How did you choose your cats names?

Let's see...Nadette came from the shelter with her name. It fits her. Clyde came from an acquaintance with his name as well. I named Elsa for the lion in Born Free (she was a feral, and I had to tame her), and Smudge was named after my SmudgeRIP, and then I bought him from a breeder on the site because of that!

They came with these names from the shelter. I just kept them.

Here we go:

Hydrox: named after the chocolate cookie b/c he was all black with just a tint of white around his neck
Banshee: As a little baby, her lungs were bigger than she was and she knew how to use them. Boy, could that little girl scream like a banshee!

Whisper: We catnapped her from the neighbors. When you look in our front window, you can't see her if the drapes are open....she blends right in with the background. Plus, she was so quiet when she first came into the house. Little did we know what a screamer she really was.
Bootser: We catnapped her, too. A little furry tuxedo with gorgeous white socks or boots, I guess. Her name is always said twice: Bootser, Bootser.
BooBoo: As a tiny little guy, he looked so much like a little bear cub and he became BooBoo
Ms. Pepe: A tortie with a split face, she looks like she has a stripe running down her face. Like Pepe Le Pew, kind of, only since she's a little girl, she is called Ms. Pepe. (And not Miss! Ms. only, please. )
Amber Louise: A little orange tabby, she reminded us of the color amber. I don't know how she got her middle name; I called her that one day and it just stuck.
Mollipop: Our not-so-little brown tabby, I was singing "Lollipop, Lollipop" one night as I was going into the basement with a basket of laundry. I had been trying vainly to call her Bastet, but it just wasn't a good name for her. I accidentally sang, "Mollipop, Mollipop!" and darn it, she looks like a Mollipop! She really does!

DH picked out Nora's name, I'm not sure how he came to it. Walter is named after the character in Fringe, which is my FAV show and I absolutely adore the character Walter on it. Thomas is the leader of the two, and very brave from the very start, so we named him after Thomas Jefferson, a strong leader. We always give our cats people names. Our old cat Gus (snuck out and we never saw him again) was named after the mouse in Cinderella. He was usually called Gus-Gus or Gusser McFuzzy Butt.

Memphis came as Memphis. All the people in the shelter hated the name, but I'm awful at naming pets (it took a week to name my first guinea pig, and i needed suggestions from my parents) so I left it. When I got home, I realized his name was actually really unique and as a bonus he already somewhat answered to it. Plus, I found out he had a scratch on his eye the shelter never told me about (nice $125 added to adoption costs when I had to go to my own vet), so I figured if the idiots who let that slip hated the name, it might just be a good name afterall.

Tails came as Luigi, because he was brought into the shelter with his brother (Mario). Since I adopted Luigi, I knew I had to change it (sure, I might have kept the name Mario if I had adopted his brother, but who wants a cat named Luigi with no Mario?) So when he came home, I noticed his tail was ringed even though he was spotted (this was before I knew that ringed tails are the number one most common feature on tabbys) and he's orange/brown and white, just like Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog. I know I'm going to be getting another cat within a couple years once I have a steady job, so I guess I already have Sonic picked out as a name lol. I don't know what I'll do if a girl catches my eye next time.

EDIT: I was just looking up some stuff about ancient Egypt, and I found out Memphis was the capitol of Lower Egypt a long time ago until Alexandria was built and took away from commerse in the area. So I guess Memphis fits even better than I thought, what with ancient Egypt's love for cats.

In our family, "baby songs" are created from thin air and sung to babies/toddlers. One of the songs I remember had the word "Penny" in it. I guess memory can be a powerful thing for me to remember something as far back as that. Penny was named in 2003, almost 30 years after I was a toddler. Her original name was "Baby" which I sometimes still use. ... "Daisy" came from a TV movie.

My cats have always had people names, with the exception of "Nightly" who I got in high school. I got that name from a fiction short story.

My current cats all came from the same shelter. I kept the names of Claude (though it is really "Claudio" for daily use), Ariel, and Tonya because I liked those names and they suit them. They all knew their names, also.

I changed Lily's name from Patria because I didn't like that name and I wanted another little, round, DSH black female cat who I would name "Lily." I don't know why, but I wanted that for years before it happened.

