What's in a name?

Here's a fun game... how did you think up your kitties names?

I'll start...
CousinLarry and I met in a quite unusual way while both on vacation (about 700 miles from home)... where we discovered we we actually from the same hometown and only lived about 2 miles from eachother! WOW. Well, needless to say it was love from then on out When I started looking for names for our Kitty Kismet, I went straight to the thesaurus and various baby naming websites, looking for words/names with meanings that had to do with fate, destiny, etc. and TaDa - Kismet was born.

I know you all must have some great stories, I'd love to hear them...

I think there is a thread like this before.

I just picked Jazzy cause I like it, I think it's cute.

I named my baby girl April Joy because she was born in April and she brings me tons and tons of joy. The baby boy I adopted was named Cody. I wanted to give April Joy a brother for Christmas. I wanted a name that sounded like Christmas so his name is Christopher Cody.

Well, I adopt most of my cats from rescue groups so 9 times out of ten I leave them with the names that were given to them at the shelter, At one point I had a biblical theme going, Sampson & Delilah, Rebekah (well she is a rabbit), Jericho; now I'm using NASCAR- Dale, Junior, Martin, Talladega (Tally for short). I think with my next cats I'm going to use Greek and Roman god & godess names- like Athena, Jupiter etc etc. I tend to go with themes I guess LOL

I love the story about naming kismet!
Mine aren't nearly as good. Lucky...well...i found her at 4 weeks old after i watched her just miss getting hit by a car (went right between the wheels). When i got to my sister's, by brother in law said "d*** that was lucky" and it stuck. I couldn't come up with anything better to fit her!

Rambo...well...when i saw him he was in a cage with 4 of his brothers and sisters and he was jumping of the edge of the litter box onto the pile of his sleeping siblings and just starting a huge WWF match. I figured he needed a fighting name and so Rambo....of course he turned out to be a total lover who never fights, and is never happier then when he's cuddling with everyone! Go figure!

The Sammycat got his name when he first came to my house. He was a little bitty thing and jet black too, while I was racking my brains to give him a proper name somehow or another he got one of his feet caught in the sofa. As pitiful as it seemed he reminded me of the story "Little Black Sambo". So as to not offend anyone who may have heard his name in casual conversation I change it from "Little Black Sambo" to The Sammycat.

Oscar was given his name when Ken brought him home from the plant where he works. Oscar was about 4 weeks old, skinny, weak,wet and injured when Ken found him. We didn't think that he would even live through the night. When I gave him some kibble soaked in water to feed him with he started growling and spitting at my hand like he could tear me to pieces. I called him a regular Oscar the Grouch and the name stuck.

Our family's cats fall into three groups:

Pre-1969:

We had a series of three outdoor kitties (we didn't know any better then), and they all vanished quite young:

Whizzie -- grey tabby, named by my mother and me, after her first cat when she was a child.

April -- another grey tabby, named by mom and me for the month in which she came to us.

Nikki (for Nicole) -- grey tabby number three, named by me in that pre-teen time where I was desperately searching for sophistication. :-)


1975 through 1989:

Chavela -- brown tabby, named by me for the diminutive nickname by which Tevye called his third daughter, Chava, in a song from "Fiddler On The Roof." Chavela was with us for fourteen years, which I now realize was astonishing for an outdoor cat who only saw the vet three times in her whole life. Again, we just didn't know any better at the time.

Tribble -- part Russian Blue, named by me for the little furball creatures on a very funny Star Trek episode (original series -- the true Trek!). Tribble was with us only a short time, and Chavela raised her kittens for her.


From 1989 until 2001, we chose not to have any cats, because we had learned at last how wrong we were to keep our cats outside. My father didn't want cats indoors, and my mom and I were determined not to have any more cats in the family until we could make an absolute commitment to give them the most wonderful lives possible. And then came the day when I persuaded my father to relent, so my mom could have a little one to love...


2001 to Present:

Dylan Ishmael -- grey tabby again, named by me. I asked Dylan what he'd like to be called, and he mewed at me, so I joked that he had said, "Call me Ishmael." Being big readers, we all liked that reference, and since we also love music, it was natural to put Dylan in front of it... we consider it to come equally from Bob Dylan and from Dylan Thomas, whose "do not go gentle" attitude we all share in this family. :-)

Sassy Lane -- longhaired dark calico, named by my mother and me. Mom chose Sassy because she loves the cat by that name in "Homeward Bound", and I added Lane because it's my mother's maiden name and flows well with Sassy, giving it a little more class.

