Looks like pet owners these days are calling their dogs and cats by people names -- or at least those for which they're buying health insurance. (Perhaps those feel more like people anyway?)

Veterinary Pet Insurance, the nation's largest and oldest provider of pet insurance, searched more than 466,000 insured pet records at the end of 2008 to locate the most popular name selections.

As it turned out, Max topped both lists, and Bella and Chloe appear especially species-neutral.

Dogs

1. Max
2. Bailey
3. Bella
4. Molly
5. Lucy
6. Buddy
7. Maggie
8. Daisy
9. Sophie
10. Chloe

Cats

1. Max
2. Chloe
3. Tigger
4. Tiger
5. Lucy
6. Smokey
7. Oliver
8. Bella
9. Shadow
10. Charlie

I knew a black lab named Maxwell as a kid. I still think it's a classy name.

-- Sandra M. Klepach, SKlepach@News-Herald.com