It’s time to enter our What’s in a Cat’s Name Contest!
All you need to do is tell us, in your own words, the story behind your special cat’s name. Click the “Comment” link below this posting, and complete the form with your name, email and story. This is a time limited contest, see our full set of Contest Rules. Put your pen to paper now, and get going!
We name all our kitties with the letter L. Currently, we have London (Dog), Leia, Luna & our foster, Lucy!
Snickers – because she is a tortoiseshell.
Dakota – Because it means “friend”, “friendly” or “allies” in the Yankton-Yanktonai and Santee dialects of the Lakota Sioux language and he certainly has been.
Sasha – From the time I met her, only a couple of days old, she always seemed to know her own mind and has a bit of a sassy, independence.
I have 18 cats. I probably won’t be submitting all of them, Lol. I have a 6 year old all black female cat…and her full name is Italia Black Dahlia. Because…she’s black, we’re Italian, and it rymes. ;)
Buddy – because he would hang around with me in the bathroom. I figured Bathroom Buddy was not really a good name, so just used the Buddy part :)
Spike – because a friend of mine said she always wanted a cat named Spike (why she never named one that I don’t know). It seemed fitting, he is an alpha. So Spike he is.
About six months after my first cat died, while I was still grieving and deciding if I was ready for another cat, I had a dream. In this very vivid dream, someone was putting a newborn, orange kitten in my hand. As they did so, they said, “this is Hajimemashite.” The kitten had stripes on his face and a white spot on his chin. When I woke up I searched for Hajimemashite and found out it’s the Japanese word that means “nice to meet you.” A few months later, I happened to be walking past a PetSmart and noticed they had a shelter/adoption day going on. I thought I’d “just take a look”. I discovered a litter of kittens had been dropped off the day before. At the bottom of the pile of seven, was one orange one. When he peeked his head up, he had stripes on his face and one white spot on his chin. I know that was him! When I was filling out the adoption papers, they asked what his name was. Then I remembered the dream and said his name was Hajimemashite. They suggested I shorten it so now we call him Mashshtay for short. It makes it a bit easier when we go to the vet. He seems to like it too! (Not sure how to post a picture here..)
How did you even know how to spell the name in order to find out the meaning??
The way I got my cat Moseys name is because of his collar. Might sound weird but he wears an M&M collar. The name to suit him very well due to the fact that he Moseys all around the house. I call him Mo for short and he knows how to say his name.
I have five cats. Two of them are polydactyls, and their names are Toelouse (“Louie”, 26 toes) and his son Antoenio (“Toeny”, 22 toes). They are 14 and 13. Unfortunately, we’re not sure that Louie will make it to his 15th birthday next month. He’s very sick, and I have a GoFundMe online to help with his vet bills.
My 9 year old orange Manx is named Skeeter Baggett. The story behind his name is that, growing up in the South in the 30’s, my dad’s best buddy’s nickname was Skeeter Baggett. I always said when I found the right cat, that’s what I would call him. So, one day, while shopping, I stopped in a pet store to get Karma and Magic, my other cats, some goodies, and I heard the plaintive meow of a kitten. He was there to be adopted. One look at him, and he stole my heart.
My Siamese boy is Gideon. When I brought him home as a kitten, he immediately climbed to the top of a 7′ silk ficus tree. He loved the tree, and continuously climbed it and knocked it over until it was pretty much destroyed. While searching for his name, I saw that Gideon means “Feller of Trees” in Hebrew. Couldn’t have found anything more appropriate!
I have four cats with somewhat unique names.
TC is short for Too Cute. I had a hard time coming up with a name for him when he was a baby but kept saying “you’re just too cute.” Well, he started coming to me when he heard too cute so he chose his name and I shortened it to TC.
When I adopted Sir Ozwald Furwalken I wanted a silly “nerd” name and Ozwald came to mind. Ozwald happens to be the only name he responds to. I added Furwalken because he has white “boots” on his hind legs (these boots are made for walking…). I added the Sir because he’s a regal little guy.
George is my stray and he showed up at my little cabin in the woods about 9 years ago and as soon as I picked him up I had an old cartoon line play through my head “I’m going to love him and hug him and squeeze him and call him George.”
My little girl, Ricki, was named by my then 17 year old son who was too into Talladega Nights with Will Ferrell. So unfortunately for my Ricki girl, her full name is Ricki Bobbi.
My cat was the runt of the litter, and so small and tiny. She had to go back to the vet a couple of times for ‘failure to thrive’, so I named her “Pip Squeak”.. Her name didn’t fit for long as she learned to LOVE her food, and soon was a tubby little kitty, and now an 18.5 pound love bug! Needless to say, Pip Squeak no longer fit her, so now she is only known as “Squeak”!!
