While American dog owners let creativity run wild, christening their pups everything from Pickles to Bark Twain, the French, true to form, have a rulebook. Since the early 20th century, pedigree dogs in France must be named according to an alphabetical system dictated by the year of birth.
Roya Fox, a Francophile and fluent French speaker, recently shared an Instagram reel exploring the quirky tradition, a post that has since racked up more than three million views and revealed a practice that many Americans had no idea existed.
The system for naming dogs in France, Fox explains, dates back to 1926 and was originally created to keep track of purebreds. For example, dogs born in 2025 must have names starting with the letter “W,” while 2024 was assigned the letter “V.”
Although letters are generally assigned in alphabetical order, certain letters — like K, Q, W, X,Y, and Z — are skipped because they are “too difficult,” and lesson common in French names, Fox notes in her video. The letter for 2026 is A, marking the start of a new cycle.
While the rule officially applies only to registered purebreds, many French dog owners with mixed breeds embrace it, too, as a source of cultural pride. Owners that don’t follow the rule are not allowed to register their purebred with the LOF (Livre des Origines Français), which is similar to the AKC (American Kennel Club.)
“It’s just fun to participate in the tradition,” Fox, 31, tells TODAY, adding that with rescues, some owners choose to use the letter assigned to the year their dog was adopted, rather than the year it was born.
She also notes that people often find creative workarounds when the assigned letter of the year doesn’t quite suit their pet’s name.
“I’ve heard stories, like let’s say the letter is V, but they want to name their dog Kemi, they’ll put a V before Kemi just to get around the paperwork,” Fox says. “Then they pretend the V doesn’t exist.”
“The year was T for our dog but we were set on Diego. For his papers he’s ‘The Diego’,” one person wrote in the comments.
- “My great aunt decided to name her dog Obergine instead of Aubergine because she needed an O name.”
- “Lol my bestie in Provence named her dog L-vis officially but his name is Elvis.”
- “Yup, 2024 was V, I named my dog Vito.”
- “French here. 2023 with U was a difficult year for dog owners. the french names beginning with u are few and weird most of the time. At the park we can hear a lot of ‘Uranus’ ‘Ulysse’ and ‘U2.’”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
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