Felix ranks #419 with 297 entries, registered male. The name comes from Latin felix (happy, lucky, fortunate), and it carries a specifically cat-coded register in American pet-naming because of Felix the Cat, the silent-film-era animated character first appearing in 1919.
The Felix the Cat lineage
Felix the Cat predates Mickey Mouse by nearly a decade and remains one of the most recognizable cartoon cats in American pop culture. The associative pull is so strong that owners picking Felix for a dog often feel they are making a deliberate cross-species choice. The name reads black, mischievous, and slightly trickster-coded by default.
Breed and species lean
Felix lands disproportionately on cats, particularly black cats and tuxedos where the visual matches the Felix the Cat reference directly. Among dogs, the name skews toward smaller, smart breeds — Dachshunds, Mini Schnauzers, Cocker Spaniels, and small mixed breeds. The Latin meaning gives the name room to read warmly even on dogs without the cat reference.
The catholic-saint counter-reading
Worth flagging: Felix is also a major Catholic saint name with multiple Pope Felixes through history, and a smaller cluster of owners reach the name through that more reverent door. The two readings — playful cartoon cat and serious saint — coexist without conflict because the underlying meaning (happy, lucky) supports both. The human Felix page shows the name climbing strongly on the SSA chart through the 2010s and 2020s, with parents reaching for the same vintage-Latin register that pet owners pick.