Meaning and background
The story behind Houdini
Houdini is the adopted stage name of the celebrated escape artist Harry Houdini, born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874. The Library of Congress records that he chose it to pay tribute to the French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin. That makes it a documented artistic name rather than an ancient word meaning 'escape'. Its three syllables have a familiar rhythm; the association with escaping is biographical, not a literal translation of the surname.
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About Houdini
Recorded as a dog’s name
Houdini appears in 6 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
/hudini/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the second syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/hudini/ · primary stress on syllable 2HH UW0 D IY1 N 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.