It’s starting to look like one dog park might not be enough in Natick, where the pup population has boomed during the pandemic by about 20% over the past two years.
Natick now has 3,229 licensed dogs vs. 3,025 last year and 2,700 the year before. The current number is split pretty evenly among males and females.
More dogs means more names and breeds to pore through based on the list of licensed dogs supplied to us by the Natick Town Clerk’s office (dog names & other data are not associated with individual residents). We welcome any of you more proficient at crunching numbers to do so with the spreadsheet embedded below & share any interesting findings.
The most popular name this time around is Lucy, which goes back & forth year to year with Bella for the honor.
The Top 10:
- Lucy (43)
- Bella (41)
- Luna (37) (Now Wellesley’s most popular dog name)
- Charlie (35)
- Max (28)
- Cooper (26)
- Rosie (26)
- Daisy (24)
- Chloe (24)
- Sadie (24)
Maggie, Winnie, Bailey, Coco, Tucker, and Teddy are among other very popular dog names in town. Note that we’re pretty much sticklers on spelling, so results are different if we pile in various spellings of some of these names.
All this isn’t to say Natick dog owners haven’t shown some creativity in naming dogs. Among the unique names:
- Aayla (first alphabetically)
- Zuzu (last alphabetically)
- Acorn
- Timberland
- Pythagoras
Natick’s oldest dog? A 24-year-old female beagle named Scout.
The most popular breed in recent years has been labrador retriever. But this time around the 485 labs are outnumbered by the 489 mixed breeds (many of which probably have a good dose of lab in them). Other common breeds in Natick include golden retrievers (180), golden doodles (126) and labradoodles (122).
Most Popular Natick Dog Names & Breeds:
All dogs 6 months of age or older must be licensed with the Town Clerk’s Office (MGL Chapter 137). Licenses must be renewed annually by March 1, failure to do so will result in a $50 late fee. Failure to license a dog shall be punishable by a fine of $100.
It would bave been better if the town could have given you a spreadsheet with an MD5 or SHA1 hash of the owners address – that way, this could be analyzed for the distribution of how many multi dog families there are without the town needing to release any confidential information.
Thanks Rob, interesting idea, Bob