Clyde Lee -- white with black splotches, named by me for my father's middle name (which is from the great shipbuilding river in Scotland). When I came up with the name, I THOUGHT I was getting the Lee from a great-great-great-great uncle Lee Neal who helped draft the 14th Amendment to the Constitution -- but I've since found out that his name was STEPHEN Neal! So the Lee ends up standing for my father's grandfather's first name, and for my airname when I was a radio DJ years ago -- Lee Carroll. :-)

Abby Helen -- the reformed feral mother of my Clyde, adopted by my mother. She looks virtually identical to Clyde, and we named her for my mother's grandmother, Abby, because the black splotches on her head give the impression of the parted-in-the-middle hairdo Great-Grandma always wore. The Helen comes from my mom's middle name, which comes from her mother's first name.

Pearl Noelle -- longhaired blue/lilac tabby, named by me. I've always loved the name Pearl, ever since we had a wonderful babysitter by that name when I was a kid. I didn't really name Pearl AFTER her, but it's a nice side benefit. :-) And Noelle comes from my brother, Noel.

Yes, I've named a lot of kitties for family, the way I would name children -- because I don't have any of those! No Fluffies or Sparkies for me! :-)

Spyder was the runt of the litter and he was so tiny with long legs and tail he looked like a little spider in the box! Hence, the name Spyder.

When I got Stormy (she was a b'day gift from my sis) she tear through the house like a big storm hit it...and now that she's older she has a bit of a stormy personality, so I guess it fits!

Francine was named after a girl bully character on an episode of the simpsons, because when she came to us she'd smack the other kitties!

My sister named Winnie (she's Stormy's sister) because when she was a kitten she had a round winnie the pooh belly.

Chuckie and Crystal's name just seemed to fit them.

Scruffy-my husband named
Simba-my niece named
Cala- I named cuz she is a calico
Willow-I have no idea why I named her this I just thought it fit her for some reason
Veeshan- I named her after a dragon from the online game Everquest

Sweetie~ she just struck me as a sweetiepie from the first day I saw her as a kitty, even till now!
Precious~ she is Sweetie's daughter, and she is very precious to me & Sweetie.

I'm not sure how my BF came up with the names Patches & Beauty...actually now that I think of it, Beauty is short for Sleeping Beauty. She's lazy and would sleep all the time when he first got her.
I'm not sure about Patches though...other than she's Calico.

I gave Luna her name as it's short for Lunatic. When I got her as a kitten she would pounce on toy play around with it for bit (doing somersaults and the whole nine yards) then at random get up walk away and eat, get some love, eat some more, then pounce right back on that same toy.
Plus I had a guinea pig at the time and she would run away from the pig. LOL

Rotten (sweet RB baby)- came to when she was about 2 weeks old and was the sweetest thing I had ever laid eyes on... I knew right then that this cat would be spoiled ROTTEN and boy was I right!!

Max- came to me when he about 4 weeks old and was all over the place and NEVER quit talking... It took me about 3 months to pin Max on him, it just finally fit because he was always going at max speed!

Bandit- came to us when he was 5 months old and he instantly stole my heart with his thunderous purring, hence BANDIT!

Me & my better half were at Taco Cabana one night after I picked him up from work; I had already adopted Devin and he was getting neutered. His first suggestion was Inky & I told him I wanted a human name. So it was, Gavin, something, something, Devin. I nodded and then thought about Devlin.

So I was talking to my parents the next day and told them the name I picked out and quick as could be my dad said; "I thought you adopted a male cat?"

*long pause*

I then decided that Devin was great.

I later found out that Devin means "little black one" which fits Devin perfectly. And theres one person I met that was surprised that thier son & my cat have the same name!

Freckles got her name because she has a small dot of brown pigment that looks like a freckle on her little pink nose, and I noticed that as soon as I picked her up.

Tigger got her name because (well, this is kind of embarassing) I used to be a huge fan of the Baby Sitter's Club books, (and I still am actually). One of the characters in that series has a striped gray tabby named Tigger, so I followed suit.

Originally Posted by LostNaivite

Freckles got her name because she has a small dot of brown pigment that looks like a freckle on her little pink nose, and I noticed that as soon as I picked her up.

Tigger got her name because (well, this is kind of embarassing) I used to be a huge fan of the Baby Sitter's Club books, (and I still am actually). One of the characters in that series has a striped gray tabby named Tigger, so I followed suit.

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Didn't Mary Anne own Tigger? Don't be embarrassed- one of my friends admitted that she tried to make her handwriting look like Stacy's!!!

Poptart -Well.. my sister named him.. she just really wanted to name a foster kitten Poptart.. I thought it was stupid at the time.. but it suits him!

