Why did you give your kittie that name?

We had a calico cat named Patches when i was little and our calico looked just like her so we named her after the 1st Patches

Alley got her name from a cute webshot picture of a kitten named Alley

Bob was named because my hubby thought it would be great to name a manx BOB for bobtail...ugggggh
and nico was named for a uNICOrn on a movie named nico
WILLOW <who is no longer with me >
was named this because her name meant healing and i thought it would help.
also because she was so small and cute
Lorien

When she came into my life, I had liked the name Sierra for quite some time, and had thought it would be a great name for when I have children. Then when I fell in love with Sierra, that just became her name like it was meant to be. I never questioned it.

Sphinx - He had another name when we adopted him but it didn't qite fit his regal aloofness. So we switched it to Sphinx - fits him much better.

Kuce - also had another name which ddn't quite fit either. We kept her old name for a few days while we looked up names to fit her and ran across Kuce (The quiet one). It fits her as a rule but she can purr and meow loudly when she wants to.

Two general principles govern the naming of our cats, though they don't always apply...
[1] that the name have sibilants ('s' sounds), which I have heard cats respond to more readily than others (who knows??)
[2] that the cat tells us (in one way or another) what their name is.

So...
Fawn (see below) is pretty obvious -- her fawn colouring
Cindy -- a combination of things to do with her colouring -- the kind of cinnamon dusting on the black velvet that's characteristic of the tortie -- or "Cinderella" for the not quite all black -- you get the picture
Suzy -- just seemed like a "suzy" -- guess she told us
and before them...
Samantha was Samuel (Rob thought "he" had told us that!) until we made the first vet visit and discovered otherwise
Gryphon and Nibs arrived in our household at the age of 6 with their names well established (I gather Gryphon was a scruffy barn kitten, given a distingushed name to grow into -- he did -- and Nibs, being the slightly younger, got his name from the nightly enquiry of Gryphon by his human "Well, what has His Nibs been up to today?")
Shasta -- really just the sibilants, and I liked the sound of it in general.

ROSIE: Because i just wanted a little girls name for a change as all of my parents cats were Blackie, Sooty, Fluff, Tufty etc...

Well first we had Phil and my kids named him from the Rug Rats character ... then we found Lil and so we had Phil and Lil which were the twins on the cartoon show ... then Phil became very psycho and started biting everything in site and we had to have him go to a better place. Then we found Dil which is also a character on the cartoon. So now we just Lil who I mostly call Lillabean (don't ask me why) and Dil who I mostly call DillyPilly, again, don't ask me why ... they are just nick names I came up with when I was in a silly mood and they stuck.

I think it is really interesting to find out why you have all picked the names for your furrbabes, I feel I am getting to know much more about your Kitties and their Mums. Thanks a lot to everyone who is responding. Such a lot of great names too

Axl - because I liked Guns n Roses (and he's longhaired & ginger)
Jeepers - Because I watched the Jeepers Creepers film before we picked her up and it scared me a little, she was so timid Jeepers seemed to fit, if I knew what I know now she'd have been called Minnie after Minnie the Minx

Ivo was a name on an art poster my neighbor Brian had. Brian was involved in her rescue, so he got the right to name her-he really loved Ivo and I hadn't found a name I liked yet. It was fate-the Catholic Church has a Saint Ivo, who is the patron saint of abandoned and orphaned children. As Ivo was a stray, it fits perfectly, and now she has her own patron saint.

Only some of mine are really thought out, usually it is what comes to me first. Onyx because he is all black, Mia because when she was a kitten she would kick things around so I named her after Mia Hamm the soccer player. Scooter (her brother) because he was so slow and would just scoot around the room.

Other times, the cats just take to their name, for instance Doku (means poison in japanese) she has turned into a poison girl, she used to spit at us all the time! It was sooooo funny, I love kittens that spit when mad.

Faile is named for a character in Robert Jordan's Wheel of TIme series. She is black, and she ws a stray. She is very feisty, just like the character, who also has black hair and was a woman on her own in the world.

