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Just thinking about this after seeing a similar thread in the dog forum.
Our current cats are Mika, Spike, and Lilith.
Mika was named by my son who decided she smelled really pretty and discovered that the name means "nice smell". What's hilarious about this is that she is the "dirtiest" cat I've ever had. She will sleep on top of the garbage in the garbage can!
Spike was named after the character in Buffy The Vampire Slayer for his yellow eyes and "fangs" that protrude and the fact that he's a big softie loverboy.
Lilith is just a little troublemaker girl and her name suits her perfectly.
My family was never great about cat naming. The cat I grew up with was, for the longest time, just called "Japanese Kitty". We got her when we were living in Japan, when I was just a baby. Years later, when I was in middle school, my mother finally gave her a proper name and she was "Lady" until she died when I was 19.
Following the same location naming trend, we had a gray and black tabby when I was growing up that was "Arkansas Kitty". You guessed it, we found her when we lived in Arkansas. LOL. My brother, in his teens (and something of a pothead) thought he was cute in renaming her "Sativa", as in Cannabis.
My mother had no idea what that meant and went along with it so she was Sativa from that point forward.
My first cat that was my very own when I was in my late teens, was an orange tabby I named Sebastian.
My father had a cat he called "AMC", for "Ain't My Cat". It was a stray he refused to call his own, yet he got her spayed, took care of all her veterinary needs, built her a multi-level outdoor heated cat house, fattened her up, and had her for a good 15 years!
My mom has an elderly Siamese named "Brie"... originally named Brianna and then someone figured out she was a he!
And finally, the best naming story/craziest: My Grandma, years and years ago, had taken in a pretty white fluffy young stray. She had a full sized upright freezer in her kitchen and she lived out in the country. Being the wife of a retired military officer, she would make a once a month trip "to town" to shop at the Air Force commissary and get most of her needed groceries for the month and before she did this she always stood for a while with the freezer door open, making a list and taking an inventory.
Apparently while she was doing this one morning, this cat crept into the freezer without her realizing it, just before she shut it and left. She was gone for several HOURS and was shocked to open the freezer when she returned and see the cat hop out! She rushed it to the vet and miraculously the cat was okay, but it did end up having to have a section of tail removed from frostbite.
From that point forward the cat was "Frosty"! He lived a long and happy life.
Amber: 17 years ago I got this kitten, and mainly what I knew was I didn't want to give her a cutesy pet-only name. So I dug around through lists of human girl baby names to see what might seem suitable and/or otherwise appealing. I kept coming back to Amber because small parts of her coloring could be considered that color; she has a variation of brown torbie coloring.
My cats are black and white tuxedo cats; they showed up as strays in our yard, and as we were trying to decide what to do with them (we already had an elderly cat), we got tired of calling them "the big one" and "the skinny one", or "the male" and "the female".
So I thought of things that were black and white, and came up with Checkers (checkerboard) for the male, and Cookie (black and white cookies). As we got to know them, their names really did suit them. And of course, once we named them ... there was no giving them away.
My childhood cat ... We changed her name a couple of times. After trying a few names out that just didn't seem right, we thought it would be cool, in a 1960s sort of way, to call her Kitty. Then one night we were watching some TV show or another, and a character had a stuffed animal named Muffy. My dad started calling the cat Muffy as a joke, and it stuck; my mom was the last holdout.
We had a cat named Blue Moon. We were bickering over names and asked our father for his opinion. He said, "You can call it Blue Moon for all I care." We instantly loved the name! Turned out the name suited him perfectly because he's preferred to live in the basement JOISTS and we only saw him every few months. He was a strange cat but incredibly beautiful. He was a long haired cat (not a purebred but long haired). Very big. Almost all black. He had a huge long fluffy tail that was all black, two inches of white, and then another inch of black at the tip. We respected his need for privacy. All of our other cats were very affectionate and loved being around us. Blue Moon liked spending his life in complete solitude.
I had no idea what to name Kitty Katty. He came from a rescue and has had 2 other names. His first name was Sneaky. As much as I love my kitty I sure don't wanna call him something like that.
That being said.....he is VERY Sneaky! He is like a ninja!
His 2nd name was Jet. That is the name he was listed under at the rescue. He really didn't seem to respond to it that well.
