Meaning and background
The story behind Wow
Wow is the short English exclamation of surprise, admiration or delight. It can also be a verb, as when a performance 'wows' an audience, and a noun for something impressive. Collins traces the exclamation's use to Scottish English in the sixteenth century. None of these senses is a claim that an actual dog is extraordinary. The name is unusually short on the page and in speech, while its meaning comes from everyday expressive vocabulary rather than a hereditary personal-name tradition.
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Everyday moments“Wow, come here!”
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About Wow
Recorded as a dog’s name
Wow appears in 3 dog licence records in the 2016 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
/waʊ/
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
/waʊ/ · primary stress on syllable 1W AW1
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 — all seven available extract years, retrieved 24 October 2026 — Recorded name spellings in NYC licence-period rows, extract years 2016–2018, 2022–2024 and 2026. Evidence selects one stated year per name. Annual snapshots overlap; never sum them as unique dogs. No national popularity, etymology or owner naming-intent claim.
- 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.