Finn lands at #106 with 967 entries and is one of the cleanest examples of an Irish-coded name making the full migration into mainstream American pet naming. Owners reach for Finn when they want a name that feels rooted and slightly outdoorsy without crossing into the Ranger or Scout register.
The Irish-name pool
Finn sits with Murphy, Riley, Rory, and Sully in a coherent Irish-name cluster. These names share a register: friendly, rugged, slightly working-class, almost always male in pet context even when the human version is gender-flexible. Finn concentrates on Labradors, golden retrievers, and active mixed breeds. The name almost never lands on a tiny lap dog, which is unusual at this rank.
One counter-reading worth flagging: Adventure Time ran from 2010 to 2018 with a protagonist named Finn, and the Star Wars sequel trilogy introduced another Finn in 2015. Both shows seeded the name into millennial and Gen Z consciousness during their pet-acquisition years. Most owners would not credit either source if asked, but the cultural lift is real.
The sound is short and sharp
Finn is a single syllable with a clean F-attack and a hard double-N landing. The phonetic structure is in the same recall family as Max, Rex, and Duke. Dogs distinguish it instantly from environmental noise, which makes it one of the few names where owners are unconsciously picking for both aesthetics and engineering.
The human Finn has climbed steadily on SSA charts since the late 2000s. The baby name page shows the trajectory.