Meaning and background
The story behind Berkeley
Berkeley is an English place-derived surname, associated with localities including Berkeley in Gloucestershire. Its older place-name elements refer to birch trees and a woodland clearing. The spelling is sometimes familiar as a university or Californian city name, but the historical surname comes from English geography. In a dog’s name, the three written syllables give it a rather formal appearance.
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About Berkeley
Recorded as a dog’s name
Berkeley appears in 3 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/bɝkli/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/bɝkli/ · primary stress on syllable 1B ER1 K L IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.