Harlow's name was "Daddy-o" which suited him because he is a cool cat (beatnik and jazz reference) and because he was the father of kittens who came with him into the shelter. I like that name, and he still knows it as I sometimes call him that. "Harlow" came to me in the middle of the night when he was in the bathroom the first night I had him and he was yelling his head off. I'd go in to comfort him every so often, and suddenly, at 3 or 4 a.m., I knew his name. I had worked on a list that evening of about 30 names, and "Harlow" wasn't on it. I don't know where it came from. I think of "Jean Harlow," though, the glamorous Hollywood actress from the 1930's, as an inspiration because Harlow is such a glamor boy.

Robin

Siamie - DH named her...he refused to call her Persimmon, which is what I wanted to name her.
Buster - another cat named by DH.
Speck - I picked out the name before I got him. That was the name of Pee Wee Herman's dog in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. And my dad and I used to call the neighbors' spotted dog Speck, even though her name was Lady or Princess or something. I was determined to have a spotted cat and when I saw Speck at animal shelter, I knew he was the one. Not a very clear story, but the name fits.
Daisy - named after the cow my dad's family had when he was growing up.

As an aside, how many people do you think changed their pet's names FROM Speck to something else after the whole Pee Wee debacle? I only bring it up because my friend's dog got a sudden name change about that time, and Speck became Bullitt.

Flash got her name because she has a flash of ginger across her face that and she us like a flash if lightening when she starts running around

And Sooty got his because he is jet black

Smooch got his because my mam thought he looked like a kisser and he is with her

I love this thread. I want a cat called Mollipop *stamps feet*

Elmo - I was 9 years and really great at naming cats! He got the name because he is red.

Sophie- My Mum named her after Sophie Ellis Bexter

Flutterby - My Nana named her. Her breeder wanted to call her Butterfly but my Nana said that was boring.

Brie - I called a whole litter of kittens after cheese and she's yellow and white, so hence Brie...

Mushroom - I called his litter sister Badger, so for all those who know the song Badger, Badger, Badger....Mushroom, Mushroom. That's how he got his name.

Gypsy - I got her as a 6 month old kitten and her name was OMG so I wanted to call her something starting with G. She gets called Gypsy Princess.

Fluffy - is on a trial home at the moment (it's been a week) so I don't know whether she's still my cat BUT she didn't suit any other name so she ended up with Fluffy.

My 5 week old babies:

Demon - named because she screamed from the moment she was born until she was 5 days old and I didn't get any sleep. We thought she was going to die.

Gumdrops - her colour is bright and cheerful, and it's an ice-cream flavour here.

Jovi - Jon Bon Jovi was visiting in NZ at the time

Gumboots - just seemed to suit him

I have always wondered how mushroom got his name

The three little girls:

Aberdeen - I just like saying that. It just flows for me and I call her Abs at times.

Baylen - One of my good friends had a male cat by that name and I loved it. So what if it is a male name, most have never heard of it.

Meatloaf - My daughter named that one. Its what we had for dinner the night they were born.

"The three little girls:"


I have "the three little girls" at my house, too!

The other two are "my boys."



Robin

Shareena: My first kitten ever. She was called Glamorous when I got her, but to me that's a description, not a name. I tried a number of Egyptian goddess names on her, but nothing really suited. Finally named her after a goddess in a fantasy story I had written (so far unpublished). She definitely has the goddess attitude.

Miss Patchwillow: Shareena's sister. Named Patch by the previous owner, but I didn't think that was a very attractive name for a lovely lady. A friend of mine from a writer's critique group had written a children's story about a witch named Mz. Patchwillow. A nice witch, but not too bright. That fits my girl to a T, so I borrowed the name but changed it to "Miss".

Goldy: Showed up on my back patio begging to come inside. I wasn't feeling very creative with names. She's a red tabby whose coloring tends more toward gold than orange and she has gold eyes.

Iris: One of Goldy's kittens. I started out calling her Brat because that's what she was when she was first born. Then I thought if I gave her a sweet flower name maybe it would have a positive effect on her personality. Okay, she can still be a brat at times, but she's my snuggle kitty now.

Cali: One of Goldy's kittens. She was trying really hard to be a calico when she was born, but never quite made it.

Merlin: I was trying to think of a good name for an aby on my way to pick him up from the breeder, but couldn't come up with anything I liked. The breeder had named him Merlin and I really liked that, so I kept it when I sent in his registration papers. Of course, as soon as I got him home I started calling him Monkey.

For some reason, my cats usually end up with an Irish or English name. There's:
Hannah Bea
Jack-ola
Rufus John
Katie Mae
Bridget Elaine
Charlotte Roberta

With names like that, I could list all of them as dependents on my tax return.

