Hey, Buddy: Pup-ular dog names on Long Island

Yell "Buddy!" at a Long Island dog run, and take cover. You might be charged, slobbered on, even knocked to your knees. Buddy is the most popular name among licensed dogs on Long Island, according to 2010 data reported to New York State by Long Island's municipalities.

Chances are good one of those dogs named Buddy will be a Labrador retriever, because after a regular old mutt, the Lab is the most popular breed registered in these parts.

A look at the nearly 34,000 dogs licensed on Long Island reveals some amusing trends in canine names and popularity of certain breeds. But this isn't a perfect science -- only a fraction of dog owners register their pets, although it's the law.

Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, estimates 290,000 dogs live in Suffolk County. The number in Nassau is in excess of 100,000 dogs, says Jed Painter, chief of the animal cruelty unit of the Nassau County district attorney's office.

Name-dropping

When it comes to names, some Long Island dogs are likely to have self-esteem issues -- how can dogs named Knuckle Head, Oddball, Havoc or Trouble hope to compete with counterparts named Einstein?

Other canines are named to break the breed's stereotype. There's a Rottweiler mix named Tinkerbell in Lake Grove and a poodle that goes by Fang in Miller Place.

Dachshund owners exhibit a sense of humor. They call their dogs Oscar, Nathan, Kosher, Frank and, ahem, Hot Dog. Beagle owners tend to associate their breed with the obvious -- 15 beagles are named Snoopy, and two are Linus.

And some have owners who most certainly are "Harry Potter" fans. Two dogs are named after the bespectacled protagonist, there's a spaniel mix in Oceanside named Hermione and two more are dubbed Dobby. There's even a Bellatrix, a German Shepherd in Wantagh -- but phew, no Voldemort.

The data also show Labrador owners are obsessed with their dogs' color: Midnight, Onyx, Coal . . . Mocha, Java, Cocoa . . . Goldie, Blondie, Honey.

And there's Buddy -- 420 of them registered on Long Island -- making it the most popular name. "I am surprised to hear that, actually," says Lauren Cavalieri of Kings Park, who has a Beagle American Eskimo mix named Buddy. "I figured it would be something like Max. That's the name you always hear in the movies," she says.

Not a bad guess -- Max comes in as the second most common dog name on Long Island.

By the breed

The vast majority of dogs on Long Island are mixed breed -- what the North Shore Animal League America likes to call "muttigrees," says Devera Lynn, vice president of communications for the league. "They really are desirable and wonderful animals. It's all about the bond between the person and the animal and not so much its breed."

As for Long Island's ongoing love affair with labs -- there are 2,348 of them registered, the most of any purebred.

"I like big dogs," says Dominick Germano, 43, of Lindenhurst, who has three of them, all yellow: Ginger, Buster -- and Buddy. "Yellow labs are very friendly with people and they're very easy to train."

Besides the most popular breeds, others are quite rare here. More than 50 breeds of dogs have one lone representative registered on Long Island. You'd be hard-pressed to find a Mackenzie River husky, which is an arctic sled dog, or a Cimarrón Uruguayo, used for hunting in Uruguay, (both of them live in Coram) or the Dandie Dinmont Terrier, a small terrier with a topknot of hair (keep your eyes out in Westbury).

Randi Marshall contributed to this story.

Why license?

It's New York State law. Registering dogs protects the public health, as owners must prove the dog has had rabies shots, says Michael Moran, of the state agriculture department, which until January oversaw licensing.

Each licensed dog gets a silver tag for its collar with an identifying number on it, which helps ID an owner if a dog bites someone or causes damage and helps reunite lost dogs with their families.

"Dogs do get out. They jump over the fence . . . break off the leash," says Carol Levitano, deputy town clerk in Huntington. As of this year, licensing has been turned over entirely to each municipality. The cost is minimal -- in Huntington it's $8.50 a year for a neutered male or female, $18.50 a year for others.

Total registered dogs

33,688

Most popular breeds

1. Mixed breed 35%

2. Labrador retriever 7%

3. Golden retriever 4%

4. Shih Tzu 2.8%

5. German shepherd 2.6%

Most popular dog names

1. Buddy (420)

2. Max (397)

3. Bailey (316)

4. Molly (307)

5. Daisy (289)

ZIP codes with the most registered dogs

Port Washington 11050 (860)

Lindenhurst 11757 and Bay Shore 11706 (tied, 734)

Patchogue 11772 (662)

New Hyde Park 11040 (646)