Reagan appears 62 times at rank 1657 on female pets. It's an Irish surname that became an American given name through presidential association, then crossed into female naming territory in the 2000s as gender-neutral surname style grew. The pet registry's female skew here is consistent with that trajectory.
The Presidential-Surname-to-Female-Name Arc
Reagan followed a naming path taken by other presidential surnames: Monroe, Kennedy, Lincoln. The female shift is more pronounced for Reagan than most. The name read as male via the presidential association and then pivoted cleanly into a gender-neutral zone that now skews female in both human and pet naming. It sits alongside Riley and Avery in the female-surname style. The human-name trend is at /names/reagan.
Sound and Breed Fit
RAY-gen is two syllables, clean and confident. The name calls without effort and projects a certain purposefulness. It suits female dogs with a sporty, self-assured quality: Australian Shepherds, Vizslas, and mixed breeds with a driven, athletic personality.
The Counter-Reading
Reagan's presidential association will occasionally come up in conversation. For most owners who choose it, the appeal is the sound and the surname style rather than the history, and both of those hold up regardless of political context.