Meaning and background
The story behind Ghost
Ghost is the ordinary English word for a spirit, particularly one thought to appear after death. Its history stretches back to Old English gāst, a word with a wider range of spiritual meanings. Used for a dog, the modern association may be a pale coat, a playful mystery theme or simply the word's sound. None of those individual naming motives follows automatically from the etymology.
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Everyday moments“Ghost, come here!”
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About Ghost
Recorded as a dog’s name
Ghost appears in 50 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
/ɡoʊst/
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
/ɡoʊst/ · primary stress on syllable 1G OW1 S T
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- 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.