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I always find it interesting WHY animals are given the names that they have...was it their color, their personality, or just a random choice?
Here's my present and former kids...
Jonas (JJ)- Named after the main character in the YA book "The Giver". In the book, Jonas is a boy with unusual blue eyes who can perceive things in a way other people can't. It seemed to fit for a blind cat. Also, my mother picked the name, and since she was very against having Jonas in the home I thought letting her name him would help get his paw in the door.
Heather- Named for the plant. She was left outside a vet hospital's door in a cardboard box with her dead siblings. They kind of pushed her on us while we there for a procedure with another cat, but she was too sick to go home that day. This hospital was about six hours away- they would call us to come pick her up, but by the time we got there she would have had a bout of diarrhea and they would say she wasn't ready to leave. We kept driving past a field of heather on the way up and back, and it seemed like a pretty name for such a scrawny, sickly little cat. We figured she'd grow into it, and she defiantly did.
Robin- Uh, she squeaks like a bird...that's pretty much it.
Nic- Started out as "Ethelbert", then became "Bert" when we adopted his sister as well (and she became Ethel). I HATED the name Bert, and slowly started calling him "Bertnic", then just "Nic." He was an old gentleman even when he was young, and Nic just seemed to suit him better.
I named a couple of cats back in my 20s after famous gangsters - Floyd for Pretty Boy Floyd and Nelson for Baby face Nelson. One orange tabby was unimaginatively named Morris Although I'm not sure if I named him or he came with that name?
My most loved cat was Attila for Attila the Hun. His litter had been named after composers and he started out a Beethoven.
These two I didn't even feel like naming. I seem to have lost the desire to name things. But the vet office couldn't keep track of all the ferals and these two so one is Paulie Walnuts aka Paulie or Bony Boy or Whiney Boy and one is Big ***** aka ***** or more often fatty fatty two by four. The patio feral cat is Junior, the early years (since he's the youngest) - these are all characters from The Sopranos ((Jr. is an old man on the show).
I rarely call them or refer to them by their names though. Its usually "bunny" for everyone. "Hey bunny" "how you doing bunny" etc.
Our fur-kids' names are sometimes based on appearance, sometimes on personality, and occasionally just because they seem to fit.
Our daughter's grey tabby that she adopted from the Humane Society 8 or 9 years ago came with the name Tiger, and she never changed it. He was a beautiful tiger boy, and rather ferocious at times, so it seemed to fit him well. He died very suddenly, only about four years old, and she mourned him for months.
The next adoptee, also from the Humane Society, was a talkative tuxedo boy. He had been surrendered by his former owners (the fools - but their loss is our gain) and was called Henry. Our daughter was adamant that Henry didn't fit him, so she sat down one day and just started calling names until he turned and looked at her. The name she called that got him to look was Finn Mac Cumhaill (pronounced McCool), and he is Finn to this day. Finn bonded with me so closely that when our daughter moved out a few years ago, she left him with us, and only recently confessed that it was part of her scheme all along to do so, because she knew I really wanted a cat.
Our most recent addition, from a local cat rescue association, is another talkative tuxedo boy, who has blended seamlessly into the family, romping and wrestling with Finn, perching in the window with him, and generally adding a great deal of fun and laughter to the house. He is an extremely affectionate fellow who likes "making biscuits" on his humans, and his personality has earned him the moniker Colonel Snuggledorf. He answers to Snuggles or Dorfy as well.
Of course, all of our cats have multiple nicknames as well, some of them less polite than others. But that's a topic for a different thread - in fact, if memory serves, there is such a thread from a year or so back.
Tater (deceased) was brain damaged when we got him and he'd give us this 'deer in the headlights' look....which reminded us of the look Ron White gave during one of his comedy tours....we both exclaimed 'Tater Salad' and hence came the name Tater.
Binky (deceased) was given the name by my mom who....I guess got it from my pacifier I used as a baby.
Ozzie is named after Ozzy Osbourne because he was such a little wild kitten and crazy.
Phizzie is named after phizz from a soda or anything carbonated. We got her from the shelter and she was so full of life that it as my husband said 'overflowed' like a bottle of shaken soda....
Beetleguise....Beetle is a part manx/part siamese. She was very ill as a baby as was the rest of her siblings. We decided to take care of her....she was sooooo sweet (she still is) but when she would start feeling better - sometimes she just became downright insane! So....we call her Beetle when she's being good....and Beetleguise when the craziness comes out.
We have plenty of other names....but that's it for now!
