I had to put my wonderful boy cat to sleep a few weeks ago, and now it’s nearly time for me to get another animal. I’m thinking it’s going to take at least two cats this time, so I called up the vet college in my area, and in a few weeks, I’ll be a cat owner again. Thing is, I suck at naming cats. I’m not so much looking for a list of specific names, since I think you’ve got to at least meet a cat you’re naming. But I would be interested in how you come up with something good.
My wonderful boy cat came to me pre-named. He was white. His name: Whitey. I must say it fit him.
I myself like Great Cats from Literature. I’ve named a Mehitabel, a Mungojerry. and a Saha. But practically, most of my cats have been named by my children, resulting in Dusty and Shadow. (Descriptive names in both cases.)
We just named our new kitten “Quicksilver”. She’s gray with a silver mask and she runs around like her kitty butt is on fire. Perfect name, but a little awkward. Sometimes I call her the Little Storm Cloud. Or just “Come 'ere, you!”
Hubby and I decided that all our animals needed names that weren’t typical animal names. We put some thought into it and picked names we liked from a variety of sources and have had thus far: Paige, Vera Lynn, Gabriella, Desdemona, Alexandria, Penelope, and Veronica.
When it comes to hamsters though all bets are off. We named the first one Hamster Huey (of the gooey kablooie fame) and the other two kept their shelter monickers.
My mother in law was pretty afraid when we first got pregnant that based on all our pet names that we were going to name our kid something even ‘worse’ whatever that meant.
I have actually named very few of my cats - most were named by a roommate, a boyfriend, my son…but the few I have named, they “named themselves”. Toot was a toot, so he was named Toot. Cosmo reminded me of Seinfeld’s Kramer, so he was named Cosmo. Yankee and Doodle were born on Independence Day. The only exception was Pogo - this strip was a little before my time but I always thought it would make a cute kitty name.
I had female and male Siameses as a child - we named them Boots and Toots.
I once found a great website with name suggestions by breed/color of cat; forgot to bookmark it, alas. I tried to find it a couple of months ago, no luck.
I was in Portuguese language training; the day after we got our kitten from the animal shelter, one of the new words we learned was “viralata” (pronounced veera lahta), which is Brazilian slang for “street urchin” or the like. Literally, it translates as “turner of cans”. So we named her Vira Lata, or Vira, for short.
I chose a system based upon one of my favorite hobbies. All my pets are named after plants, preferably herbs since I like to garden.
This was easy when I started, since Basil, Violet, and even Tansy are decent names. But have you ever tried to come up with a plant name for a black fish? I still like this naming system, just take care with the system you choose.
I take a few days, calling the cat whatever names pop into my head in response to his personality, appearance, or whatever else I’m thinking about. Eventually, I find a name that feels right or sticks.
My sister is the kitten lady. She provides foster care for poor little baby orphaned kittens, until they grow to weigh 2 pounds. If they are healthy, she must take them back to the SPCA, where they are adopted. That is the agreement. None of her foster kittens are euthanized, unless it’s necessary for the sake of kindness. (If they show some symptoms of say upper respiratory infection, she gets to keep them until they get all better. “Lulu can’t come to the shelter today; she sneezed yesterday :D.”)
She has had probably 300 foster babies (total-- not all at once). She names every single one of them. They are named after friends, characters in movies and books, musicians, actors, other animals, fairy tales, the pattern on their little bandanas (“balloon boy”, “colorful puppy dude”)… I think most of them retain the names she’s given them.
You definitely need to meet the cat, get to know him/her a little. It takes a very short time to get attached to an animal, and to know what its name should be. “I’m gonna get a cat, and I’m gonna name it Led Zeppelin” doesn’t really work. For many years, I had a most excellent cat named Larry (the name fit him PERFECTLY!), but his two subsequent apprentices were not named Darryl and Darryl, even though that would have been “cool”.
Oh my God, Where did my beeer Go!? I must get another one…!
That’s how I ended up with a female Chester. But the name is a perfect fit. The other cats in the house are Twinkle Toes (her sister), Sophie (her other sister), Cobbius (her nephew) and Missy (not related).
Literature works. So far my family’s had Brutus, Frodo, Bilbo and Mungo (Bilbo’s grandfather in the family tree), of which Bilbo and Mungo are still with us. Aside from Brutus, who was originally my grandparents’ cat, you may detect a bit of a theme here.
We also had one non-literary cat name. My family first got a cat when I was two, and my parents let me name him. He was all black, so I named him Halloween, which promptly got shortened to Weenie. So you might want to think about what any name you come up with will be shortened to.
Can’t say I really have a system. My college boyfriend adopted an orange-and-white stray; we very creatively named him Orangy. My next cat was named Eric, after the pets in Monty Python’s “Fish License Sketch”. Any future cats will probably have Tolkienian names (Galadriel and Celeborn, maybe?), because I am a Tolkien geek.
I’ve noticed that cats are usually called by nicknames rather than their “real” names, so I’d suggest leaving it without an official name for a while, and waiting to see what you end up calling it.
But the name is a perfect fit. The other cats in the house are Twinkle Toes (her sister), Sophie (her other sister), Cobbius (her nephew) and Missy (not related).