Fiona ranks at #173 with 589 entries, and the name carries an interesting layered cultural inheritance: a literary 18th-century Scottish coinage, the Shrek princess from 2001, and the Cincinnati Zoo hippo who became a 2017 internet phenomenon. Pet Fionas can plausibly trace to any of the three.
The Fiona-the-hippo bump
Fiona the hippopotamus, born premature at the Cincinnati Zoo in January 2017, became one of the most-followed individual animals on social media that year. Pet adoption Fionas in the 2017-2020 window over-index relative to surrounding cohorts, which suggests the name picked up direct cultural momentum from her popularity. That kind of single-animal lift is rare and usually fades within a few years; Fiona's lift has held longer than most.
One counter-reading: the Shrek Princess Fiona remains a stronger and longer-running anchor for owners with kids in the 2001-onward window. Princess Fiona was an ogre, which fits the slightly off-beat register that owners who pick this name often want. The same off-beat-but-warm register applies to Penny and Luna.
Sound and breed fit
The three-syllable shape (fee-OH-na) is unusually long for a top-200 pet name, and the open vowels carry well outdoors despite the length. Fiona lands across small companions, retrievers, and mid-sized mixed breeds at near-average rates, with a slight bias toward female puppies whose owners want something more substantive than the typical -y-ending diminutive cluster. The Fiona baby name page shows the human chart, where it has held a steady SSA top-300 spot since 2002 and shows no sign of fading. Owners cross-shopping similar three-syllable female names usually consider Penelope alongside Fiona before settling.