How did your cat(s) get their name(s)?

purrrplej

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Hi - recently on The Cat Site there was a discussion of whether people's cats had middle names. That got me thinking, how did everyone's cat(s) get their name(s)?

Simba actually started out as Sabrina, just because I liked that name - and the pet-store folks assured me that the kitty was a female. When I took him to the vet for the first time, though, I was advised that I might want to change "Sabrina's" name! I just chose Simba because it was close enough to Sabrina to, hopefully, not confuse him too much. Plus, it was appropriate, since it was not too far removed from the days of "The Lion King," and I guess "Simba" means "lion," and he looks like a little lion, being an orange tabby.

Murray was named after Murray Head, who sang "One Night in Bangkok" in the '80s. I chose it because Bangkok is in what used to be Siam, and Murray is a Siamese. I also wanted an '80s connection because when Murray ran into my apartment with me that fateful night he "adopted" me, I happened to be on the phone with a friend who totally loves the '80s.

So, how did your kitty/kitties get their name(s)?
 

katiemae1277

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my kitties are all named for figures in Greek Mythology. I love mythology first, and second, I get quite a few cats who come thru my door and I am just not creative enough to come up with names without a theme
I don't really try to match the name with the cat, I just go down the list, but sometimes it just works out. Like Pandora is black and white, like a panda
Antigone is a tiger and Hades is the devil
 

zane's pal

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When my mother was a girl, she had a black longhair called "Smoke." Shortly after they were married--and I can remember him barely--my folks got a black longhair called "Smudge". Many years later, they got a grey longhair and called him "Smog." (I told them that it ought to me "Smaug." Those who have read The Hobbit will know what I mean.)

After Smudge, we had a yellow and white tabby called Woody, because we lived in the woods. Then we had a dog. After the dog and Smog, my parents got another cat who looked almost exactly like Woody, but because as a kitten he purred constantly they called him PurrPuss.

Shortly after Mother died, Father took in a gray tabby. For a while he called him just The Gray Cat, but my Aunt (a retired English teacher) suggested that as he was gray he ought to be called Zane. (If he had been a female he probably would have been Lady Jane.)

(My other aunt, who is also an English teacher, calls her own cat just Cat. I would think that an English teacher would be able to come up with something better! What about Tybalt [the King of Cats in various fairy tales]? Or Hodge [Dr. Ben Johnson's cat, who liked oysters]? Or Pangor [if the cat happens to be white, after Pangor Bahn, the monk's cat in the old Irish poem]? Or Minnaloushe? Or Geoffery [after Kit Smart's cat in "Rejoice in the Lamb"]? Or Dinah, Alice's cat? And then there all the cat names in T.S. Elliot.)
 

amarna

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my old cat marvin got called 'starvin marvin' when he turned up one day thin as a rake & we took him in, always calling him marvin.

my yoshi was named by a 3yr old after a super mario character before they turfed her out, so we started calling her yoshi-doo, but she is doosie most of the time. she is as mental as a computer character.

my other old cat was called mia after the character in pulp fiction because she looked uncannily like uma thurman in a strange way.

my mums cat is called jack because we couldnt decide on a name, so on the way home from collecting him the first male name that came up would be his name ''hit the road jack, don't you come back no more, no more...''.

mum has yoshi's sister & has called her baby because she was so small & delicate - still is. she also has peggy who is named after the character in heidi-hi because she was found near a holiday camp.
 

luvmyfurbabys

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Mine is not an exciting story...

Zeus Nicholas - is an 11 yr old chocolate lab , he was given to us on Christmas morning 2007 ... it was either we take him or they were having him put down. So Zeus came with his first name , I gave him his middle name in honor of St. Nick because of the season.

Patches Peanutbutter - DH named her , I again gave out the middle name because she looked like a squished up peanutbutter cup.

Grace Isabella - Grace came with that name , Isabella is a tribute to my Bellah who just passed.

Bridget - came with that name...and I cant seem to come up with a middle name yet.

Serena Belle - Serena because she looked so peaceful when she slept... Belle is again for my Bellah.


