Renaming an adopted cat?

A former coworker of mine was giving away an 8 month old kitty on a local Facebook group.. They got her when she was 2 months old and shortly after, the couple had a baby in addition to their 4 year old.. And having a rambunctious young kitty just wasn't working out.. So I decided to adopt her! My kitty, Meeko, desperately wants a friend to keep him company while I'm at work..

Well... I don't like her name. My coworker's family named her Blu... Which makes me think of an old farm dog.

She doesn't seem to recognize her name... So I would like to rename her, but I have this coworker on Facebook, and I'm worried he'll be annoyed that I changed her. I keep thinking about their little 4 year old girl saying "bye Blu!! I'll miss you!". They even had her name engraved in a little heart pet tag... But I really don't like the name!

So. What would you guys do??

I don't think there's anything wrong with changing your new kitten's name to something you prefer, since she's part of your family now. You will be the one saying her name the most, after all. You can always get her a new collar tag with her new name on it fairly inexpensively. They have the machines that laser etch the tags right away at most pet stores. My husband's friend gave us the torbie on the left in my avatar was named "Kibby" but we didn't like that name so we changed it to "Sakura". She was already over a year old then, but she answers to "Sakura" instead of "Kibby" now and we think that it suits her much better than the old one. Hubby's friend hasn't asked us about her at all, either. Your new baby is still very young and isn't attached to her name, so giving her a new name shouldn't confuse her. If your co-worker wonders why you changed her name, you can explain to him that you found her a new name that you think suits her personality more, or that the new name helps her fit in with your family better.

We adopted our sparky from Cat Protection when she was 8 (she is nearly 10 now) and I hate her name. Everyone things she is a boy because most pets called sparky are boys. The trouble was she answers to that name as she was 8. But as your little one is so young you should change it. As CStS said, she is part of your family now

Change it and make her your own! If you're worried about the co-worker keep Blu as her "middle name"

LotsofFur said:

Change it and make her your own! If you're worried about the co-worker keep Blu as her "middle name"

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This is what I did. I adopted Indy when she was 4 months old; her shelter name was Dana. I wanted to keep her old name in some way since she had been called that for so long, so I still call her Dana every once in a while. Sometimes I even combine her names and I call her IndyDana.   

When we got "Sylvester" a few months ago, the people who had taken him in had called him "Charlie", you can even still put in to Google and see him if you type in "the Cat Shack Charlie*'s webpage" but you have to enter it just like that with that asterisk in there. Well, he certainly IS Sylvester in looks, and we at times use an animal communicator with pretty good results, and she told us (if you believe in this stuff or not, but she is very accurate!) that in her "conversation" with him he likes his new name, says it is not as harsh sounding, so I would think like others have said it is your cat name it what you want, I agree!

Arcturus is about five (maybe a bit older) and has been with me for about a month. In the shelter he was called Shug and I really didn't like that, so it got changed ASAP. He *knew* his name within the first week that he came home, so I don't think a cat is ever too old to get a new name. 

I would tell your friends that you always wanted a cat with the name you choose, and use Blu as a second or last name. Maybe somehow even put it into the new name if you can, like Stormy Blu, or Skye Blu. Or go with a name that will blend with your other like Pocahontas Blu, the possibilities are endless. Or name her what ever you want and explain to your friend that you have always wanted to name a cat that, and now is your chance.

For cats (and other animals even) I don't see an issue with renaming. They don't care, and even if they do know their names, it's not like they consider it an intrinsic part of their identity. At most, it's "thing human says when they want my attention." When being re-homed they are dealing with a lot of changes -- new people, new location -- the name is the least of their worries!

On a personal level, whether or not I change the name depends on the prior relationship I had with the cat. Cats I have known by their previous name for years before taking them in, I can't rename, even if I hate it, LOL. Cats I have had no prior relationship I can change without feeling guilty about.

The hardest renaming decision I had was actually for my horse, Gambit. The buying process took over 3 months in which we both called Gambit by his original name (Storm), the owner and I became Facebook friends, and I felt really awkward about changing it even though I really wanted to. I finally just asked her if she would be offended by the name change, and fortunately she had no issue with it!

I think the important thing, especially if you are continuing some sort of interaction with the previous owner, is to just respect the time they spent with your new pet and the name the pet had during that time, even if you change the name. So if you want to rename to something completely different, that's fine, and letting the previous owner of the rename is also fine, but I wouldn't force them to call the pet by the new name if they don't want to, especially if they are talking about them during the time that they owned the pet. With Gambit, the previous owner and I both call him Gambit now, and I will always refer to him using Gambit as his name when talking to her, but if she decides to call him Storm in conversation, that's totally cool with me -- because at the point in his life when she owned him, his name was Storm.