Chewy ranks #123 with 917 entries and is the kind of name that does double cultural duty. The Star Wars character Chewbacca is one anchor; the literal description of a puppy who chews everything is the other. Most owners who pick Chewy are doing both at once, and the name absorbs the overlap cleanly.
The Star Wars reading
Chewbacca debuted in Star Wars in 1977, and the diminutive Chewy has been in pet use since the 1980s. The name does well on shaggy, large-coated breeds where the visual reference to the character lands. Newfoundlands, Old English Sheepdogs, larger poodle doodles, and the heavy-coated working dogs all show up disproportionately in the Chewy entries. Owners who picked the name for a hairy, bear-like dog are usually channeling the character even when they do not say so.
The franchise's continuing relevance — the sequel trilogy (2015-2019), the spinoff films, and the Disney+ series — has kept the cultural reference fresh across multiple generations. Chewy is one of the few pet names that has survived three full waves of Star Wars revival and stayed current, and you can browse the broader cluster of pop-culture-derived names at pet-names.
The puppy-behavior reading
The descriptive use is the second register. Owners with shoe-destroying, table-leg-gnawing puppies sometimes pick Chewy as commentary on the early-stage chaos. This reading is less common than the Star Wars one but persistent enough to register in our data. The two readings stack — a shaggy puppy who chews things gets named Chewy almost automatically.
Sound and recall
Two syllables, stress on the front (CHOO-ee), with a soft Ch opener and a vowel-trailing tail. Recall performance is moderate. The Ch is gentle and the tail trails rather than punches, which limits distance carry. The name works fine for close-quarters affectionate use, less well for serious off-leash recall.
One counter-reading
Chewy is also a major American pet retail brand (Chewy.com, founded 2011), and a small fraction of owners avoid the name to dodge the corporate association. The brand awareness has grown enough that the connection is sometimes the first thing other people think of when they hear the dog's name. The human name page shows the name barely registers on SSA charts — this is a pet-and-character pick almost exclusively.