Laika ranks at #577 with 213 entries, registered female. The name carries one of the most specific cultural anchors on the entire pet chart: Laika the Soviet space dog, launched on Sputnik 2 in November 1957, the first living being to orbit Earth. Owners reaching for Laika are almost always invoking that history deliberately.
The space-dog lineage
The historical Laika was a Moscow stray, partly Husky, who did not survive the mission. The name has carried a complicated mix of pride and grief in Soviet and post-Soviet culture for nearly seven decades, and it has migrated into American pet-naming as a deliberate tribute. Owners picking Laika are usually science-curious, history-aware, and comfortable with a name that carries weight.
Breed lean
The name lands disproportionately on Husky-type and Northern-spitz breeds — Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, Samoyeds, and Husky mixes — partly because the historical Laika was likely part-Husky, and partly because the cohort of owners who know the story tend to have a specific aesthetic preference.
The Russian-language layer
In Russian, laika (лайка) is a general term for a Northern hunting-dog type rather than a personal name. The Soviet space program borrowed the breed-type word for the dog, and American owners borrowed it back as a proper name. The human Laika page shows minimal SSA presence; pet Laika owns the cultural space entirely.