I wish I could come up with a middle for Bridget.
 

laureen227

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my current crew are all named after computer related items...
saw Pixel's name in a book, liked it - but i got a pair [she & Mouse were/are littermates]. had to come up w/a 'matching' name for Mouse! after that, it started a trend

i like having a theme - makes naming new cats much easier!
Java's name was picked via a TCS poll, btw...
 

ninacaliente

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Delilah got her name just because I thought it was beautiful, just like her.


Blue was named by my kids because she has blue eyes, which the kids thought was quite unique at the time.

Piper was another one I chose just because I liked it, and thought it fit her personality.

Bastian was named after the boy in The Never Ending Story, which I LOVED as a child. (Still do!)

Griffin was almost going to be named Falcor (to go with Bastian), but I just didn't think it fit him. Griffin was the next thing that popped into my head!

Adam's name was suggested by White Cat Lover, to go along with Eden's name since they lived together in their previous life.

Sprout is a name DH had picked out years ago when he was wanting to adopt a Chinese Crested dog. He never got one though, because I knew he would NEVER have the patience to housetrain it, especially when the cold winter rolled around. But now that he has Sprout the Sphynx, DH decided to use the name for him instead, in reference to his little patches of peach fuzz.
 

moonlights mom

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I was volunteering at my children's book fair about 7 years ago, and I came across a picture book titled "A Kitten Called Moonlight". Its about a stray white kitten who is found by a mother and a little girl in a lighthouse right along the beach. By that time we already had our Himmie kitten reserved, so we decided to name him that. Plus the night we got him from the breeder there was a full moon.
It fits perfectly.
 

zoeysmom

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Belle and Delilah came from their mom's home with their names. We had planned to change them, but never came up with anything that we could agree on. My boyfriend wanted to name them Vegetable and Lasagna, so you can see why we couldn't agree.

Belle, I'm sure, got her name because she was a beatiful, long haired kitten. I have no idea how they came up with Delilah. When we got her home, however, I found it a hard name to spit out! Too many syllables. So, it got shortened to Lilah, which ended up as Lala. So, she's basically Lala now, except when she's in trouble. The name fits her, since she's such a non-chalant little kitten and I just see her walking around singing la-la-la in her head (if you ever watched Gilmore Girls, think of the lala music that played all the time). Belle, on the other hand, is a little in your face diva. Not a lala cat at all!
 

natalie_ca

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Chynna. She is about 16 years old and has owned me since May 1993:
She is pure white and I didn't want a generic name like "snowy" or "snowball". I like "normal" sounding names. She reminded me of porcelain because of her white fur which is so fine and downy soft, but "Porcelain" sounded stupid. So I decided on "China", but that looked like the name of a country. So I varied the spelling to "Chynna". Now I get asked if I named her after some wrestler whom I'd never heard of, LOL

Abby. She is 10 years old and came to live with me when she was 4 months:
The girl I got her from named her "Abigail" or "Abby" for short. Since she had been called that since she was a wee itsy baby, I left it. She is my "red head" and looks like an "Abby".
 

juliejerks

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Originally Posted by moonlights mom

I was volunteering at my children's book fair about 7 years ago, and I came across a picture book titled "A Kitten Called Moonlight". Its about a stray white kitten who is found by a mother and a little girl in a lighthouse right along the beach. By that time we already had our Himmie kitten reserved, so we decided to name him that. Plus the night we got him from the breeder there was a full moon.
It fits perfectly.
It really does fit perfectly! That's awesome.

Generally, I name all my pets weird names. I have a ferret named Superfly, I named my mum's dog Budgie (because he's white and fluffy like the Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer). I had a freshwater eel named John Mayer, because he was unbearably awkward, and a freshwater puffer named Puff Daddy. Not just cause he was a puffer fish, but also because he was a cold blooded gangster. He attacked and killed the snail I had in there with him (Poor Gary!).
When I got my cat, her name was already weird. It was Gorilla Bulldog, but I always accidentally called her Gorilla Biscuit, so I just started calling her Gorilla. Fiance calls her kitty-love. And sometimes we call her Gabby, because GB doesn't really flow.

I doubt my cat has any idea what her name is :p
 

zorana_dragonky

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My Pixel is named after the same character from the same book as Laureen's.
It's a great book! The cat Pixel is named after can walk through walls and travel through time. Pretty sweet!

