German Shepherd names, counted from 11,809 licensed dogs
These are the names owners actually gave their German Shepherds, taken from city dog license records and counted one dog at a time. No suggestions, no made-up lists.
Source: dog license records from New York City, Seattle, Allegheny County, PA and Cambridge, MA, updated to Oct 2026.
Max
is the most common German Shepherd name: 143 dogs, about 1 in 80
11,809German Shepherds in the four license registers
11,506of them with a usable name
Bellamost common female name
Maxmost common male name
The 30 most common German Shepherd names
Ranked by the number of licensed German Shepherds with each name. The figure beside each name is the dog count.
- 1Max143
- 2Luna137
- 3Bella136
- 4Rocky94
- 5Zeus82
- 6Bear77
- 7Shadow69
- 8Lucy68
- 9Charlie63
- 10Harley55
- 11Sadie53
- 12Loki52
- 13Buddy50
- 14Duke50
- 15Leo50
- 16Stella49
- 17Thor49
- 18King45
- 19Daisy43
- 20Bailey42
- 21Jack42
- 22Lucky42
- 23Sasha42
- 24Apollo39
- 25Ruby39
- 26Jax38
- 27Riley38
- 28Roxy38
- 29Cooper37
- 30Lola37
Female and male German Shepherd names
From registers that record sex (New York, Allegheny County and Cambridge). Seattle doesn't.
Female German Shepherds, top 10
- 1Bella127
- 2Luna125
- 3Lucy64
- 4Sadie50
- 5Stella45
- 6Daisy39
- 7Roxy38
- 8Harley36
- 9Maggie36
- 10Sasha36
Male German Shepherds, top 10
- 1Max135
- 2Rocky92
- 3Zeus72
- 4Bear63
- 5Duke49
- 6Thor49
- 7Charlie48
- 8Leo48
- 9Loki46
- 10Buddy45
Names German Shepherd owners choose far more than other owners
Each name's share among German Shepherds, against its share among all 418,812 named dogs. “9×” means Sarge is 9 times as common for a German Shepherd as for the average dog.
- Sarge9× usual · 19 dogs
- Kaiser8.9× usual · 19 dogs
- Ruger5.6× usual · 15 dogs
- Greta4.7× usual · 17 dogs
- Axel4.7× usual · 21 dogs
- Thunder4.1× usual · 15 dogs
- Sheba3.9× usual · 18 dogs
- Ranger3.7× usual · 26 dogs
- Thor3.5× usual · 49 dogs
- Gunner3.3× usual · 20 dogs
- Kai3.3× usual · 23 dogs
- Athena3.2× usual · 32 dogs
