Meaning and background
The story behind Heidi
Heidi is a German diminutive of Adelheid and is widely recognised through the Swiss children's novel by Johanna Spyri. Its history is therefore more specific than a vague claim about mountains or innocence. In English it is pronounced HIGH-dee, with two syllables. The famous fictional character is a cultural association, while the derivation from Adelheid is the actual linguistic family connection.
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About Heidi
Recorded as a dog’s name
Heidi appears in 45 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
/haɪdi/
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
/haɪdi/ · primary stress on syllable 1HH AY1 D IY0
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.