Meaning and background
The story behind Irving
Irving has a Scottish surname route through the town and River Irvine, with a recorded green-water explanation. The reference also describes a distinct Jewish naming practice in which Irving served as an American-sounding alternative to Hebrew names beginning with I. Those histories should not be merged into one origin. Songwriter Irving Berlin provides a documented musical namesake. For a dog, a family, place or music connection may be the real reason for the choice, and that context is more useful than the spelling alone.
- Origin
- Scottish surname-derived name associated with Irvine and its river; also used as an American-sounding form of several Hebrew names. Source
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About Irving
Recorded as a dog’s name
Irving appears in 4 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
/ɝvɪŋ/
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
/ɝvɪŋ/ · primary stress on syllable 1ER1 V IH0 NG
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.