Why didn't I think of that?

I love his name so much but then again he is my favourite kitty It of course gets shortened to Mushy and to Shroom

DH was in the Navy for 21 years, so we have some very patriotic names:

Halsey (after Admiral Halsey)

His sister Molly (Molly Pitcher)

Chester (after Admiral Nimitz)

His sister Teresa (she's a tortoiseshell originally named Trixie but she is so NOT a Trixie. Princess Teresa is her full name)

Gracie - only because she is grey.

Josephine - after my little sister. She was insulted when I named Josie for her until I told her how much I'd always loved her name. She didn't get it but she realized I did it to honor her.

Our fosters, who all got homes, were named Dolly Madison, George and Martha (Washington), Thomas and Rachel (Jefferson), Abraham, Mary Todd and Woodrow. (Honestly, he looked like a Woodrow - his new owners just call him Woody).

If we ever get up to Barack and Michelle, we'll need a bigger house!

I just LOVE THIS, and I don't know why!!!

Freya - We'd wanted t call her Odin because of the one eye, but she was a girl so it became Freya instead. We were originally thinking of calling her Jasmine, but it was just too girl-y for her.

Cotton - He came with the name and by the time we thought of anything to change it to, we realized he answered to it, so he stayed Cotton...although we decided that his full name was "Theodore Aloysius von Cottonburg the Third"

Sybil - she got the name because she's our split personality kitty. when she was outside, we figured she was semi-feral at best. The minute she came inside, she was a lap cat.

Wendel - Like Cotton, he came with the name and we decided that it really suited him, so we kept it.

Nero - Black in Italian. His name was "Stone" when we adopted him. And they had him listed as a girl

Hoshi - "Star" in Japanese. His name was "Star" when we adopted him, but he looked too macho for that name We called him "Asteri" and "Hoshi" and he responded to Hoshi.

Neko - Cat in Japanese. His name was "Jim Bob" (UGH) when we adopted him. Obviously, that name HAD to go. He looked like "Neko" would fit, and it has.

Katina - I said female kitten in Italian was "gattina", and hubby heard "katina" and it stuck.Turns out "katina" is Lithuanian, it fit better than we thought!

Monte (RB) - My dad suggested that name for him, since Rob has a Monte Carlo SS.

No idea just like a baby with colic I assume. She's 5 and a 1/2 weeks old now and she deserves the name Demon for different reasons. She's a little terror.

Abby came to live with me when she was 4 months old. The girl I got her from had named her "Abby", short for "Abigail" because of her red fur.

When I met Abby, she looked like an "Abby", so I left it. And it fits her to a tee! I can't imagine her having had any different name.

I was looking through a Cherokee languages book, and discovered that the word Wessah meant cat. I thought, if I got a cat I'll name it Wessah. So, I got a cat shortly after that, and named him Wessah. I call him Wess, or Wessie for short.

Shadey - It looked like someone took a pencil and "shaded" him in.
Elliott - I have just always loved the name. It really suits him!
Imhotep - I wanted an unique Egyptian name, and it means "He who comes in peace." He always puts me at ease.
Osiris - Continuing with the Egyptian theme.
Cleopatra II - Again with the Egyptian theme, but the first Cleopatra passed away exactly one month before she was born, so I thought it would be a nice tribute.
Nova - Dana named him. It just came to him one day.
Azizi - Again with the Egyptian theme, meaning "precious" and he certainly is!
Teyah - I just thought it was a beautiful name.
Pria - It was a character in a book I was reading and I LOVED the name.
Lionel Pitre (LP) - I have NO idea where this name came from... It just popped into my head and I loved it...lol. Lionel gets called LP more frequently than anything else now.

LOL! The name Mollipop works for this little girl...she was meant to be a Mollipop from day one. She does look like a little Mollipop!

I love the name Flutterby! And I also like Demon for a screaming kitten. And if we ever got a little boy kitty, I'd like to call him Damian. (And remember, Demon may be a little terror, but she's YOUR little terror, so it works out. She'll calm down - someday! )

I only ever found one other Banshee and they had given the name to a male cat....I thought banshees were all female. I'm sure there are other Banshee-babies around. I loved her name and it fit her to a T.

And Kailie? One of these days, I'm coming to Canada and I'm stealing Shadey! That boy takes my breath away every time I see your signature. He is just gorgeous!