Molly is named for my dear friend Molly, who thought it would be a fabulous name for a cat. She's the only person I know who likes it when her friends name their pets for her. Not only likes it, but suggests it.

Good question.....

When I think of my new cat...

Pepper: because he has white hairs on his black black back so he looks salt and peppered

and childhood cats

Toby: cuz we thought it was cute
Fred: after Archie's dad in the comics
Blue: cuz of his eyes

But I have always thought that Virgil is the most distuingished name for a cat.. I am still waiting for a cat that fits that name.. I have loved it for years.. and I know he or she is waiting out there for me... I also heard of a cat named Mr. Chips.. loved that name.

Had to figure out their names to their personality, and it suits them just right. Haha! Koa (meaning- daring, bold in Hawaiian), jumps up or down from the highest places. That little daredevil! He takes lots of risks for a one year old. Kolohe (meaning- naughty, rascal in Hawaiian), she'll be sneaky and get into their food cabinet. They're getting smarter everyday.

Both my cats were already named. Sam had been with a family for 5 years, and I thought that it was so tramautic to have him moved to a kennel, then to my house, I didn't have the heart to change his name too. And he did know his name, comes when he is called (when he feels like it), and it suits him.

Bailey was named by the SPCA when she was rescued, although I am sure she was a pet that got lost, so had another name. It just goes so well with Sam that I kept it, (both names are kind of suitable for both male and female cats, and they are both people names, but not really common). And at her last vet visit, the tech said, wow, now there is a cat with a name that suits her perfectly! I think that's because she is the colour of Bailey's Irish Cream.

Fluffy-He was a stray kitten that had been taken in but the people could;nt keep him. The children they had were calling him Fluffy so we kept it. Plus he's black and Fluffy.

Socks-Is a tuxedo so he has "socks". I took a poll on TCS for a few names and Socks was the clear cut winner

Snoopy-because from the first day after I bought him, he was snooping into everything. He had to check out everything.

Shane- I named him after my favorite rock star, Paul
Stanley's son, who's name is Evan Shane

Simba-I named him Simba because he's exotic looking &
because Bengal's have wild blood in them.

OK...I had to jump in here! I just wanted to say that I...too give all my animals people names, but with the ferals, I just started naming them by where we found them.
Tavvey, found in a tavern when she jumped on our table and tried to steal our fish dinners.
Riley, the road we found her on.
Mr. BoJangles, I mistakenly named him Betty Boop, and when I found out he was male, I felt so bad that I had to give him a real masculine name, (to try an undo the injustice of his feminine name).
Mr. Hitter, My husband thinks he looks like Adolf, and he calls him that, but I changed it to Hitter.
Gracie, she is just SO graceful. She floats across the room like a movie star.
Black Jack Jr., looks like my husband's former cat, in fact his markings are exact, so we named him Black Jack Jr., and call him Junior.
Ginger, reminds me of the Ginger on Gilligan's Island. Has the same air about her, and has a little mark by her mouth, (like a beauty mark).
Cinder-ella, this cat was hard to name. I finally named her that hoping she would one day be beautiful! Honestly, she was homely when we found her. Now, she is a beauty.
Sockie: She acts like a princess, and is really stuck up. She has white socks on all four legs, so my husband named her Socks, and I changed it to Sockie. (We found her in a tree, on a road that would'nt be appropriate to name her).
Grey, My husband's cat he has had for 18 years. She's totally gray.
Rocky (my Dog) came with his name. He was a rescue.
Rebecca (My Pomeranian) I named her when I first saw her at 8 weeks old. I had bought her sight unseen from a breeder on the East Coast, and the airline stewardess left me a note saying, "Your little Princess was a wonderful passenger. We call her Rebecca," I thought it was a great name, so I kept it. She's 16 years old, and still spry.

Danielle, YOUR Socks looks quite a lot like MY Sockie (AKA Socks)!