There Are More Dogs Named Frodo Than Fido In Seattle

There is a cat in Seattle named Schrodinger. We don't know if it is alive or dead, but the point is that Seattleites get creative when naming their pets. Nerdy creative. KUOW.org obtained the names of every licensed dog, cat, goat and pot-bellied pig in the city and found that more of you have named your dogs Frodo than Fido. (Frodo, as in Frodo Baggins of "The Lord of the Rings.") J.R.R. Tolkien’s influence on pet names in Seattle extends beyond the Frodos, however. There are four dogs and two cats named Bilbo and two cats named Galadriel. A white cat from Mount Baker is named Gandalf. There are your old-school nerdy names as well: Twenty-one dogs are named Xena (as in Warrior Princess); three dogs are named Pikachu (Pokémon); and one golden retriever in the Central Area is named Narnia (as in Chronicles of). Two cats are named Skywalker.

(Speaking of Luke Skywalker and Star Wars, there is a black miniature goat in northeast Seattle named Chewee, which could be short for Chewbacca, the most famous of the Wookiees, who was also known as Chewie. Thirty-one dogs and nine cats also bear the name.) Deeper nerd cuts: Goemon, a semi-legendary Japanese outlafw hero, Gwynek, the demigod of heraldry, and Rorschach, the antihero in the comic book series, "Watchmen." Also, Mr. Meowgi. (You’re welcome, "Karate Kid" fans.) And Game of Thrones. Ohhhhhh, Seattle. There are Tyrions, Sansas, Aryas, a Petyr and a white female pitbull in West Seattle named Daenarys. To be fair, not all Seattleites name their pets for fantasy characters. The most popular dog name is Lucy.

A few Seattleites have named their pets in pairs. Ballard boasts Siamese cats named Angelina and Jolie and short-haired kitties named Tristan and Isolde. Further east in North Seattle are cats Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, named after characters from the musical “My Fair Lady.” The most popular breed in almost every Seattle neighborhood is a Labrador. Chihuahuas are the second-most popular breed across most of the city, with the exception of the 98101 and 98104 ZIP codes downtown, where there are more of the itty-bitty dogs than Labs. Four percent of owners listed their dogs as “mixed,” which seems low based on what we see walking around Green Lake. Among unusual breeds in Seattle is the English toy spaniel, which has just three representatives here. Their names are Oliver, Cromwell and Henry. Oliver and Cromwell are not registered at the same address.