Meaning and background
The story behind Yoda
Yoda has a deliberately created fictional name in Behind the Name’s reference. The entry identifies the small green Star Wars character, first appearing in The Empire Strikes Back in 1980, and says George Lucas devised the name for its sound without a meaning. A dog’s name can therefore be a clear film tribute. Supplying a confident translation from another language would go beyond the checked account of the character’s creation.
- Association
- Star Wars character name devised by George Lucas for its sound, without a stated meaning. Source
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About Yoda
Recorded as a dog’s name
Yoda appears in 34 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
/joʊdə/
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
/joʊdə/ · primary stress on syllable 1Y OW1 D AH0
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.