Anderson as a pet name is primarily a registry artifact — it's a common American surname that appears in pet licensing data at low counts almost certainly because it was entered as the owner's last name rather than the pet's given name. Thirty-two registrations across NYC and Seattle's datasets is consistent with this pattern of form-entry confusion rather than a deliberate naming trend.
The Surname Registry Problem
Municipal pet licensing forms consistently capture owner surnames in the pet name field at a rate that skews data for common American last names. Anderson is one of the top 10 most common surnames in the United States — which means it surfaces in almost every dataset that accepts free-text name entry without validation. This is a well-known data quality issue in city licensing records, not a reflection of actual pet naming behavior.
If Chosen Deliberately
Anderson does work as an intentional pet name in the surname-as-first-name tradition. The Anderson Cooper association gives it a specific aspirational quality — calm, authoritative, silver-haired dignity. For a large, composed dog with an air of quiet intelligence, Anderson is a reasonable choice. Weimaraners and Silver Labradors carry it with the right aesthetic. Compare Gibson and Watson for similar surname choices that skew intentional.
The Counter-Reading: Common Surnames Lose Distinctiveness
The problem with very common surnames as pet names is that they read more like a placeholder than a name. Anderson is so frequently encountered as a last name that it requires extra work to register as a pet's identity. Rarer surnames create more distinctive pet name experiences than the top-10 list provides.