Rusty sits at #98 with 1,007 entries and is one of the most descriptively literal names in the rankings. Owners pick Rusty because the dog is, in fact, rust-colored. Reddish goldens, Vizslas, Irish setters, and the warmer-toned mixed breeds dominate the entries. The name is doing exactly what it looks like it is doing.
The color-name family
Rusty belongs to a small cluster of color-descriptive pet names: Ginger, Copper, Red, Shadow, Smokey. These names rarely cross the size or breed boundaries the way Luna does. Color names live and die by visual fit. A Rusty that is gray or black is fighting the name for its whole life, so owners self-select hard. The breed concentration on red-coated dogs is correspondingly tight.
One counter-reading: Rusty also reads as a slightly dated all-American dog name, the kind of name that shows up in 1960s sitcoms and farm-dog photographs. Younger owners sometimes pick it as a deliberate retro signal rather than for color reasons, and that subset is growing.
The sound mostly works
Two syllables, stress on the front (RUS-tee), with a clean ST consonant cluster in the middle. The structure is solid for recall. The diminutive -y ending is the same softening device that turns Buddy and Benny into affectionate names rather than formal ones, and Rusty inherits that texture. Owners who want the same warmth without the color constraint usually end up at Buddy instead.
Almost no human crossover
Rusty barely appears on SSA baby-name charts. It functions almost exclusively as a nickname for Russell or as a pet name. That makes it a pure pet pick — there is no parallel human trend pulling the name in either direction. The human name page confirms how thin the human side is.