Question of the Day - Tuesday, May 26

Hello to all! Hoping everyone is having a superb Tuesday!



What is the story of the naming of your cats?



It is sort of a given that Camelot and Morgana are named from the legends of King Arthur! It was back when I was taking a Celtic Literature (Welsh, Irish, Scottish) course, which included early Arthurian Literature. Camelot came into my life less than a year after that, and named him thustly, and when Morgana was born two years later (his daughter, a lovekitten) I went for continuing the theme - Morgana being a version of Morgan Le Fay. The names just suited and nothing else would fit. They were both pure white with bright green/yellow eyes, plus I an half Irish! And I am a history/lit geek.

And it was all prior to the tv show version, Merlin.

Camelot had a sister whom I also adopted and named Gwenevere, white with blue eyes, but sadly passed away young.


And like many people, I like thinking of unique, nice and meaningful names.

Mogli still has his original shelter name; his first owners kept it, too. It's the German spelling of Mowgli from the Jungle Book and a popular cat name here in Germany, especially for black cats. I would have preferred to change it to something descriptive of his personality like Goblin or Imp, but he answered to it, and my husband thought it suited him, so Mogli it is.

Speedy is the name the rescue gave to my kitty for some reason.  Some of the other cats had bios that said they were part of "Speedy's gang".  I did not change the name because when you look at her, it kind of fits.  Lately, however, I have been calling her Speedy Robin.  I have been doing this because I thought the story from @MrWhiskers  was so nice, that is,  how Robin kitty was named for having beautiful blue eyes like a robin's egg.  My Speedy has blue Siamese eyes and I think Robin is such a nice name for a cat.  So now, she is my Speedy Robin!!! 

                                                                                           

My kitty is a tortie and has the Fall colors of a tortie soooooooooo of course I named her Autumn. Nothing very original but it suits her.

Casper came to us already named.  We adopted him from a very close friend of mine, who needed to rehome him due to major life upheavels he was experiencing at that time (as a near-senior no less).  I keep forgetting to ask him how he got that name.  We've had him for more than several years now so there's no excuse!  We would never have changed his name - he absolutely knows it.

Cocoabean looked like a little bean when we got her even though the vet approximated her at about 3-5 years old.  She's a rescue, and was somewhat malnourished when we adopted her.  She's grown a lot since then.  It took at least 2 weeks to come up with her name.  We kept tossing a bunch of them around (even Swifter, after the broom, because she's so furry and picks up dust sometimes LOL).  But, Cocoabean kind of stuck more than the other names, so that she became.  

EDIT: Ok, I just asked my friend about Casper's name.  He said, there's NO story!  Apparently, his ex-wife came home with 2 new kittens one day (they already had quite a few other pets).  He was livid because she never cared for them herself.  Anyway, perhaps it was the name the shelter gave him, who knows.  I does, however, seem to fit him.  

Mooch and Noodles were named for the Mutts Comic strip; my fav!  At first I wanted to give them both flower names.  I wanted Mooch to be Daisy but I've forgotten what I had thought of for Noodles.  DH didn't like them; so I suggested Mooch after Mooch from Mutts since she is a tuxie (although Mooch in the comic strip is male I believe).  Noodles is another cat in the comic; but my Noodles doesn't look like that character.  She looks (and acts) more like Sourpuss.    I've joked that if we ever get a little dog I'd have to name it Earl and keep the trend going. 

George was named for Curious George because from the time I got him he was curious about EVERYTHING.

Raven was named by my DD because we though he was a she and was solid black.

Ghost of course was solid white so his name fit.

Luci-fur was originally Prim (from Hunger Games) because she was so small and dainty. Once her personality came out it was changed to Luci-fur....It still fits to this day.

Felix just fit at first, now it seems that Forrest (Gump) seems better LOL

Sammy, hmm, well my younger DD called him Benny at first and it didn't fit so one day I called him Sammy and he came right to me so it stuck.

Patches is a patched tabby so I named him Patches.  I didn't think about Patches being a common name for a calico.  A lot of times the receptionists at the vet office will refer to him as she because of his name.

I didn't really name Alice after anything in particular, I just liked the name.  She is a really pretty kitty and to be honest I call her either Pretty Girl or Diva more than Alice.

Asha - I'm really into kundalini yoga, and I've found it invaluable for dealing with my various health problems. It incorporates a lot of mantras - some are in Gurbani and some are in Sanskrit. I wanted Asha's name to come from one of those languages. I went through several possibilities before finding Asha - Sanskrit for hope. It seemed to suit her perfectly. It very often becomes Asha-ji though - ji means beloved in Gurbani.

Mum named Shadow (and Cali, his littermate, sadly deceased). They're officially called Carbonel and Calidor - royal prince brothers from a children's book. Calidor became Cali, but Carbonel became Shadow (don't ask me for the logic there, though :lol3: ). It does suit him though - he's a very quiet British Blue Shorthair. Cali was a Cream, and much louder than his brother, so I suppose Shadow made a lot of sense.

Pushkin ('my' semi feral) - Mum again. She loves Russia and Russian literature. She'd wanted to name a cat Pushkin for a long time, and when we met (the then nameless) Pushkin at the stables, there was never any thought of a different name for her. Most people at the yard don't get the reference though, and mistakenly call her 'Pusskin'

We kept the shelter names for our cats.  Swanie, Cricket, and our rainbow kitties Cynthia and Darcy, all came with those names from the various shelters. 

I love hearing how all the cats got their names!  

My dog is a Border Collie (age almost 13). Her shelter name was Brittany. My DD was 8 when we got her (she's 20 now) and decided to change her name  to Bailey after a classmate of hers at the time.  When she's acting like a crabby old man, we call her Harold. Her alter ego    (yes. She answers to that)

Lilith and Sophie were Lilith and Midge at the shelter. We kept Lilith's name because we thought it suited her. She's usually called Baby Lily or Lily Belle

DD picked Sophie's new name. She started playfully calling her Sophiesaurus after we got her which we shortened to Saurus. She answers to that and Baby Saurus. Her nickname. 

Henry's shelter name was Chico. I changed it to Henry but more often that not, we call him Brother.