I named our most recent addition Ember. She’s a tortie, all black and orange and smudgey-looking, just like an ember! The previous cat whose spot Ember filled was named Ashes, so that part works too.
We’ve had five cats so far. The first one came with her name, so we didn’t want to change it. The second one was a small feral tortie kitten, so because of her colouring, we named her “Brindle” (for her brindled coat). Cat #3 came with his name, so we left well enough alone. The next cat, again feral but adult this time, we adopted literally out of our backyard in the middle of the winter, so she was named “Hannah” (we brought her in close to Hanukkah). And our most recent cat came with the name “Miss Penelope” which we have amended to just “Penelope” or sometimes “Little Brown” as she is a tortie Abyssinian.
My Oscar is named for Oscar the grouch because when he was kitten (and before he was named), his head was bigger than his body, he fur was going every which way, and on day 2 he crawled into the bathroom garbage can. My ex commented that if he was green he’d look just like Oscar the grouch. My Felix Unger is named because I still had Oscar, not because he’s black. When I adopted Felix he looked just like Oscar but… Oscar complained that Felix was there (13 year difference) and Felix talked a lot and wanted constant attention, from me and Oscar. Oscar just wanted him to go away.
We have 5 kitties but I will tell you the story behind Barkerman’s name. He and his siblings were abandoned 8 years ago in a cardboard box on the side of the road in January in NY. They were brought to the shelter I worked at, only a few days old and weren’t expected to make it. I took them to Foster as bottle babies and they were supposed to go back to the shelter at adoption age but I developed such a strong bond with them I adopted all four. They thrived, and did all of the usual firsts. Eyes open, wobbly legs walking, first wet food meal and more. When they started to do their cute little meows my one boy couldn’t meow. He made little sounds that were exactly like a dog barking and so he became the Barkerman. Since then and with the advancement of phones mine always auto corrected to Barcodeman. It was so funny and cute it’s stuck so now my Barker is nicknamed Barcode. I love the look on people’s faces when I tell them one of my cats names is Barcodeman.
I found my little girl, who is a Snowshoe, in an animal shelter about 200 miles round trip from my home. My friend went with me to meet her and bring her home. We were discussing a name for her on the drive home. We both decided she was very shy and not socialized. Obviously I named her Shyla. She has become more social, but is still really shy, but I love her.
Well, about two decades ago, my three daughters discovered anime and manga, and even started learning the Japanese language. After that, all our furbabies were given Japanese names – sometimes after favorite anime/manga characters, sometimes because the meaning of the name, and sometimes just because we liked the name. The most curious name had to be our Maine Coon stray, who took up residence in our backyard for a few months before my husband gave us the green light to keep him. Since my girls didn’t want to get too attached (too late for that already), they picked a Japanese word – not a name. The Japanese word for cat is “neko” and adding a “ko” on the front makes it a baby. So, Koneko translates as kitten. Even when we brought him in and officially made him part of our family, the nickname stuck and became his name. So, the biggest cat we had – a beautiful gray tabby Maine Coon – had a name that meant “kitten”.
I heard a noise on the patio early one morning. I peeked out the blinds and saw a cat who had gone into labor. She saw me and instead of freaking out, seemed to appreciate that I was there. I watched her give birth to five kittens. When she was done, I put out some food and water and I put a box with blankets in it outside the back door. After she ate and rested for a bit, the mama kitty let me hold her and check on the kittens, so I was able to take them into the house. Over the next few weeks I watched the kittens open their eyes and start to move around. One day I saw the first born kitten struggle to get up. He took some shaky steps and fell. Then he got up again. I started saying to myself, “Go Speed Racer, go! You can do it.” He started going and fell again. I said louder, “Go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer!” and he got up again and climbed over his siblings. He got stronger and kept going. From that moment on, he was my Speed Racer!
I had a cat named Kitty Kitty who died and another cat came along who looked just like her but is a boy. I wanted a name that started with a K so I found Kefir which means lion cub. He has a mane so it fit. I have another cat that we rescued from the side of the road. 2 broken legs, 1 that was all the way by the hip. Was severely anemic and weighed 1.4 pounds at 4 months old. We nursed him back to health and he is a healthy 8 pounds now. We named him Leonard after Sugar Ray Leonard because he was a fighter and very sweet. He is one of those rescues that shows you everyday how much he appreciates being rescued. He got attached to me so I kept him. He also reminds me of a cat I pet sat for, Baby Kitty. (died) so I call him Baby Leonard.
About 2 years ago I went out into my back yard to feed my feral kitties. I startled a kitty I had never seen before. I called to the kitty and to my surprise he came back. It was obvious he was not feral. After taking him to see the vet and introducing him to my other kitties I needed a name. I choose Oliver Twist since he was a homeless hungry boy. So was my kitty. I live in a subdivision called Wellington Place. So he was named Oliver T. Wellington.
