Meimei (妹妹) is a Mandarin Chinese term meaning "little sister" — one of the most common terms of endearment used for younger sisters, girl-next-door figures, and small, sweet female animals. On a female pet, it signals a Chinese-speaking household giving a pet a name that functions as an affectionate descriptor rather than a proper name.
The Chinese Term of Endearment Naming Pattern
Chinese pet owners frequently use terms of endearment as pet names, particularly for small female dogs: Meimei (little sister), Baobao (baby), and similar affectionate descriptors. These names appear in pet registries because they're what owners actually call their animals, even though they function grammatically as titles rather than proper names.
Cultural Context
In Mandarin-speaking households, calling a female dog Meimei is as natural as calling a male dog Buddy in English — it's a term that implies affection and smallness without being a formal name. The appearance of Meimei in the registry at 40 registrations reflects a community of Chinese-speaking pet owners participating in formal licensing, likely concentrated in cities with large Chinese-American populations.
The Counter-Reading: Lost in Translation
Outside Chinese-speaking communities, Meimei reads as a proper name — exotic-sounding, with the doubled syllable pattern that appears across East Asian naming. The cultural context that makes it an everyday term of endearment becomes invisible, and it functions simply as a distinctive female pet name for any observer who doesn't know the source language.