Grace - thought she was a he and his name was Greyson for about three days. The we stuck with Grace because we thought it was pretty dot the dainty little grey tabby that she was.
Lexie - picked from a very long list of potential names. It just seemed to suit her.
Simon - was the name of one of Lexie's littermates. I loved it and knew I wanted to name my next Tonkinese Simon. The name could not fit him more perfectly.
Makari - the name of our kitten coming. We wanted him to have a Russian name but not the standard Mikhail etc. Makari means lion in Greek and Russian and his grandfathers name is Ruslan which means lionlike in Russian.
Hannah came with her name. Henry got named that simply because he seemed to look like a Henry (no don't ask what a 'henry' looks like)! Magnus is a Norwegian Forest Cat, so he needed a viking name. He was originally going to be "Dagmar," because the breeder's vet had said the kitten was female - until I brought it to my vet for the initial checkup and was informed that Dagmar was a he! I just couldn't keep a girl's name with him. Canute is another Wegie, so... another good viking name.
Sweet William.. well, he chose it. He was a rescue cat from my vet, and had been through so much (3 weeks of ICU - they didn't think he would make it!), I wanted to give him a strong, bold, scandinavian name (cause I'm a scandiophile). He sat there with his back to me totally ignoring anything I came up with. I finally said 'well you're going to have to accept something or you're gonna get called something like Sweet William!' That's when he twitched an ear and looked back over his shoulder at me. <sigh> so, if that's what he wants, he got it.
Mostly now I check with my vet staff: they complained about previous cats' names being too hard to read- I had a habit of naming in Gaelic or Elvish.
Hannah came with her name. Henry got named that simply because he seemed to look like a Henry (no don't ask what a 'henry' looks like)! Magnus is a Norwegian Forest Cat, so he needed a viking name. He was originally going to be "Dagmar," because the breeder's vet had said the kitten was female - until I brought it to my vet for the initial checkup and was informed that Dagmar was a he! I just couldn't keep a girl's name with him. Canute is another Wegie, so... another good viking name.
Sweet William.. well, he chose it. He was a rescue cat from my vet, and had been through so much (3 weeks of ICU - they didn't think he would make it!), I wanted to give him a strong, bold, scandinavian name (cause I'm a scandiophile). He sat there with his back to me totally ignoring anything I came up with. I finally said 'well you're going to have to accept something or you're gonna get called something like Sweet William!' That's when he twitched an ear and looked back over his shoulder at me. <sigh> so, if that's what he wants, he got it.
Mostly now I check with my vet staff: they complained about previous cats' names being too hard to read- I had a habit of naming in Gaelic or Elvish.
Too many cats to go through all -- but Seamus (pronounced Shay-mus, but the people at my vet's office call him See-mus ) TOLD me his name.
When he was a kitten Hubby was calling him Iggy. I have NO idea why my insists one of the cats be called Iggy, but I won't have it. Horrible name.
So one night the kitten had crawled up on me and was drowsing -- not quite asleep but not quite awake. I held him and talked/sang to him, telling him it was such a shame a pretty boy didn't have a name.
Every time I said shame -- his eyes flew open.
I started watching him and said shame.... eyes, shame... eyes....
Finally I said Seamus? His little paw reached out and patted my lips, as in Good Mom, you finally got it.... and he curled up and went to sleep on my chest.
And the worst -- the Baby. She doesn't have a real name. She was the runt of her siblings, but the fiercest one. She was out exploring things before she had control of her feet -- always busy. And we always referred to her as the baby of the group. When came time to rehome the kittens, Hubby couldn't give up the baby. We tried several names, none stuck because now she was the baby in the house. She's nine, and we still call her the Baby. No longer the youngest cat in the house.... but she's still the Baby. And it's *the* Baby when we talk to each other about her.... when we talk to her it's Baby.... so the poor dear thinks it's her name....
Moggy was named after a song... "She's Nobody's Moggy Now" by Eric Bogle, and actually means a "mutt cat".
Nimi, aka Jimi was named by the animal shelter that I got him from. I just kept it.
Leo was named by my mother because he was born in August.
Not very exciting, I know. LOL
Previous cats...... Hither, Thither and Yon Three litter siblings (Thither died shortly after birth, and there was just Hither and Yon left)
KC (Kong Cat - He was 17 pounds when I got him as a kitten and his head was the size of a grapefruit).
FOUFOU - Teeny little girlie kitty, weighted 7 pounds.
20yrsinBranson
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Although I'm not sure if I named him or he came with that name? 
) TOLD me his name.
