Meaning and background
The story behind Paisley
Paisley brings together a Scottish place-name history and a famous textile association. As a surname it refers to the town of Paisley near Glasgow; the familiar curved fabric motif became identified with that town through manufacture, although its designs have deeper South Asian roots. Even the town name's oldest etymology is not entirely settled. It makes a recognisable two-syllable dog name without requiring an invented personal-name meaning.
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About Paisley
Recorded as a dog’s name
Paisley appears in 28 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
/peɪzli/
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
/peɪzli/ · primary stress on syllable 1P EY1 Z L IY0
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.