Meaning and background
The story behind Dougal
Dougal is the anglicised form of Scottish Gaelic Dubhghall, traditionally analysed as 'dark stranger' from elements for dark and foreigner. It was borne by medieval Scottish chiefs, giving it a firmer personal-name history than the similar-looking Douglas. These names should not be assigned the same translation merely because they share the first syllable. Dougal's two beats and strong initial d make it practical to call aloud.
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About Dougal
Recorded as a dog’s name
Dougal appears in 5 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
/duɡəl/
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
/duɡəl/ · primary stress on syllable 1D UW1 G AH0 L
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.