Puppy Love

Austin's most popular dog names reflect a few of our favorite things

Brisket? Is that you?

Photo by Nicole Raney

Austinites are embracing their hipster image, at least when it comes to naming our dogs. Rover.com, the nation's largest network of pet sitters and dog walkers, dug through the hundreds of thousands of names in its database to come up with the nation's top 10 male and female dog names, as well as those you might hear being called at an Austin dog park.

Though human names are still skyrocketing in popularity — 28 percent of all monikers, in fact — and Austin's top 10 pretty much mirrors the nation's favorites for both male and female dogs, it's the more unusual names that help keep Austin weird.

Bowtie, for one. That's one of the "hipster" names that Rover attributes to Austin, along with Brewery and Sushi. We love our tech, too, as evidenced by the rise in the names Pixel, Mac, and Tesla.

But with junk food names on the rise nationally by 2 percent, our trend of naming our pups Brisket, Pickle, and Taco is right on point. Makes sense, since we love to take our four-legged pals along when we grab a bite.

Overall owners are still 28 percent more likely to name their furkids as if they were human children. The most popular male dog name in the nation is Max, followed by Charlie, Buddy, Cooper, and Jack (Austin keeps this top five intact, though there's some switching of placement). For female pups, Bella soars to No. 1, with Lucy, Daisy, Lola, and Luna close behind. Sub Sadie in for Luna, and you've got Austin's top five.

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Inspections and Registrations

Here's how Texas' new car inspection law affects end-of-year stickers

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This was supposed to make things simpler, but raises a few new questions in the transition.

Beginning January 1, 2025, Texas vehicle owners will no longer be required to obtain a safety inspection prior to vehicle registration.

House Bill 3297, passed during the 88th Legislature in 2023, abolishes the vehicle safety inspection program for regular cars and trucks. (The Department of Motor Vehicles notes that commercial vehicles will still be required to undergo safety inspections.)

Texas will now join the 36 other states in the U.S. that do not require safety inspections. This change means that car or truck owners will now take personal responsibility for making sure that what they drive doesn’t pose a danger to anyone inside or outside of the vehicle.

Texas State Sen. Mayes Middleton spoke for us all in May 2023 when he said that “vehicle inspections are costly, time consuming and provide little benefit to public safety."

Fees
Drivers will still have to pay the annual $7.50 safety inspection fee, under a new name: Inspection Program Replacement Fee, as part of the registration fee. Those registering a new car will pay a $16.75 Inspection Program Replacement Fee to cover the first two years.

Emissions
While the safety inspection is a thing of the past, emissions is not: 17 counties will still have to submit to emissions inspections prior to registration.

Emissions inspection tests are still required in these 17 counties:

Houston-Galveston area: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, and Montgomery counties
Dallas-Fort Worth area: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, and Tarrant counties
Austin area: Travis and Williamson counties
El Paso County

Slacker info
In a statement, Staff Sgt. Rob Mallory with the Texas Highway Patrol says that "if your inspection is expiring in the next couple of months, you still need to go down and get your state inspection done in order to renew your vehicle registration for another year."

And according to a representative from the DMV, you have five business days after your current sticker expires to get a new one. This refutes common urban legends such as "you have 10 days," "you have 30 days," and "you have 6 months."

However, let's say you're a slacker whose sticker expires in November or December, and you don't renew your registration until January. You could theoretically get away with not having to get an inspection. They won't make the safety inspection retroactive.

For non-slackers: Ensure your vehicle has passed an inspection no earlier than 90 days before renewal, and include a copy of the passing Vehicle Inspection Report (VIR) if it cannot be electronically verified. Plus a copy of current proof of insurance.

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