Meaning and background
The story behind Yoyo
Yoyo is an exact French dictionary spelling for the familiar toy that runs down and back up a wound string. The Académie française describes its paired circular pieces and axle, and traces the word's entry into French to a trademark in the twentieth century. It also records figurative use for repeated rises and falls. These are concrete toy and movement associations, rather than evidence for a traditional personal-name etymology.
- Association
- French toy-word association: yoyo is the dictionary spelling for a string-operated toy that moves down and up. Source
Try Yoyo out loud
Everyday moments“Yoyo, come here!”
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About Yoyo
Recorded as a dog’s name
Yoyo appears in 8 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
/joʊjoʊ/
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
/joʊjoʊ/ · primary stress on syllable 1Y OW1 Y OW0
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.