Sally ranks at #269 with 424 entries, and it is one of the most explicitly retro female names on the active pet chart. The name has been off the human top-1000 for years on the SSA chart, but it has held steady on pet charts as part of the broader vintage-name revival.
The retro-revival pattern
Sally clusters with Lucy, Molly, and Daisy in the warm-grandma register — names that sound like a 1950s diner waitress and land affectionately on family dogs. The Peanuts character (Charlie Brown's sister) and the Pixar Cars character have kept the name in low-key cultural rotation across multiple generations.
Sound and breed fit
The two-syllable shape (SAL-ee) is short, recall-friendly, and unmistakable across distance. Sally lands on small-to-medium female dogs at the highest rates: Beagles, Cocker Spaniels, Cavaliers, and small mixed breeds in particular. The name reads warmer on softer-faced breeds than on pointy or working types.
The Nightmare Before Christmas counter-reading
One reading worth flagging: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Sally pulls a younger, more goth-coded owner cluster for the same name. Black cats and dark-coated dogs wearing Sally often signal that reading specifically. The Sally baby name page shows the name peaked on the SSA chart in the 1930s-40s and has been declining steadily on baby charts since.