Second of two parts

Try yelling Bella at a group of dogs and, well, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.

Calling out Bella five to 10 years ago might have produced a woof here and there from a dog recognizing her name.

Today, it's likely to lead to a barking canine chorus.

It seems the "Twilight" saga has taken hold of dogs as well as vampires.

In recent years, more dogs have been given the name Bella than any other in the Buffalo Niagara region as well as much of New York State. By recent, we mean since the "Twilight" series hit the bookshelves, and then the movie theaters, telling the story of beautiful Bella's love for Edward the vampire.

"I loved the movie. Edward is drop-dead gorgeous," said dog owner Sharon Bardo of Cheektowaga. "I wanted a female dog so I could name it Bella."

Not that every Bella is in love with Edward.

"We didn't name her; we rescued her when she was 1 year old, and the original owner had named her Cabella, after the [Cabela's] catalog for hunting supplies," said Lillian Botham of the City of Tonawanda, whose Bella is an English springer spaniel hunting dog.

"We dropped the CA. Cabella is not a ladylike name. We just call her Bella," Botham said.

The recent trend in dog naming is among the bits of dog trivia gleaned from a database that The Buffalo News obtained from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, listing all 533,438 licensed dogs in New York State, outside of New York City.

The database offers a lot of information on our dogs. It reveals a lot about our dog owners and communities as well.

What's our favorite breed among the 83,262 licensed dogs in Erie and Niagara counties?

We're a melting pot, so we're partial to the basic mixed-breed mutt.

After that, it's the family-friendly, childproof Labrador retriever -- black labs, in particular. And the most common name for a black lab? Shadow, of course.

The next most popular purebred is the golden retriever -- most often called Bailey.

But enough about the big dogs.

Partial to little foo-foos?

Then, statistically, there's a good chance you live in the Town of Lancaster with a Shih Tzu named Gizmo or Buddy.

Beagles more your type? Try Colden, the per-capita beagle capital of Erie County.

If a cockapoo is more your style, you will feel right at home in Cheektowaga, which has 44 licensed cockapoos -- a cross between a cocker spaniel and poodle.

"A dog of outstanding intelligence, wonderful disposition, abounding affection, low- to no-shedding or 'doggy' odor, easily trained and long lived," says the North American Cockapoo Registry.

More interested in security than cuddles? Sloan is among the few communities where Rottweilers outnumber golden retrievers.

And with 167 licensed purebred pit bulls, Buffalo boasts 71 percent of licensed American pit bull terriers in Erie County. The Buffalo pit bulls are more likely to be male than female; and they are, on average, 3 years old. There is no one dominant name for these city dogs, which answer to such monikers as Brooklyn, Angel, Gucci and Zeus.

The database lists 10,993 different names for the 65,270 licensed dogs in Erie County and 4,791 different names for the 17,992 in Niagara County.

Bella is the most popular name for female dogs born in recent years, but Molly and Maggie remain most popular among all female dogs in Erie and Niagara counties.

That's because the Bella trend didn't take hold until 2006. Before that, Molly and Maggie dominated the most popular female dog list in just about every year going back to at least 2000.

Among male dogs, the most popular name has been Max or Buddy for each year of the past decade. Sorry, Edward the vampire. You didn't make the dog-name cut.

But "Twilight"-inspired Bella is clearly top dog.

The first book in the "Twilight" series was published in 2005. The first movie came out in 2008.

Of the licensed dogs born in 2003 throughout New York State, outside of New York City, 240 were named Bella. Of those born in 2008, the number of Bellas jumped to 633.

It's a similar pattern in Erie and Niagara counties. While 61 licensed dogs born in 2002 in the two counties were named Bella, the number jumped to 100 in 2006 and to 121 in 2008.

In 2009, there were 95 Bellas.

That was the year "Twilight" fan Sharon Bardo asked her husband for a female dog she could name Bella. But he came home with a male instead.

Bardo considered naming the Pomeranian pup Edward. But when the dog sat down, he looked like a tiny bear. Hence, his name. Bear.

Not long after that, Bardo got a second puppy Ô a female Pomeranian. "I started calling it Bella right away," she said.

Now that's a Bella that can truly trace her "Twilight" roots.

We're not sure about Christine DiPasquale's 2-year-old cockapoo.

"When she was a puppy we couldn't agree on a name," DiPasquale, of Buffalo, said. "My husband went to a doctor's appointment with me, and when he came in with the dog, the two ladies behind the receptionist desk asked her name."

DiPasquale told them she couldn't come up with a name for the cockapoo.

"Call her Bella," one of the receptionists said. They did.

Was this advice from a "Twilight" fan? "That's very possible," DiPasquale said.

It's even possible the popularity of Bella influenced people who don't think their dogs are named for the movie. Consider, for example, the Caprio family of Akron, who named their golden retriever Bella.

Why? "We really don't have a reason," Cheree Caprio said, adding: "It's not at all because of 'Twilight.' We've never been into it."

She said the main criterion in choosing a name was that it could not end with a "Y" sound in order to avoid confusion between the golden retriever and Mindy, the Caprio's last dog, a beagle shepherd that had died.

Caprio's husband suggested Bella. The couple talked about how some of their friends have daughters named Isabella who are known as Bella, she said.

So maybe there is a connection here. After all, it turns out that Isabella -- Bella the vampire lover's full name -- was the top baby girl name in 2009 and is currently No. 2 this year.

Still, it wasn't until sometime after Bella the golden retriever got her name, Caprio recalled, when her sister mentioned that Bella was a feature character in the "Twilight" movies.

"My sister is into it," Caprio said of the series. "We had no idea."