Yesterday I adopted a little scrap of fur, ears, and claws at an adoption showing (local shelter at the Petco). He’s nine weeks’ old, a ferocious little brown tabby. He needs a name.
I’ve already established a tradition of giving my cats the name “cat” in non-English languages. Koshka (the female I recently had to put to sleep ) is Russian, Neko (my big male) is Japanese. So I’m looking for more words-that-mean-cat-in-non-English-languages to pick his new name from. Languages where the word is, sounds like, or looks like “cat” are right out (so no German “Katzen” or Spanish “Gato”). I’m doing Google searches with a concentration in Native American languages. So far I’ve discovered that “Mosi” is Navajo for “cat”, but it’s not the word I want (like pr0n, I’ll know it when I see it).
Suggestions? Comments? His new name doesn’t *have *to mean “cat”, but I rather like the idea of keeping the theme going.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread title was ‘Iggy’. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know. The first time I was in a what-to-name-a-cat conversation, someone suggested ‘Napalm’; as in ‘Napalm the Cat’.
When I was little, my mom had a cat named Neko.
In Greek, ‘cat’ is γάτα; but I don’t know the pronunciation.
How about Skoggkatt? (Norwegian forest cat.) It does have a “cat” sound at the end of it, but I like the sound of the word. Failing that, what about Felis, short for Felis Catus? Or Felix, which means lucky IIRC, but has been used as a “cat” name for some time. I believe it can be accepted as a variation of Felis, but I’m nowhere near certain of this. Do felicity and felix have similar roots?
I’m not sure if I have the spelling correct, but in Hawaiian cat is "popoki’. When we brought Gwen’s kittens back from Hawaii we called them the “keki popoki” or “baby cats”.
Our first kitten we named Kitza (Ukrainian for kitten). My Ukrainian mother-in-law thought it was silly to name a kitten “Kitten.” When she (the cat, not my mother-in-law) was ready to create new kitties (she was a pure-bred Siamese and we wanted one litter of new baby Siamese), we asked our vet if he knew anyone with a pure-bred un-neutered male Siamese. He did, and the daddy cat’s name was ------- “Dog.”
Anyway, we can’t name your kittly without PICTURES! We demand PICTURES!
How about “Meechee”, which I’ve been told is “Kitty” in Incan. My boyfriend’s father-in-law lived in Peru in the 1930’s, and they started a family tradition by getting a cat and naming it that. From then on, every cat in my boyfriend’s family was called Meechee, distinguished as Calico Meechee, Tiger Meechee, etc. Two of his sons each have a cat named Meechee as well.
But yes, by all means, pictures! Show me the kitty!
I named two of my cats from Irish, Ruah and Sran. Having really no clue how to pronounce them, I like the way they sound in Dutch pronunciation so that’s what I stuck with. The first means red-haired, and I thought that was very appropriate (guess why). The latter means ‘snore’ and when I got the stray kitten he had all sorts of bad stuff, including sneezing disease. (The nurses at the vets put in some unpaid extra time in getting him back in shape, really kind.)
Finally, I have a slightly older female cat whom I called Simarin (when I call her I usually use Simi). That was inspired by Tolkien (to whom I indirectly owe my own name), who explained somewhere that Silmarillion was a word he came up with by combining his favorite sounds.
Boy cat = kot, with a vowel sound somewhere between cut and coat
I think the diminuitive would be kotek, but what self respecting tom cat wants a name that sounds like a feminine hygiene product?
) is Russian, Neko (my big male) is Japanese. So I’m looking for more words-that-mean-cat-in-non-English-languages to pick his new name from. Languages where the word is, sounds like, or looks like “cat” are right out (so no German “Katzen” or Spanish “Gato”). I’m doing Google searches with a concentration in Native American languages. So far I’ve discovered that “Mosi” is Navajo for “cat”, but it’s not the word I want (like pr0n, I’ll know it when I see it).