When I adopted my Cody when he was 10 weeks old back in 2007, his name was “Prince.” I had always loved the name Cody and told his foster Mom I was going to name him that. She looked at me with terror-filled eyes and said “Oh no!! Not “Cody!!” I asked her why and she said that every “Cody” she had ever known was crazy….and begged me not to name him that. Well, I did…and he IS CRAZY lol…but in a GOOD way…….he is the most loving cat ever. A real cuddle bug. Before the famous “Prince” passed, I also used to call him “Cody, the cat formerly known as Prince.”
My boyfriend and I decided to adopt a cat after my father passed away to help me grieve. When we arrived at the adoption center we started looking at kittens after we found one they informed us that it buy one get one free. So we ended up taking two home. When we got home we sat on the floor and introduced the kittens to the house. We were shouting out names that we liked and we came up with Eve for our all black cat and Hazel for our tortoiseshell. Not because we wanted them but because they responded to those names. We didn’t pick the names, the kittens did!
I name my furbabies after beloved family members who’ve passed on. We’re Italian, so LeoNardo after my maternal lineage, Giuseppe, Belvisa. Benvenuto. and Francesco Raffaele. Maggie, Coco and Mimzi were nicknames of my mother. All meaningful to me and a way to honor their namesakes.
My Kitty Sunshine got her name bc she truly is my sunshine. She’s helped me get through two Breast cancer battles, the loss of our Macy(doggie), the loss of my Mom, the loss of both grandmothers and several more friends and furriends. She will wipe the tears off my face with her face. When I’m not feeling well, she’ll hold my hand with her little paw. She truly lives up to her name and she does make me happy when skies are gray.
My oldest cat is named Coco Butter Bur Gordee. Coco Butter was picked out randomly by my daughter. Bur is for Burbank; that is where she is from. Gordee is our last name.
The second cat in the family is named Poet Diva Mad Gordee. Poet was her given name that she had at the shelter. They said it was due to her non stop ‘talking’. Her second name is Diva, because she could give Mariah Carey a run for her money! And Mad is because she is from Madison. And Gordee, because that is our last name.
Esme’ was named after reading “The Lamorna Wink” by Martha Grimes many years ago. Two children – Noah and Esme’ – were murdered and the story touched me deeply. I guess I named her in honor of any child who was not allowed to grow up loved.
I have a black cat namedTres. He was hit by a car before I got him and lost his from leg. So he is Tres for 3 legs. And I had an orange cat named Cheeto because I love Cheetos! And him too.
We have 2 tuxedo cats. The oldest is named Q. He has a little white tuft of fur on the tip of his tail, like a Q-tip. The younger one is Kadin (kay-din). When we adopted him, I went onto a baby name website and saw that Kadin meant “companion” in Arabic. Perfect! Only problem, the web site did not include the pronunciation for the names, so Kadin (kay-din) should have actually been pronounced Kadin (ka-deen). It was several years later when we found out! LOL
When I was thinking about getting cats, I told myself I would name them after artists, The one missing a piece of ear would be Van Gogh, the one who’d been around the block a bit and wasn’t really that symmetrical would be Picasso and so on. But when I got my first cat from the shelter and saw him running around like a swashbucker, I thought to myself, no, he is dashing, handsome, has that charismatic charm that all the ladies would fall for, and so I named him Errol “Fantasma” Flynn. Fantasma was the name the shelter gave him and I wanted to honor where he came from. I was told by friends that a cat needs a friend and they were doing a two-for-one at the shelter, so I chose a cat who was a bit larger and named him Alan “Malcolm” Hale, who was the big sidekick to Errol Flynn in all his movies. About a year later, I adopted a calico from a family that couldn’t care for her. She was renamed Olivia “Kitty” DeHavilland, after Errol Flynn’s main love interest in most of his movies. A couple years later, with a story too long to tell here, I adopted another cat who looked like the Joker in the Batman TV show, so he is Caesar “Nacho” Romero.
I have several cats. Squeaker got his name because when he was young, he could not meow—it just sounded like a squeak.
Skitters got her name because when I brought her into the house as a stray, she was very skittish of everything. She quickly grew out of it and it such a cuddler now.
Pipsqueak got her name because she is so tiny. She is healthy but never got much bigger than a large kitten size.
I found Autumn in the fall season of the year and he is a yellow cat. Fall would not be a great name but I thought Autumn was perfect for him.
Cinder was found abandoned inside a cinder block that was lying next to a house. She was so tiny!! Officially, her name is Cinderella but usually gets called Cinder.
My three girls are sisters. Velcro got her name the very first time I saw her. She came out from under the stairs grabbed my wrist and didn’t let go, just like velcro.
