Naming and Re-naming

Sorry to start so many threads at once, but the subjects are so different and hopfully might turn out to be helpful.

I am of the opinion (and my vet at least agrees) that cats can be renamed by different people without negative effects. In other words any person new to a cat can use whatever name they chose. The cat will associate the name with the themselves and the person calling them by it. Consistency seems to be all that is important.

What about a family, does it ever happen that different members of one family call their cat by different names? How does the cat respond?

Hm. We try not to call the cats by too many different names. A couple of them will get cat tacked on to the end of their names and seem ok with that (Sho-cat, Tanna-cat or brat ). Tanna and Blasa are both little girl kittens and seem to understand (at least by tone alone) when I say "little girl" to either of them.

I think renaming depends. Cats can adjust with time, but if you're adopting a cat and it's been called a particular name for a while I think it's best to keep the name or keep it close sounding if you want to make it easier for them.
And of course tone is most important. Cats know when you're addressing them, no matter what name you call them by.

I hope I'm not about to get cruxified for this but, I think I will be renaming Shulz (it depends on how he reacts) to Midnight.

Here is the ads picture of Shultz now Midnight.

Attachment 14295
Middy

The resident cat was rescued, but she did have a name, Q-Tip. I couldn't see myself calling Q-Tip in from the yard (and she was sooo unsociable at first) that I named her Bradley, but that generally gets changed to Birdly or even Biddy. So, if the new cats name is Midnight, I'm bound to start calling them Biddy and Middy. Works for me!

Attachment 14296
Biddy

Originally Posted by ChristinaCat

I hope I'm not about to get cruxified for this but, I think I will be renaming Shulz (it depends on how he reacts) to Midnight.

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They're your cats. Call them what you wish. As long as they're happy and healthy a name isn't that important - we probably sound like the adults off Peanuts to them anyways. (stick a C in Shulz and you'll get why I thought of Peanuts!)

I'd be tempted to rename Shulz to Schwarz. Really original.

I don't see a problem with renaming cats at all. All of my cats have different nicknames and are called different things at different times.

I name ALL of my fosters. I have to. I can't just call them "that cat" or "hey you". No one who has ever adopted my fosters has kept the names I have given and I am just fine with that, I just need something to call them while they are here. My foster who was adopted on Thursday was Gumbi Jane, but her new Mom renamed her Little Lucy Lovejoy, which I think is adorable!

Cats learn whatever name you're calling them pretty quickly, so I don't think renaming is an issue especially when rehoming.

...and each of our kitties has like a million nicknames, and they figure it out.

Originally Posted by LDG

Cats learn whatever name you're calling them pretty quickly, so I don't think renaming is an issue especially when rehoming.

...and each of our kitties has like a million nicknames, and they figure it out.

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Same here.

However we tried renaming Scully who had been owned for 8 years and he never took to any other names, just Scully and the other nicknames he had previously (Mooch and Big Boy) so it depends on the cat as much as the person.

Quincy took a long time to get used to his name, but I was not calling him Chutney (the shelter had Mango and Chutney at the time, cute if you adopted them both but weird if you didn't). He had only been called Chutney for a few weeks and had another name too when he went hom with a vet tech who was thinking about adopting him.

Autumn - I had good intentions of renaming her but I was so used to calling her Autumn I could never get used to calling her something else, I dont think she knows it anyway, she answers to Quincy's name half the time!

We (ok I) renamed 4 year old Mitze as Squeaky, when we adopted her. Somewhere along the line, the husband started to call her katkoot (chick in arabic), katkoot amour (cute chick) and kutkut. Can't remember what that last one means

She answers to all of the above, plus kitty, Squeakideak, the Squeakster and big fat cat. So long as she will occasionally get a treat or food when she responds, she'll listen