1:05:24 Thursday 23 October 2025

Charlie & Bella Tauranga’s most popular dog names

Flo seems to be happy she has a unique name. Photo: SunLive.

What do Labrador Retrievers and dogs named Charlie and Bella all have in common? They are Tauranga dog owners' most favoured breed and names.

As we head into the Christmas period, many families choose this as the perfect time to add a four-legged addition to the household.

It can be a tough decision picking out a name, but there must be something about the names Charlie and Bella, as not only do they top the lists in Tauranga, but in a report recently released by Auckland City Council, those names topped the list as well.

In Tauranga, there are more than 15,000 known dogs, and they play an important part in many households across the region.

'Every year when dog registration time rolls around, we are always really excited to see what new, popular names are popping up in the community,” says Animal Services team leader, Brent Lincoln.

'Of course, there will be the popular ones like Charlie, Max, Teddy, Bella, Molly and Poppy, but the out-of-the-box original names give the team an insight into the household and what type of personality the dog may have.”

Below are the top 10 popular dog names, popular dog breeds and rarest dog breeds in Tauranga.

Top 10 most popular dog names in Tauranga

Ranking Most popular name Total Ranking Most popular name Total
Male dogs Female dogs
1 Charlie 184 1 Bella 220
2 Max 175 2 Molly 188
3 Teddy 133 3 Poppy 152
4 Buddy 97 4 Ruby 132
5 Toby 87 5 Luna 129
6 Oscar 86 6 Rosie 129
7 Archie 76 7 Coco 113
8 Monty 75 8 Daisey 111
9 George 67 9 Roxy 97
10 Alfie 63 10 Pipi 91

Top 10 most popular dog breeds in Tauranga

Ranking Breed Total
1 Labrador Retriever 1,892
2 Staffordshire Bull Terrier 797
3 Shih Tzu 754
4 Border Collie 733
5 Maltese 673
6 Cavalier King Charles 596
7 Miniature Schnauzer 573
8 Jack Russell 536
9 Bichon Frise 440
10 German Shepherd 371

Rarest dog breeds in Tauranga

Breed Total
American Foxhound 1
Anatolian Shepherd Dog 1
Basset Fauve De Bretange 1
Bedlington Terrier 1
Canaan 1
Cesky Terrier 1
Chesapeake Retriever 1
Clumber Spaniel 1
Curly Coated Retriever 1
Field Spaniel 1
Finish Lapphund 1
Giant Schnauzer 1
Grand Basset Griffon Vendeen 1
Irish Water Spaniel 1
Italian Corso Dog 1
Kerry Blue Terrier 1
Laekenois Belgian Shepherd 1
Munsterlander 1
Nova Scotia Duck Trolling Retriever 1
Sealyham Terrier 1
Tenterfield Terrier 1

2 comments

SO how long

Posted on 23-12-2022 21:02 | By The Caveman

did take some TCC staff member to put this "information" together and at what cost to the RATEPAYERS ! (And what is the real RATEPAYER value of this information ????)


@The Caveman

Posted on 28-12-2022 12:36 | By morepork

We live in an "information age". It snuck up on us while we weren't looking and by the time we became aware of it, it was too late to stop it. It is a few lines of code and a simple click of a mouse to produce this tabled information, say, 5 minutes if it is ad hoc, much less than that if the display matrix is connected and populated directly from the database...; you don't need to weep over your Rates in this regard. (There are MUCH more important ways they are wasting our money that we SHOULD be concerned about...) As to the RATEPAYER value: I'm a ratepayer and I value having detailed information about the dogs in the community (what we are seeing here is only a small part of the "Dogs Database"...). The cost to collect this information is negligible; side effect of Registration.


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