Meaning and background
The story behind Merry
Merry is an established English adjective for being happy and cheerful, with roots in Old English myrige. It is familiar from seasonal greetings and the phrase “make merry”, rather than requiring an invented personal-name history. The word can also mean slightly tipsy in informal British speech, an additional sense worth acknowledging. As a dog name it is short and unmistakable when spoken, whatever occasion prompted the choice.
- Meaning
- English adjective meaning happy and cheerful; in informal British English, sometimes slightly drunk. Source
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Everyday moments“Merry, come here!”
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About Merry
Recorded as a dog’s name
Merry 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
/mɛɹi/
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
/mɛɹi/ · primary stress on syllable 1M EH1 R 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.