Meaning and background
The story behind Luther
Luther came into English given-name use from a German surname derived from the older personal name Leuthar. It is particularly associated with the reformer Martin Luther, and later with American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. The British pronunciation begins “LOO” and has a soft th sound. That is a much firmer history than assigning it an invented one-word dictionary meaning.
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About Luther
Recorded as a dog’s name
Luther appears in 10 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
/luθɚ/
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
/luθɚ/ · primary stress on syllable 1L UW1 TH ER0
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.