185+ Bird Names That Soar Above the Rest

Updated: Jan. 15, 2024

Bird names handwritten on an image of a pet bird

RD.com, Getty Images

Why do people say "for the birds" like it's a bad thing? All these bird names, which are very much for the birds, are absolutely adorable!

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but dogs love pretty much everyone. Birds, on the other hand, are monogamous creatures by nature, according to veterinarian and bird enthusiast Maria Baker, DVM. Accordingly, if you bring a pet bird home and treat it with love, you’re pretty much guaranteed to become the center of its universe. Now, the only question becomes what to name your adorable, loyal and highly intelligent little friend. Like all pet names, bird names matter—perhaps even more so.

Well, at least more so than fish names, hamster names and bunny names. Because unlike these other animals, birds are capable of acquiring human language, and some may even learn to use it meaningfully. Many birds not only recognize their name but also may learn to speak it aloud. And once they do, you may be hearing it on repeat, says parrot expert Amanda Strahle, founder of the subscription service Squawk Box. So you’ll want to make sure to choose a pet bird name that you won’t mind using and hearing—a lot.

To make it easy for you, we’ve rounded up nearly 200 of the best names for birds. To make it easier still, we’ve divided them into categories, from cute bird names to funny bird names and more. But first, here are some bird-naming tips you’ll want to keep in mind.

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What should you keep in mind when naming a bird?

“You can name your bird anything and they will learn it if you talk to them enough,” Strahle says. Like dolphins and chimps, birds are among the smartest animals. Actually, birds can operate at a cognitive level similar to 5-year-old humans. They can learn to identify colors, shapes, patterns and solve puzzles, as well as master tricks such as waving, dancing and spinning. Strahle’s own parrot, Bertrim, taught himself to whittle a back-scratcher out of a sliver of wood. Moreover, birds are capable of imitating human speech, and that includes recognizing and responding to their own name with a whistle, a head turn or a squawk.

There is some question, of course, as to quite how much birds understand language. “Many birds will turn their heads or stop what they are doing when they hear their name,” says Mustafa Tshash, founder of Howto-pets.com, but it may be that when they hear that particular sound, they associate it with good things happening, as opposed to understanding that it’s their name. On the other hand, Strahle points to research out of Harvard from the 1970s, in which an African Grey parrot by the name of Alex was observed to reliably identify more than 100 objects by name, suggesting that birds are capable of abstract thought. Alex could even pose questions to his handlers. In fact, that’s how Alex found out he was gray, as opposed to some other color.

And so, to get the ball rolling, let’s start with Alex, one of those bird names that happens to be cute, cool, historical and kind of funny, not to mention super appropriate for a gray bird.