Papi ranks at #613 with 201 entries, registered male. The name is a Spanish-language affection term (literally "daddy," used as a casual term of endearment in Latin American Spanish) that crosses cleanly onto small confident dogs. Papi-the-dog is usually the dog who walks in like he owns the room, regardless of size.
The 2008 Beverly Hills Chihuahua effect
For a meaningful cohort of owners, Papi carries the overlay of the 2008 Disney film Beverly Hills Chihuahua, in which Papi is a charismatic Chihuahua voiced by George Lopez. The film moved the name into broader American pet-naming visibility and tied it firmly to the Chihuahua breed in the popular imagination. The naming wave it triggered has held, and Papi remains a Chihuahua-coded pick.
Owner-type and breed lean
The name lands disproportionately on Chihuahuas, miniature Pinschers, and other small bold-attitude breeds. Owners frequently come from Latin American and Latinx households where Papi as a casual affection word is part of everyday vocabulary, and the name carries family-language warmth rather than the meme register it sometimes lands in elsewhere.
The counter-reading
The honest concern with Papi is the cultural-borrowing question for non-Latinx owners. The word carries specific in-language affection register, and some Spanish-speaking observers find non-Latino owners using Papi on a Chihuahua to be reductive. The name also sits in a small phonetic family that includes Poppy, Peppi, and Pepe, with overlap risk in mixed-dog households. The human Papi page shows minimal SSA presence; pet Papi owns the cultural space.