Meaning and background
The story behind Sesame
Sesame is the name of a flowering plant cultivated for its edible oil-rich seeds. The word is encountered in cooking as sesame seeds and sesame oil, and it also features in the familiar phrase “open sesame”. Those associations are recognisable without suggesting the dog was named for a food preference or a particular story. Sesame has three light syllables and a firmly documented botanical meaning.
- Meaning
- A cultivated plant whose seeds are eaten and pressed for oil. Source
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About Sesame
Recorded as a dog’s name
Sesame appears in 17 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
/sɛsəmi/
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
/sɛsəmi/ · primary stress on syllable 1S EH1 S AH0 M 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.