# Are Your Cats Named for Famous People? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 10, 2023, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857 "2023-09-10T00:16:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/41 "2023-09-10T14:09:37Z")
One of my cats is Newman, after the Seinfeld character, and the other is Willis, from Different Strokes. People assume they’re named after actors Paul and Bruce. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/42 "2023-09-10T14:34:22Z")
Back in the very distant past when I could abide cats, before I became exclusively and totally a Dog Person, I had a cat named Boeing. So he did have the name of a famous person, but he wasn’t actually named after William Boeing. His name came from the fact that he carried his tail upright and the tip was bent directly forward, resembling the tail of a Boeing 707 with the distinctive spear-like appendage on its tail. I suppose I could have named him “707” but that would not have been dignified! ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/43 "2023-09-10T14:41:50Z")
When I got a cat, shortly after separating from my ex-wife, it was because I wanted somebody to come home to. So I named her Lucy, so I could yell out “Lucy, I’m home!” In a bad Cuban-American accent. A week later, I adopted one of her kittens. Naturally, he became Ricky. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/44 "2023-09-10T14:45:13Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > For anyone who is a Lexx fan, no, he isn’t black, and his singing voice is far inferior to the original. Since he doesn’t sing, do you sing to him? I now have “Yo Way Yo, Home Va-Ray, Yo Ay-Rah, Jerhume Brunnen-G” stuck in my head. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/45 "2023-09-10T15:22:20Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Does it count if the famous person is from ancient Greece ? Absolutely! Modern, ancient, real, fictional, bring 'em on! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/46 "2023-09-10T15:24:23Z")
> [@nofloyd](#): > > Pepperidge Farm spokesperson with the New England accent “Because Pepperidge Farm remembers!” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/47 "2023-09-10T15:41:57Z")
My cat’s name is Wowbagger, after the Infinitely Prolonged one. My Wowbagger hurls random insults at whomever he encounters, saying things like “wow!” and “me wow!” and “braaaat!” [![](https://i.postimg.cc/fLgv6ZCS/IMG-1311.jpg) ](https://i.postimg.cc/fLgv6ZCS/IMG-1311.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/48 "2023-09-10T15:49:29Z")
Does she Splain? ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/49 "2023-09-10T15:49:34Z")
Meave the cat (that’s her in my avatar) is named for Irish novelist [Maeve Binchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeve_Binchy). It was my partner’s idea. (The misspelling is due to an error by the vet’ we first registered with.) ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/50 "2023-09-10T15:53:28Z")
My daughter, who is a biologist, has a rabbit named after Thomas Huxley (Darwin’s Bulldog). We had a hamster a while ago named Hattie (after Hatshepsut, the female Pharoah). ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/51 "2023-09-10T16:13:05Z")
I once had a cat who liked to drop things in his water bowl. Not food, but manmade things: keys, pens, anything he could pick up. If I hadn’t already named him, I might have named him “Arch”, for Archimedes. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/52 "2023-09-10T17:00:41Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > > [@ParallelLines](#): > > > > For anyone who is a Lexx fan, no, he isn’t black, and his singing voice is far inferior to the original. > > Since he doesn’t sing, do you sing to him? I now have “Yo Way Yo, Home Va-Ray, Yo Ay-Rah, Jerhume Brunnen-G” stuck in my head. Yes, yes I do. And since I own the Tales from the Parallel Universe Soundtrack and have the full series on DVD, I’ll sometimes put on the “Brigadoon” episode and sing it was the Brunnen-C subbed in for him. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > We often change the names of adopted cats, especially if they are kittens when we get them. I want to, cat/lizard/snake-mom won’t let me. Which, I can almost, kinda get for cats who may or may not choose to respond to their names, but the snakes and lizards??? The best I’ve been able to do is add sub-names. Years ago I bought a chubby, well tempered Savannah monitor, who was outgrowing the local chain pet store they were in, who was a store favorite. His name was Ernie. Which is super bland and uninteresting for a stubby giant of a lizard. I wanted to name him Falstaff of Shakespeare fame. I was overruled, but it was agreed that he could be known as Ernie Fosselius Falstaff as a compromise. So he was still named after someone (in)famous for the first half, and someone fictionally famous at the end. Other than calling Kai the Last of the Brunnen-C this has been my only success on the sub-naming front though. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/53 "2023-09-10T17:27:38Z")
My cat’s name is Nelson. Honestly that’s just what the shelter said his name was and I didn’t bother changing it, and I have no idea if he’s named after anyone in particular. But I like to tell people he’s named after Nelson Mandela. When I was in high school we had a cat named Napoleon. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/54 "2023-09-10T17:52:00Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I wanted to name him Falstaff of Shakespeare fame. I was overruled, but it was agreed that he could be known as Ernie Fosselius Falstaff as a compromise. Huh. While our cats each have an official name on the vet’s paperwork, we each call them different things, and we don’t ask each other for permission. I call the white one Merry (or cat, or cutie pie, or cuddlepuss) but my daughter has been calling him Cookie. And Pippin is sometimes Pip or Pipster (or cat, or cutie, or …) Rachel seems to be migrating to “Ray Ray”, too. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/55 "2023-09-10T18:10:27Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > We once had a cat named Atticus, which my boys thought would be a good name for a lawyer’s cat. He was a pretty nice gray-brown tabby. We just adopted a cat and have tentatively named her Scout. She has been Scouting out her new home (which sounded nicer than snooping) but I wasn’t sure about it as a girl’s name. Then I looked up the one Scout I knew that was a girl, Atticus’s daughter, who is described as inquisitive, intelligent, and a tomboy, and I realized it’s a perfect fit. She’s a darkish grey with tuxedo patches of white. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/56 "2023-09-10T18:17:00Z")
Cats have three names (as T.S. Eliot noted). Rikki is his official name. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi if you prefer\*. But he also is Rufus, or Roofie. And his secret name, he alone only knows. And our other cat is Becky or Rebecca if you prefer. Also Baby or Pretty Girl. \*NOT that Disney crap, but the real Jungle Book by Kipling. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/57 "2023-09-10T20:55:46Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > Gracie, who was a bit goofy at times, was named for Gracie Allen. From 1970 to 1982 Mrs. Cretin and I worked for Gracie (black-grey-white Tabby), who was named for both Ms. Allen and Ms. Slick. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2023, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/58 "2023-09-10T22:28:09Z")
My cat is named Atilla. Not for the Hun, actually, but for a cat in the comic strip _Mother Goose and Grimm._ I imagine that cat was named for the warrior. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/59 "2023-09-11T02:25:19Z")
Two juvenile cats adopted us many years ago. One had rather symmetrical black and grey markings, so he became Roarschach. The other was a lovely tortical (probably his sister) who had the classical Egyptian eye makeup, so she was Nefurtari (which I later learned translates to “beautiful companion”). ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2023, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857/60 "2023-09-11T04:37:58Z")
My parents had a brother-sister pair they named Romeo and Juliet. Always seemed kinda wrong… And in the early 80s I adopted an orange barn kitten whom we named Pope Linus, but it didn’t stick and he quickly became just Garfield. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-your-cats-named-for-famous-people/989857.md?page=4)