Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We've kinda run out of names for our cats because we have had so many over the years. We have also fed so many at our shop, and named most of them, that we have used up most of the ones available.
Our house cats are Chewy, Lucky, and Daisy, and Chewy got his name because he LOVES to chew stuff, especially plastic. I just tied up the garbage bag an he loves to chew on the plastic draw strings at the top. Lucky got his name because my Son found him underneath a car at a traffic light and saved his life, hence, he is a "lucky cat." Daisy was a toughie, but my Son said she has a daisy on her face, so that name stuck.
Our shop cats have ranged from Mama Cat (two of those so far) Schmoo (he was just a little schmoo when we first saw him) F.T (short for Furry Tail) Whiskers (Tuxedo cat with long white whiskers), and a bunch more.
Most of mine have been named just by watching them and picking out a facet of their personality that stood out, or a physical aspect that was noticeable, but some were just kind of random. Some of them came with names already - and some I let other family members name. The two I just lost - Sweetie was named because she was just a sweetie when I found her - I could not think of another thing to describe her. She was just so appreciative of anything I did for her (she had been a stray found on the street in my sister's neighborhood and the neighborhood kids had been seen throwing rocks and such at her. She was pregnant and starving - and just a sweetheart). Ralphie was named by my sister - after the little kid brother on the Christmas Story movie - just a sweet, little guy. We currently have 22 in our house - and I honestly think there would be no possibility of running out of names for any future cats - but I DO NOT plan to find out!!! I really don't want to adopt any more (I know, I've said it before and been over-ruled)!...
I cannot remember a time in my life when I haven't had a cat in it - looking back at me and wondering what the hell are we doing here!!!
When my wife & I started taking in homeless kittens in the late 90's, she was usually the one to come up with their names, as she was better at it than I was. She got on a 'weather' theme for the first 4.... Stormy, Sunshine, Rainbow, Misty. Then Gypsy came along, and she was named because of her 'take no crap from nobody' attitude. I named the next one, Angel, mainly because of her colors (at the time) were mostly white & very light gray. She was of course no 'angel' when she was growing up .
The next two, Bucky and Sheba, were named by my wife. Bucky was named after my favorite cartoon character early on, but we had trouble deciding on a name for his sister. The name Sheba came about after my wife went to the grocery store. I never asked her, but I think she got idea from the cat food brand in the store. It worked for me though.
All of our current cats are rescues that came with names, but we changed all their names.
Cat #1--male brown tabby--was named "Baby" by his previous owner. Obviously that name had to be changed. We tried all sorts of things but nothing seemed right. One morning I walked into the bathroom where he was standing on the counter and said, "Oh, hi, Lucas!" It sounds silly but it was as though he had told me his name was Lucas.
Cat #2--female orange tabby--was given the name "Cookie" by the shelter. I wanted to give her a different but similar-sounding name like Cassie or Katie. All my ideas were shot down by the family. My husband suggested Saffron, and that's what stuck. We usually call her Saffy.
Cat #3--male black & white tuxedo--was named "Ashton" by his foster. I would have kept the name, but again the family did not like it. He finally ended up as Neville, because his tuxedo made me think of the conductor, Sir Neville Marriner.
Previous cats have been Stormy (a feral kitten that my husband brought home during a rare summer thunderstorm), Rusty and Scarlett (siblings that were named by their foster; we kept the names), and Peg (a kitten with a deformed hind leg).
This is a much-visited topic, but so what!
The felines of my younger years were given names with no originality - "Little Guy" for the runt of a litter, "Fluffy" for the fluffiest of a litter, for example.
By nature I'm one of those people who's always going to get around to doing something someday. It was like that with pets. Once chronology, fate, and financial means called for it I had no excuse for not taking in a four-legged friend since I was now living alone. But following through stayed on the proverbial back burner. That is, until the night of December 4, 1992, when a longtime friend paid a visit - along with two rescued "cat-olescents" in a large carrier. :sh ocked: We'd debated for years over whether I'd eventually be owned by a cat or a dog, though there was never any doubt in my mind. My joking compromise solution was to adopt a kitten and name it Puppy. Now a pair of sibling kitties, complete with red bows around their necks, was cavorting around my living room. The brother was dubbed Puppy immediately. But what to call the sister? As she rounded a corner while running laps - and her mouth - in her new home, a light went on in my head. Her cat-olescent long legs and tail, attached to a skinny body, suggested a mongoose since she was racing around like one who had spotted a cobra. "Mongoose" or a shortened version didn't seem to befit a cat, though. The name of its cousin, the weasel, therefore furnished "Weasie" and explains the spelling.
After I was bereft of the siblings - as of the start of 2012 - I decided to not spend any energy locating a successor. Everybody knows it's the cat who finds you anyway. It turned out that Weasie herself had selected who would follow her as my keeper. At about the time her final illness first began, on several occasions she was chased right onto our back porch by a young stray cat with a highly distinctive coat. (The interloper knew of our place because word had gotten around that the human there left out food and water. '11 had been a banner year for abandoned, stray, and feral felines in the neighborhood.) While I soothed Weasie's bruised ego I'd talk sternly to the chaser, who would promptly beat feet out of Dodge City with my first step in her direction. Once she had come to call enough times I decided she deserved a name. For her it was also easy. The crazy-quilt pattern of black, white, and caramel in her fur was more or less calico below and tortoiseshell above. Essentially she had black hair - with many caramel "highlights" - on her back and partway down her sides, blending with the familiar calico pattern. So I mashed the words "black" and "calico" together.
