Frivolous Friday – Name That Cat!

If you’ve been following this week’s blog posts, you’re probably ready for a lighter, more uplifting topic. So I thought I’d end the week on a happier note—focusing on when you finally find that purr-fect new addition to your loving home. As most of you know a lot goes into preparing a home for a kitten or even an older cat. You may have to go back into your memory bank to recall what it was like to have a kitten around, for example. Some older cats come with baggage—you know, habits and unusual behavior, maybe fetishes. But that’s for another article or blog post. Today I want to touch on something more fun—cat names.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I struggle to name a cat and other times when the name is obvious. Some cats come with a name—you might choose to keep it, alter it some, or discard it altogether.

If you’re like me you might have a name in mind before you adopt. It might fit the next cat that comes into your heart or not. I haven’t had many male cats, so when I decided to keep a cute kitten we found in our woodpile, I wasn’t prepared to name him. I thought and thought about a name for this robust kitten. I discarded name after name. Finally I found his name at a grandson’s graduation ceremony. I listened as the names were called out and Max is the name that stuck. I finally chose Lily’s name when I realized she was as delicate as a flower. We had to change Katie’s name when she came to us because we already had Katy. It took a while, but we finally chose to call her Dinah because she was always in the kitchen with us.

Since losing Lily, I’ve been looking at kittens online and I’ve come across some adorable cats and kittens with some very unusual names. One tiny girl was called Goose. How do you suppose that came about? If you’re like me, you have to spend some time with the cat or kitten in order to find a name that fits. When you know it, you know it.

Here are some fun names people have actually named their cats: Rosie Posie, Lucy Blue Belle, Kitty O’Meowly (love that one), Duchess Honeysuckle, Butterbean, Mr. McWhisker and Mr. Fuzzy Pants.

If you like nerdy names you might consider Poindexter, Plato, Myrtle.

There are millions of possibilities, and here are some tips for choosing the right name for a particular cat. Note such things as, where did the cat come from? Lily was born in a Volkswagen and raised in an attic, Max’s mother carried him from the backyard behind us to our woodpile, Katy came from a kitten mill in Missouri. Sophie was living on the streets when someone trapped her to give her the opportunity for a better life. I’m sure we could have come up with names related to their beginnings. I have a friend who named a kitten Wally because he was found inside a wall of a house that was under construction.

What’s the cat’s personality or behavior? If we’d waited to get to know Lily better—if we knew she’d develop into such a chow-hound-kitty, we might have named her Foodie. My daughter named a cat Fridgie because he was constantly trying to climb in their refrigerator. She also had one show up in the engine of a car. Her fur had been shaved off by the fan, so Fanny might have been an appropriate name.

A lot of us name cats for their coloring. Oreo for a black and white cat. Ginger, Goldie or Marmalade for an orange tabby; Tabby, Tabitha, Checkers…

Others choose names of celebrities—Groucho for a grumpy cat or one with eyebrows. Maybe your cat looks like a celebrity or you like a certain sports figure or political figure. There are as many possibilities as there are cats.