Is Moxie a good pet name?

Moxie is a well-known pet name with 234 registered pets. Pets named Moxie are often described as bold, fearless, spirited.

Is Moxie a boy or girl pet name?

Moxie is more commonly given to female pets, though it can be used for any pet.

Moxie: Popular Pet Name — Meaning & Trends

Meaning & Story

Moxie is an American English word meaning nerve, courage, or audacious spirit — the kind of boldness that does not back down. Its origins are somewhat uncertain, but it was associated with a nineteenth-century patented medicine called Moxie, one of the earliest mass-marketed soft drinks in America, later used as slang for guts and pluck. As a pet name, Moxie is a direct declaration: this companion has genuine spirit and is not shy about it.

Moxie is for the pet who came out of the whelping box already running the show. This is a name for genuine bold personalities — companions who have a strong sense of self, who meet new situations without hesitation, and who tend to make other pets look a little underprepared by comparison. There is a wonderful American scrappiness to Moxie that suits a small companion with a massive personality, though it works equally well for any pet who proves daily that size and boldness are entirely unrelated. If your companion has serious nerve, Moxie is theirs.

About the Pet Name Moxie

By Ivy Hung·May 5, 2026·1 min read

Moxie ranks #530 with 234 entries, registered female. The name comes from the early American soft drink Moxie (introduced 1876), which evolved into a noun meaning "nerve" or "spunk" by the 1930s. As a pet name it is doing one job — labeling a small dog or cat with too much personality for its size.

The personality-name register

Moxie clusters with Sassy, Spunky, Feisty, and Bossy in the personality-trait-as-name pet-naming cohort. Owners reaching for these names are usually responding to a specific behavioral signal — the pet is small but has commanding energy, and the name codifies the contradiction.

Breed lean and sound fit

Two syllables (MOK-see), front-stressed, with a sharp middle consonant cluster that recall cuts through cleanly. Moxie lands disproportionately on small-but-spirited breeds — Chihuahuas, miniature Dachshunds, terrier mixes, Boston Terriers, and tortoiseshell cats. The breed pattern is unusually consistent because the name is so behaviorally specific.

The Jolie-Pitt counter-reading

A subset of owners reach Moxie through Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette (Penn Jillette's daughter, born 2005) or other celebrity-baby Moxie picks that introduced the name to broader rotation. The reading is real but quieter than the spunk-personality baseline. The Moxie baby name page shows minimal SSA presence, confirming the name lives mostly in pet-naming.

Owners reaching for Moxie almost always have a story about the pet's specific antics that justified the name. The naming move is rarely arbitrary; it is responsive to actual behavior the owner is trying to honor.