Bamf is the noise that Nightcrawler (one of the X-men) makes when he teleports, and Bamf certainly runs very quickly and "disappears" when he is not interested in your company. It is also an acronym (B.A.M.F.) that people who have seem Pulp Fiction might get. Samuel L. Jackson's character has it on his wallet!

I named Pixel and my husband named Bamf.
 

kkh

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She's tuxedo & her face looks like she's wearing a mask, so the first choice was "MASQUE" but it sounded so generic and had no good vibe or character to it.
My then roommate came up with "crazy", "death", "killer" etc all sorts of silly names but none I found attractive or appropriate for my cute-little furry babe.
Then one day, he started calling her "ku ku" because of her cuckoo behavior, mostly her midnite madness/craziness(running around all nite, kept him awake or something). He also called her "cucukoo head", "little crazy-one" as well


She perfectly lives up to her name but I sometimes wonder I should've named her "Shamu" or "(killer-)shark/whale" because of her color and the way she hunts & grabs onto something - including my legs.
 

melissa4321

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Im a music nut and Adagio in music indicates that one should play slowly.
I wanted to name her something like Vivace or Allegro or Staccato, but at the time she was sick and barely ever moved, so Adagio was more appropriate than the other three names.
My mom was furious and thought the name was way too long. She wanted to name her Coco because of her color, but I was not about to allow my mother to name my child
 

epona

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I prefer unusual or non-human (or rather not modern/popular human) names for pets, and also like to go with a theme for their names.

When I first saw Radar as a kitten, that was the name that instantly popped into my head. It was his ears, they were (and still are!) just enormous, like radar dishes.

Sonic was a tougher choice which required some thought, he is actually Sonic Boom (which I find myself shortening to Sonniboo), it sort of fit with Radar as a theme.

Then there is Jacob which does not fit at all, but that was the name he already had so we didn't want to change it.
 

sport

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Sport got his name because of his personality. If you look up the definition of "sport" in the dictionary...it is my little guy...and I don't mean the athletic definition. But that is how my baby got his name.

Peace, Love and Tie Dye
,
Rob & Sport
 

lauracatlover

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Tabitha was called Tabitha basically because she was a little Tabby, and Mitzi was just one of a load of names we like that were drawn out from a hat!
 

barkleysjester

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Considering my two were both adopted and already had names, I think how they got their nicknames (which they answer to more than their actual names!) is funnier. For Barkley, his nickname is Moot (rhymes with foot) and I dont know exactly how I came about that name but I started calling him that, you know the way a parent nicknames their child(ren) and it just stuck. Now, if you call him by his given name of Barkley he just looks at you with this disgusted look. I actually gave him the middle name of James after my dad and only call him by his full name when he's tearing my house up


As for Petunia, she has two nicknames; Tuni and Majesty Royal Mothers. She is affectionately known by both nicknames but the one she prefers to respond to in her classic Tortietude is the latter. It fits her too because she walks around the house with an obvious air of superiority to everyone else, including Barkley and demands royal treatment (belly rubs, treats, conversation when she feels like talking and only when she feels like it and listening to opera music!). No one minds calling her by that name. She's a princess and everyone knows it's true!
 

EnzoLeya

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Enzo was our first kitty and we wanted a fun off the wall sort of name. My SO thought of the Enzo Ferrari (the car) and I loved the name!

Leya, an interesting one
I LOVE Dog the Bounty Hunter, and the episode was airing when his daughter Leah died while we were thinking of a name for our little girl. I liked the name, so her name is Leya.

Stuart, an easy one!
If any of you know the MadTV skit "Stuart" you know how annoying and cute he is! THAT is how Stuart got his name!
I've actually had several people come over and meet Stuart and say "did you name him after the MadTV Stuart?"


Here's one of my favorite Stuart Skits "Stuart goes to the chinese resteraunt."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BnYD...eature=related

My favorite line in the skit "my mom says it's ok to talk to lezbians because they take good care of their cats and have a can do attitude"
 

laureen227

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Originally Posted by Melissa4321

Im a music nut and Adagio in music indicates that one should play slowly.
I wanted to name her something like Vivace or Allegro or Staccato, but at the time she was sick and barely ever moved, so Adagio was more appropriate than the other three names.
My mom was furious and thought the name was way too long. She wanted to name her Coco because of her color, but I was not about to allow my mother to name my child
& now you have a theme for future furchildren, too!
 
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