Meaning and background
The story behind Snowball
Snowball has an immediately recognisable winter meaning: a compact, rounded mass of snow. The word also serves as a verb for something that grows rapidly, but that figurative sense is separate from the object itself. On a dog, the name might suggest a fluffy white coat, a favourite season or simply a joke. None of those personal reasons can be proved from the name alone.
- Meaning
- A rounded mass of pressed or rolled snow; also a verb for increasing rapidly. Source
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Everyday moments“Snowball, come here!”
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About Snowball
Recorded as a dog’s name
Snowball appears in 37 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
/snoʊbɔl/
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
/snoʊbɔl/ · primary stress on syllable 1S N OW1 B AO2 L
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.