Gordito - I named him. he came in with Poptart and his sister Pigger (who I also named ) They were all abandoned by their mum, a feral cat out in the middle of nowhere. Luckily they were found by an elderly couple mowing their lawn. Brought to me at 4 weeks old, hand reared. the little gray guy was so pudgy and has little stick legs.. and Gordito means 'short fat one' or 'little fat man' in spanish.. or so I hear.

Nacho - My brothers girlfriend named him.. she is mexican and wanted to name him another mexican type food.. but we all decided Nacho was best!

Orion - my brother named him.. not sure why... I know he was named after the constellation of stars. Aha. Orion is the god of hunting.. or the hunter.. and I think my brothers name means hunter.

Apollo - I named him after the greek god, Apollo.

Originally Posted by zak&rocky

Didn't Mary Anne own Tigger? Don't be embarrassed- one of my friends admitted that she tried to make her handwriting look like Stacy's!!!

Click to expand...

Yup, Mary Anne owned Tigger.

The BSC books are one of my "guilty pleasures"...I like to think that they bring out the child in me. Or at least that's my excuse for reading them, lol.

Oohh geez this could take a while I'll start with 1990 forward

Ok, from the top!

Gemini - Was born in June, so she's a Gemini. We were going to make this a theme, but then we adopted...

Apache - who was also born in June, so that didn't work. We called her Apache because my aunt who gave her to us said "she wraps herself around your leg like a little Apache Indian". To this day, none of us know what the he** she meant by that.... eh she was old and her mind was going...

Mayhem - Was found at a week old behind one of my favorite stores, Medieval Mayhem. He had been abandoned by his mother and littermates, presumably because he was very sick. (No worries... he lived a very happy 6 years even with his heart problems. ) But no matter how sick he was, his name fit.. he was always getting into trouble

Azrael - Adopted as a playmate for Mayhem, I named him Azrael after Gargamel's cat (from the Smurfs) because he liked chasing the other cats and Azrael like chasing the smurfs.

Jack - After I adopted him, I just couldn't think of the right name for him. Then, while watching Will & Grace, Jack came on the screen and my cat ran up to the tv, pawed the screen and meowed... and Jack he was from then on.

John Doe - Named because we had no idea whos cat he was. He just showed up on our front porch and lived there for three months until we finally let him inside... now he's "Johnny"

Isosceles - She has a black triangle on the back of her head.

Tryon - She found me while I was sitting on a bench against the stone wall surrounding Fort Tryon Park, NYC.

As for Max, Cleo, Samson, Angel, Bootsie and the rest... I didn't name them so I have no idea how they got their names.

And then, there's the dogs...

Melody (dalmatian) - named for her spots which my grandmother said looked like whole notes.... to which we agreed that Melody was a good name... to which my grandmother said "I always liked that name... reminds me of Melody Griffith". (Ok, now I'm starting to think senility runs in my family...)

Karma (lab/greyhound mix) - After Melody died, my mother was vehemently against having another dog in the house, but I was crushed. I needed a dog... I begged, I pleaded... and I was told there was no way I was having another dog until I moved out. Then Thanksgiving came and my mother realized there was no cold nose trying to steal a piece of apple from her while she was cooking. She realized how much she missed Melody and agreed to another dog. When I brought Karma home from the shelter my mom said "You know, it had to be your good Karma that brought another dog into this house!" and Karma she was.

Buddha (newfoundland/lab mix) - Adopted as a playmate for Karma (well, and me too!) Originally to be named Dogma because hey, Karma and Dogma... that's good stuff! But it just didn't fit him and I still wanted a name that matched with Karma. Well that little black ball of fur rolled over on his back and showed me that big puppy pot-belly and Buddha he was.

Darwin D'Feesh (goldfish) - Aptly named because I started with 5 goldfish and he was the only one to survive a pH accident.... I figured, hey, survival of the fittest, right? Darwin!

Mooch and Noodles both got thier names from the Mutts Comic strip. Mooch is a tuxedo kitty, sort of like Mooch int he comic strip. Noodles doesn't look like the Noodels in the comic, more like Sourpuss, but I didn't want to name her that! And Noodles is just a cute name! Plus I love pasta!

Here's my other kitties:
Tinsel - Full name was Christmas Tinsel, obviously we got her at Christmas.
Morning Glory (Glory) - We used to get really neat sparklers near my families camp called Morning Glory's. She was born around Memorial Day and came home near the 4th of July, so we named her that.
Tiger - My step-dad or step-siblings named her...she didn't even have stripes!
Bunny - Came named. Then one day I saw her 'hopping' ontop of a catnip toy and it all made sense!
Pumpkin - came named...and is orange.
Oliva - who's full name is Olivia Elizabeth was my aunt's cat that she couldn't keep, so she came named too!