Inky started off life as Waffles. I would call her and she would ignore me, she would not look at me, she would walk away. So I decided she might not like her name. So since she’s an all black cat I tried Cinder, Smoke, Blackie and when I got to Inky she jumped up in my lap and purred. So Inky it was.
Toots got her name because my grandma always called me Toots.
My kitten has cerebellar hypoplasia, “wobbly cat syndrome,” moves around like a drunken cowboy! He’s smart, brave and sweet, with a bright white coat with orange tabby patches. I named him Sundance!
I named my cat Raven after the Baltimore Ravens. I was born and raised there but moved away many years ago but still(!) root for them. She is also all black!
The Sweetest
I’m sharing the story of how my beautiful long haired Calico was named. Her name is not unique, entertaining, nor original; rather it is plain and simple. However it suits her very well
I was shopping at a local pet store when I passed by the adoption section for cats. There was only one cat awake, and her piercing green eyes stared back at me. She seemed to say “why am I here”? I uttered under my breath the exact same thing, grabbed an employee and asked to see her. Picking her up was like hugging a best friend you hadn’t seen in quite some time. Her purr was constant and quite audible; she seemed to melt in my arms. She joined our family that very day, in 2005.
On her adoption tag it stated the age was unknown, although estimated to be between eight to ten years. She was dropped off at an animal shelter and saved at the last moment by the rescue group; just a day before she was scheduled to be euthanized. The name on her tag was “Candy”.
My family toyed and tossed around other cute names, and as the weeks went on we couldn’t come up with any other idea. She was a lap cat and constantly loving on anyone who would pet her. Her sweet personality led us to believe that her name was perfect, so Candy kept her name.
Candy covered us like a warm blanket, and her purr followed her everywhere she went; no matter what the circumstances, from room to room. You knew Candy would be in your lap the moment you sat down, and if you decided to recline back, her lullaby would soon melt you away contently into a deep slumber.
Candy lived with us until two weeks ago. The vet said she was around twenty when she passed. Her last day was spent with us at home, and that is exactly what she preferred. Although it was painful to watch her decline from old age, she was content to be with us. In her last hour, I went to visit her where she was hiding. She looked up when I patted the floor. She used the last of her energy to stumble to me, to cradle next to my chest as I lay on the floor. She tried to purr, laboriously and it was breaking my heart. I rubbed her chin and although weak, she attempted curling her front paws and rolling over so I could rub her tummy. She died a couple of hours later, and never showed signs of pain. Even in the end, Candy was the sweetest creature I have ever been blessed know. She is treasured memory now, and her love surpasses death. Her simple name still suited her through in the painful moments of the last hours of her life.
I have two Scottish Fold boys and a rescued Persian girl. I named our oldest, black and white Fold boy, Fib’ear (Fibber) Magee, after the 40s radio show. I chose that name based on the character of the show, who was always planning to clean out his closet. Well, my Fibber hoard toys, plus he’s quite the character…screaming and cursing his catnip hamster. The name fits him well, even at 18.5 years of age. My other Fold boy is Olly-O-Boy-a-Toy! because he’s very playful. And our Persian rescue is pure sweetness behind all that fur. Her given name was Emily, but I chose to call her Emmy Lou Hairiest (after the singer), because she truly is the hairiest. All three love your toys!
One year ago I took my dog to the Vet to refill a Rx. During the exam the Vet mentioned that it was my lucky day because along with each Rx refill comes a kitten. Huh? Boy, did she know me as she placed a 5 week ago little bundle of love in my hands. As I was leaving with my dog and new fur baby the staff (while scheduling a kitty check-up) asked me what I was going to name him. Again, huh? No kitty supplies at home, needing to get to the store and here I was being asked for a name. First thing I said while laughing, “boy the Doc really snookered me this time!” We all looked at each other and said “Snookered”. There you have it…”Snookered” it is!
Kazimir – We always name our cats something that reflects our ancestry. We wanted something Russian for my background and so we put it out to friends on Facebook. When one friend came back and told us this name meant “thief of sleep” – we jumped on it because this kitten was most definitely a thief of sleep.
Eddie (Munster). Eddie is a beautiful sleek black kitty, very smart, very loyal to me. I named him Eddie Munster after taking him in as a feral kitten this past Spring due to his Halloween look and personality at the time. He was very wild. I have the scars to prove it. Lol. He would jump around sideways with his back up, like a traditional Halloween cat, all sharp claws and sharp little teeth. Fast forward to today, 7 months down the road, Eddie is now so calm, so loving, smart and loyal. He “talks” to me when he wants something “brr” he says:) and is always by my side. Just the best boy ever. Eddie (Munster) seemed a perfect name for my little Halloween kitten. He has brought so much love and joy to my life, to our lives (mine and my boyfriend’s.) I’d love to win to get Eddie something special for Christmas, maybe catnip toys, which he would love! Thanks for the chance to win. ❤