In some cultures a name is feminized for a girl by adding a suffix that connotes "little," such as "Antoinette" from "Antoine" in France or "Juanita" from "Juan" in Spanish-speaking circles. (Also: "Oops! We thought we'd have a 'Mike.' But we goofed. So 'Michaela' it is." ) Japanese parents will often include the character "ko" (in this case meaning "child") when naming a daughter. And so it came to pass that the new lady cat in town was christened, in honor of her fur colors, "Blaliko."
Famously, at least on C-D, Blaliko "somehow" managed to get pregnant before TNR could be done. The saga of the roundup of her kittens was fully documented here at the time. Out of the six offspring, though, the runt - who "clung to Mama's skirts" and continues to be timid - ended up not being caught before fairly drastic measures were taken. She had aged far beyond the window of opportunity for re-homing. My choices were euthanasia, spay/release, or "you could try your luck." Being cat-owned twice over - again - ended up working because Blaliko had settled in and mother knows best.
When Weasie was still in good health and reaching her late teens, I'd compiled - however reluctantly - a mental list of what to call cat(s) who succeeded her. Names of classmates and other acquaintances from the past, that I'd only heard for that one person, were up for consideration. (Naming a pet after someone currently in your life might not be the best idea!) I'd gone to elementary school for a couple of years with a girl named Seteria - pronounced "Seh-TIH-ree-ya." For whatever reason that worked for the nervous white kitten with gray (actually white-suffused black) "Holstein cow" markings.
People sometimes scratch their heads: "Those names are so much harder to pronounce than Weasie and Puppy!" But those are what went well with the cats who were given them.
Even non-Christians consult a Bible for names which aren't heard every day. Take the Winfrey family, for example; a minor character in the "good book" - she was probably begotten by someone and went on to beget somebody else - was called Oprah. Literature from Africa, Russia, and so on would contain many more possibilities. As could American works - witness the long sleek black tomcat around the corner from me who was called "Yossarian (sp?)" after the protagonist in "Catch 22." Even a favorite author could be honored. Although the cat in question was a red tabby, the people in my neighborhood who he owned dubbed him Pushkin. Characters from film, plays, and TV as well as present-day or former musicians (and songs) are available for material too. And so on!
#1 Chopin.........well I was a piano student and that's what I was studying at the time.
#2 Schubert - Chopin's successor........and yes I was working on Schubert at the time.
#3 Mozart - a contemporary of Schubert's - my half sister named him.
#4 Elsa - after Elsa the lioness in "Born Free". It's also a family name.
#5 Sam - after Sam Houston - my ex named him
#6 Rufus - after our best man - my ex named him
#7 Daisy - I wanted Petunia, but was overruled by ex. Daisy was okay with him.
#8 Lily - I just looked at her green eyes.......and with her all white fur......just called her Lily.
#9 Charcoal - his color.. and I found him on my grilling patio next to the charcoal bin. Now.. his name has morphed a bit to Charles Oliver - Charcoal Cholly. I usually call him Cholly now. Charles is a family name. My neighbor and cat sitter kept calling him Oliver....... so...........
#10 Momma - because that's what she was/is. However, her given name is Mia Suzannah. When I picked her up in my garden and figured out she was pg.. I said Momma Mia..........Suzannah is a family name.
#11 Smudge - once Smudge and his brother were born.......I had to figure out names. I wanted to use family names. Smudge's first name is Percival..........and Smudge because of his coloring... so He's Percy Smudge.
#12 Bennie - aarghhhhhh I should have known better. Naming him after my father and grandfather - who were both hellions as children. His full name is Benedict George.
My quarter horses were Peanut Butter..........and........Jelly! My sheep: Floppsie and Moppsie
We called our childhood cat Kitty for a few years after we got her, and then my dad started calling her Muffy after a teddy bear on some TV show my sister used to like. She was always Kitty on her vet records, but the Muffy name stuck.
My current cats are black and white tuxedo cats. They were strays that we were feeding and trying to find homes for. In the meantime, I gave them black-and-white names: Cookie (black and white cookies) and Checkers (checkerboard).
We've kinda run out of names for our cats because we have had so many over the years. We have also fed so many at our shop, and named most of them, that we have used up most of the ones available.
Don
Just watch what it does. I called one Pecker because it pecked on the ground. Another sounded like Virgil MasterCard so it was named MasterCard. Another had a face of a boxer (all beat up) so it was named Mike (Tyson). Yet another looked like the cat on the fancy feast can. You get the point.
When I'd begun to think about another kitty many months after Carly died, I was pretty sure her name was going to be Maisie. I liked the name and thought it would be good. The day I walked into the kitty visitation room at Animal Control (going there after receiving notice of a calico who'd been 'released'. Her human was too ill to care for her anymore, and there was no other solution..) to took one look at her and just knew she wasn't a Maisie.
I was trying to pet her a bit, but she was reluctant, fearful and not even sure about coming out of the cage thingy, so I just stood there looking at her and then.....she looked right at me and her eyes noticeably dilated and she gave one of her funny, atypical mews which sounds more like a raspy "oh wow". Really, it's most unusual, but that's just her. Anyway, somehow I knew right then that she was mine, or more likely I was hers! And in that moment, I knew also that her name was to be Fiona!
I usually come up with cute/clever names for my pets but one of the cats I have now was pre-named by her original owner, and another first came to us as a semi-stray, a neglected neighbor cat who's name we didn't know. We eventually found out they had named him Marco but by then it had been over a year and we couldn't get used to the change so Gray Kitty he shall remain.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
It was like that with pets. Once chronology, fate, and financial means called for it I had no excuse for not taking in a four-legged friend since I was now living alone. But following through stayed on the proverbial back burner. That is, until the night of December 4, 1992, when a longtime friend paid a visit - along with two rescued "cat-olescents" in a large carrier. 
