Meaning and background
The story behind Chicken
Chicken began as an English term for a young domestic bird, reaching back to Old English cicen. In present usage it can name the bird generally, its meat or, in a separate informal sense, someone described as cowardly. Those are dictionary senses, not judgments about a dog given the name. Chicken works as an unconventional pet name chiefly through its familiar farmyard and food associations, with two ordinary English syllables.
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Everyday moments“Chicken, come here!”
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About Chicken
Recorded as a dog’s name
Chicken appears in 19 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
/tʃɪkən/
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
/tʃɪkən/ · primary stress on syllable 1CH IH1 K AH0 N
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.