Rocket ranks at #275 with 414 entries, and it is one of the cleanest examples of the action-noun-as-name pattern in pet naming. Owners pick Rocket because the dog goes fast and they want a name that says so on contact.
The descriptor-name tradition
Rocket clusters with Dash, Bolt, Turbo, and Zoom in the speed-personality register. These are names where the meaning is the joke, and owners pick them after watching the puppy zoomies and deciding the descriptor sticks. The pattern is straightforward and consistently delivers the desired effect.
Sound and breed fit
The two-syllable shape (ROK-it) has crisp hard consonants on both ends and projects with unusual carrying power. Rocket lands on high-energy breeds at much higher rates than calm ones: Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, Whippets, Greyhounds, and athletic mixed breeds in particular. The visual fit matters — Rocket on a Basset Hound reads ironic in a way that Rocket on a sighthound does not.
The Guardians of the Galaxy counter-reading
One reading worth flagging: Marvel's Rocket Raccoon (2014 onwards) gave the name a separate generational pull, and some Rocket owners came to it via that character rather than the speed reading. The two reads coexist comfortably. The Rocket baby name page shows the name has occasionally appeared on the SSA chart at the very edge — almost always as a pet-name-coded human pick rather than a traditional given name.