasinos.co.uk has collated a list of the 20 most popular films with pets, using the global search volumes database, Ahrefs, to determine the most inspiring names
It yielded the following results:
The most popular movie-inspired pet names:
| Rank | Pet name | Film | Pet | Global search volume (Average monthly times people search for the pet name worldwide) | Global search volume (Average yearly times people search for the pet name worldwide) |
| 1 | Lassie | Lassie come Home | Dog | 44,000 | 528,000 |
| 2 | Beethoven | Beethoven | Dog | 43,000 | 516,000 |
| 3 | Togo | Togo | Dog | 23,000 | 276,000 |
| 4 | Bolt | Bolt | Dog | 9,900 | 118,800 |
| 5 | Toto | The Wizard of Oz | Dog | 7,300 | 87,600 |
| 6 | Salem | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | Cat | 6,700 | 80,400 |
| 7 | Hooch | Turner & Hooch | Dog | 4,900 | 58,800 |
| 8 | Lady | Lady and the Tramp | Dog | 4,300 | 51,600 |
| 9 | Max | The Grinch | Dog | 4,000 | 48,000 |
| 10 | Hachi | Hachi: A Dog’s Tale | Dog | 3,400 | 40,800 |
| 11 | Ruby | Rescued By Ruby | Dog | 2,700 | 32,400 |
| 12 | Bailey | A Dog’s Purpose | Dog | 2,400 | 28,800 |
| 13 | Marley | Marley and me | Dog | 1,800 | 21,600 |
| 14 | Bruiser Woods | Legally Blonde | Dog | 1,400 | 16,800 |
| 15 | Blue | Red Dog: True Blue | Dog | 1,200 | 14,400 |
| 16 | Friday | Hotel for Dogs | Dog | 1,200 | 14,400 |
| 17 | Doug | Up | Dog | 1,000 | 12,000 |
| 18 | Marcel | Friends | Monkey | 900 | 10,800 |
| 19 | Babe | Babe | Pig | 600 | 7,200 |
| 20 | Louie | The Princess Diaries | Dog | 400 | 4,800 |
Popular names
The website can reveal that the most popular movie-inspired pet name is Lassie, with an average of 528,000 global searches for this dog name (that is 44,000 searches each month).
This pet name has become increasingly popular since the most recent Lassie film release in 2020, sparking popularity.
In second place is Beethoven, with 516,000 yearly searches for the pet name.
Although there are eight Beethoven movies, this pet name has 12,000 fewer yearly searches than Lassie.
Placing third is Togo, with 276,000 yearly searches for the dog name. This Disney film was released in 2019, with the dog name garnering around half the monthly searches of Lassie in first place.
In fourth place is Bolt, with 118,800 yearly searches for this dog name.
This is a cartoon film which centres around a dog named Bolt, who has spent his entire life on the set of a television series, and firmly believes that his superpowers are real.
Toto ranks fifth with 87,600 yearly global searches for this pooch name. (31,200 fewer yearly searches than Bolt in fourth place.)
The dog name Toto is most famously known as the Cairn Terrier from ‘The Wizard of Oz’.
The top 5 are all dog names, which goes without saying, as dogs are the most popular pet worldwide.
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