Shorty ranks #834 with 141 male registrations. The name is pure descriptor pet aesthetic: a small dog whose owners labeled the most visible feature on day one and committed to the diminutive as the formal license name.
The descriptor tradition
Shorty sits in the long American pet-naming tradition of physical-feature names: Boots, Spot, Tiny, Patches, Whiskers. Each one names something the owner saw before knowing the personality. Shorty lands disproportionately on the predictably small breeds: chihuahuas, dachshunds, miniature pinschers, and corgi mixes whose stubby-legged shape made the name self-selecting. See dachshund names for the cluster fit.
Sound and call-name fit
Two syllables, front-stressed (SHOR-tee), with a soft sh- opening and a friendly -y close. The name calls warmly outdoors and tolerates the affectionate household register. Shorty also pulls a hip-hop-vernacular layer (the slang term for a younger or smaller person) that lands on dogs in households where that musical affinity is part of the household identity.
The counter-reading
The honest concern is that descriptor names age awkwardly when context shifts. A small puppy named Shorty makes immediate sense; the same dog at age twelve, having grown into average-medium size or having long outlived the original logic, may carry the name slightly free of its origin. Households who want the small-dog register with less literal labeling might consider Peanut or Tiny. The human Shorty page shows zero SSA presence.