Meaning and background
The story behind Lyra
Lyra is the name of a northern constellation containing Vega, and its outline is traditionally associated with a lyre. It also belongs to Lyra Belacqua, the heroine of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials books. Two English pronunciations are recorded, roughly “LIE-ruh” and “LIR-uh”, so the household may wish to settle on one. Both the astronomical and literary associations are documented; an invented personality meaning is unnecessary.
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About Lyra
Recorded as a dog’s name
Lyra appears in 22 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
/laɪɹə/
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
/laɪɹə/ · primary stress on syllable 1L AY1 R AH0
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.