Indy ranks at #644 with 191 entries, registered as gender-neutral on this chart. The name is short, unisex, and pop-culture-anchored, with the Indiana Jones overlay doing most of the heavy cultural lifting on a dog or cat registry.
The Indiana Jones effect
The dominant reading is Indiana Jones, the adventurer-archaeologist character introduced in the 1981 Steven Spielberg film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Notably, the character himself is named after Indiana the dog (revealed in The Last Crusade in 1989), which makes Indy a direct full-circle pet name: a dog named after a fictional human archaeologist who was named after a fictional dog. Owners often know the trivia and lean into it.
The other readings
Smaller cohorts arrive at Indy through other routes. The Indianapolis 500 motorsport register pulls Indianapolis residents and racing-fan households. The shortened form of Independence pulls a smaller patriotic cohort, particularly for dogs adopted around July 4. And Indy as a literal short form of Indiana the place pulls a Hoosier-state cohort. None dominates the way the Jones overlay does.
Sound and breed lean
Two syllables, front-stressed (IN-dee), with a soft opening and clean ending. The name recalls cleanly. It lands disproportionately on adventurous medium breeds where the explorer register clicks: Golden Retrievers, Labradors, Border Collies, and active mixed-breeds. The human Indy page shows minimal SSA presence; pet Indy owns the cultural space without competition. Browse the broader pet name index for adjacent unisex picks.