Jeremy ranks #3,399 in our pet name dataset with 24 pets — and the fact that it is also a well-established human name only adds to the specific comedy of hearing it called across a dog park.
From Hebrew Roots to Your Living Room
Jeremy is the English form of Jeremiah, from the Hebrew Yirmeyahu, meaning "God will exalt" or "appointed by God." Jeremiah was a major Hebrew prophet, and his name has traveled through Latin, Old French, and Middle English to arrive at the modern Jeremy — a name that carries those ancient roots so lightly that most people are surprised to hear them. As a human name, Jeremy peaked in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, making it a name with a particular generational profile today: the thirty-something Jeremy is a cultural type, whether that's Jeremy Renner or Jeremy Corbyn or the Pearl Jam song. See how owners are using this name on the Jeremy pet name page, and the human name context at Jeremy on our baby names page.
The Human Name as Pet Name
Giving pets human names — particularly human names that feel like they belong to a specific type of person — is a distinct naming tradition that has been gaining traction. When you name a dog Jeremy, you are layering the animal with an entire imagined human backstory. Jeremy feels like he probably has opinions about craft beer, watches sports with focused intensity, and is more sensitive than his exterior suggests. Whether your actual Jeremy the dog fits any of that is almost beside the point: the name carries the suggestion, and that gap between suggestion and reality is often funny and always warm. Jeremy works particularly well for Golden Retrievers with a slightly earnest, eager-to-please quality.
Who Names Their Pet Jeremy
Jeremy owners have a particular sense of humor about pet ownership — they like the idea of a pet with a fully human name, and they are drawn to names that create a slight cognitive dissonance. This is different from the ironic-vintage-name category (Herbert, Gerald): Jeremy is not dated enough to be funny on its own; the humor comes purely from the human specificity applied to an animal. If the fully-human-name-for-pet tradition resonates, Steven and Brian are in the same register.