Meaning and background
The story behind Pug
Pug has an obvious dog-breed association in Merriam-Webster, which describes the compact build, short muzzle, wrinkled face and curled tail. The same spelling also occurs in unrelated word senses involving a hair coil or working wet clay. A dog called Pug may be named for the breed, but its name alone does not establish its breed. The checked reference supplies vocabulary associations rather than an independent personal-name etymology.
- Association
- Dog-breed word; the same English spelling also has separate hair and wet-clay senses. Source
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About Pug
Recorded as a dog’s name
Pug appears in 8 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
/pʌɡ/
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
/pʌɡ/ · primary stress on syllable 1P AH1 G
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.