Meaning and background
The story behind Mabel
Mabel is a medieval English form of Amabilis, a Latin personal name meaning “lovable”. It was used in the Middle Ages, became uncommon for several centuries and was revived in the nineteenth century. Its pronunciation is the familiar “MAY-bəl”. This gives Mabel a genuine affectionate meaning derived through a personal-name lineage, rather than a meaning invented because it sounds sweet on a dog.
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About Mabel
Recorded as a dog’s name
Mabel appears in 103 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
/meɪbəl/
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
/meɪbəl/ · primary stress on syllable 1M EY1 B AH0 L
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.