Meaning and background
The story behind Petit
Petit is the French masculine adjective for 'small' or 'little'. As a dog name, it has a literal word meaning rather than an established personal-name etymology. It is particularly apt as a gently ironic name for a large dog, although the French pronunciation may not be immediately obvious to every English speaker.
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About Petit
Recorded as a dog’s name
Petit appears in 3 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
/pɛti/
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
/pɛti/ · primary stress on syllable 1P EH1 T 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.