Why do so many French pet names start with the same letter?

Reader Question: I've been told pet owners in France are supposed to choose pet names starting with a particular letter each year - is it true? I brought my dog with me from the UK so he has the name I chose for him originally 

This is a French cultural phenomenon stretching back almost a century, and applying to both cats and dogs.

It is not mandatory for all pets, but many French pet owners take part in the practice, allowing the age of an animal to be immediately identifiable.

History of lettered naming

The Livre des Origines Françaises (LOF) - France's pedigree catalogue - was created in 1885 to register pure breed dogs in the country. 

Tracing the animals was difficult however, as dogs were not initially added in chronological order, and the issue was only made more difficult when the offspring of pets started to be listed.

To ease issues, in 1926 the kennel club (Centrale Canine) required that all dogs born in a certain year that breeders wanted to be registered had to have a name starting with a certain letter. 

This made it easier to know information about an animal at a glance on the register, and for those looking to purchase an animal to find information about both it and its parents.

Cats registered with the Livre Officiel des Origines Félines (LOOF, the governing body for pedigree cat breeds in France) follow the same system.

The calendar is aligned with the canine equivalent, meaning the age of any pure breed cat or dog can be identified with the system.

20-year cycle

The letter used for naming conventions changes annually on January 1. 

Due to the lack of names for certain letters – some breeders see more than 10 animals in a litter – some years skip or combine several letters to increase the pool of possible names. 

For example, for cats born in 2024, names beginning with V, W, X, Y, or Z were accepted, and in 2019 both P and Q names were permitted.

For dogs, however, the system is stricter: in 2024 only names beginning with V were authorised, followed by A in 2025, meaning the letters in between were skipped rather than grouped together.

The cycle takes 20 years to go through the alphabet, and in 2026 the letter ‘B’ is being used following a 2025 reset with the letter ‘A’.

Note that in neighbouring Francophone countries Belgium and Luxembourg where the practice is also used, no letters are clumped together meaning the lists no longer align alphabetically. 

In 2026, Belgium is on the letter Z for dogs and Luxembourg X.

Officially, an animal only needs to have a name beginning with the associated annual letter if its owner wants to register it with either the LOF or LOOF, mostly used by professional breeders.

There are some other naming rules, for example names of animals from the same litter should not be too similar (dogs cannot be called Claude I, Claude II, etc or Choco and Chocolate).

Otherwise, the choice of names is broad and names can be based on everything from literature and historical figures to names from other countries, modern films, or even food. 

If someone buys a pedigree puppy it may already have been registered and named by the breeder, but the new owner can give it another name to use in daily life if they prefer, which could be an abbreviation or even something completely different. 

However, if you are in close contact with a breeder and discuss the issue soon after the puppy is born, you can have a say in the choice. 

This convention is not a requirement for general pets, unlike the I-CAD pet database which is mandatory for all cats, dogs, and ferrets in France.

However, the naming convention quickly took hold in French public consciousness, and is now used by pet owners of all types including for rescues, mongrels, orphaned pets and even those from other species.

Not all pet owners use the convention and some pick a name simply because they like it.