Wally ranks at #188 with 570 entries, and the name has worked the same lane for nearly a century: an everydog name with built-in warmth, usually a diminutive of Walter, sometimes standalone, almost never trying to be cool. Wally is the dog you bring to a backyard barbecue and everyone knows by the end.
The diminutive-as-given pattern
Wally sits in the same diminutive-as-call-name family as Charlie, Ollie, and Alfie. The -ee ending and the soft consonant give the name a permanent friendly register that pet owners reach for when they want approachability over distinctiveness. Many pet Wallys are formally named Walter, with Wally as the everyday call name. The Walter pet leaderboard sits a few ranks lower.
One counter-reading: Where's Waldo? (known as Where's Wally? in the UK and elsewhere) and the Pixar 2008 film WALL-E are both real cultural anchors but neither dominates. The Where's Waldo connection works particularly well for pets that are skinny, tall, or photographed often, where the name carries a visual joke that the owner appreciates even if no one else gets it.
Where the name lands by breed
Beagles, Spaniels, Cavaliers, and friendly mid-sized mixed breeds over-index on Wally. The two-syllable shape (WAH-lee) recalls cleanly and projects without sounding harsh, which fits the laid-back-companion register the name lives in. The name almost never appears on the SSA baby chart, which keeps the pet-naming slot clear and uncomplicated. Owners who pick Wally are usually working a friendly-everydog instinct rather than chasing trends, and the name's stability across cohorts reflects that durability over multiple generations of pet adoption and household use.