Meaning and background
The story behind Mowgli
Mowgli was created by Rudyard Kipling for The Jungle Book and its sequel. Behind the Name identifies the character as a boy raised by wolves and explains an important distinction: frog is the meaning supplied inside the stories, while Kipling acknowledged inventing the name. The literary connection is therefore secure, but presenting frog as a verified translation from a real language would misstate the evidence.
- Origin
- Invented by Rudyard Kipling for The Jungle Book; the story's frog explanation is fictional rather than an established real-language meaning. Source
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Everyday moments“Mowgli, come here!”
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About Mowgli
Recorded as a dog’s name
Mowgli appears in 12 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.
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Sources and research notes (1)
- 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.
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.