Meaning and background
The story behind Waffles
Waffles can preserve a breakfast or kitchen memory in a dog's name. Merriam-Webster's waffle entry records the crisp cake baked in a waffle iron and separately unrelated verbal senses involving indecision or empty talk. The plural food form can be the owner's deliberate choice without implying all those meanings. The source documents the word, rather than a traditional personal-name origin or a claim about the dog's diet.
- Association
- Food-word association with crisp batter cakes baked in a patterned iron. Source
Try Waffles out loud
Everyday moments“Waffles, come here!”
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About Waffles
Recorded as a dog’s name
Waffles appears in 46 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
/wɑfəlz/
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
/wɑfəlz/ · primary stress on syllable 1W AA1 F AH0 L Z
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.