I wasn't much on the name. I guess we had him a few months before he got his name. So many names that fit his look but not his personality, etc.
When I met him at Petsmart I thought his name should be Vladymir Von Kitty Kat because of his fangs. I guess he does have part of that name after all!
His name is Kitty Katty. He has so many nicknames also......
Ours came from a barn with the name Little. They called him Little because, even though he was not a kitten, he was so small.
We continued to call him that even though, after several hundred dollars of treatment for worms of all kinds, he quickly became a normal 11# size.
I had ideas about cat names long before I got the cat.
I wanted to name a cat Murray because the middle name of the lead singer of my favorite band is Murray, and that's a little-known bit of trivia that amuses me to know. I was thinking a cat called Murray should be a mellow big fluffy dude, and I was planning to get a big Maine Coon and give him this name.
Later I thought it would be neat to have 2 cats, a male named Malarkey and a female named Shenanigans. I was still kicking around the idea of getting a Maine Coon from a breeder up in Denver at that point, but was starting to look at the local rescues. I just hadn't been able to justify spending $800 on a purebred cat...when so many need homes, right here, for about $100.
Then I saw the listing for Nimbus, online. The rescue was calling him "Nimbus Techno Geek" because he was kitteny and playful and got into stuff, always messing with things. I was instantly hooked, I emailed the lady and went to get him at the first opportunity. Some 15 years ago we had a cat called Gimbus, and our family is sorta "techno-geek-ish"...it was a fit beyond perfect. It was like the cosmic powers that be saying, "look. Here is your cat. Go get him." I had considered renaming him...but Nimbus was too good a fit. So I decided his "full name" will be Nimbus Murray Malarkey.
Nimbus can mean a sort of cloud, "cumulo-nimbus" like stormclouds, or a halo of light, like a nimbus around the moon. And indeed he is stormcloud colored and in the proper light, the silver tips on his fur give him a sort of shimmery halo.
Nicknames so far:
"Nimbuscat"
"Long cat"
"Nimbus Maximus, the Maximum Cat"
My one cat who recently passed was Lucy, named for Lucy on I love Lucy and she was just as dingy
The one I have left is Gracie...named for Gracie Allen
Gracie Allen & Lucille Ball were two of my favorite female comedians
I had ideas about cat names long before I got the cat.
I wanted to name a cat Murray because the middle name of the lead singer of my favorite band is Murray, and that's a little-known bit of trivia that amuses me to know. I was thinking a cat called Murray should be a mellow big fluffy dude, and I was planning to get a big Maine Coon and give him this name.
<snip>
Murray was the name of Delores' cat on Dead Like Me, if you've seen that show..? One of these days I'd like to have a Maine Coon. I sort of had one before, but he was technically my roomate's cat. He was polydactyl (are all Maine Coons?) and named Yeti and he loved to ride wrapped aroundy our neck like a scarf!
Murray was the name of Delores' cat on Dead Like Me, if you've seen that show..? One of these days I'd like to have a Maine Coon. I sort of had one before, but he was technically my roomate's cat. He was polydactyl (are all Maine Coons?) and named Yeti and he loved to ride wrapped aroundy our neck like a scarf!
I have seen that show, actually, but I didn't remember that about the cat named Murray...it was a while back that I watched it.
All Maine Coons are not polydactyl, no, but the mutation that causes it is prevalent in that breed. I think possibly it's the only breed where breeders have attempted to encourage it, even though it's not desirable for show cats, it is very desirable in the pet trade...oddly moreso for Maine Coons than in other cat breeds. The trait does however crop up in any kind of cats from time to time.
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LOL. My brother, in his teens (and something of a pothead) thought he was cute in renaming her "Sativa", as in Cannabis. 
and we only saw him every few months. He was a strange cat but incredibly beautiful. He was a long haired cat (not a purebred but long haired). Very big. Almost all black. He had a huge long fluffy tail that was all black, two inches of white, and then another inch of black at the tip. We respected his need for privacy. All of our other cats were very affectionate and loved being around us. Blue Moon liked spending his life in complete solitude.
One of these days I'd like to have a Maine Coon. I sort of had one before, but he was technically my roomate's cat. He was polydactyl (are all Maine Coons?) and named Yeti and he loved to ride wrapped aroundy our neck like a scarf!
