Cat Names

My brother's cat adopted him. Her previous person had just named her 'Puss', but he calls her Miss Snuffaluff-Fergus (that's his name plus we're all sesame st fans) or Snuff for short.
Snuff has a little friend next door - a gorgeous adolescent long-haired red/ginger tom... obviously no matter what his name is he OUGHT to have been called Erik! And when he's visiting, that's what he answers to.
When my aunt adopted a pregnant stray, she said she couldn't come up with anything quickly so just called her 'P.C.' short for pusscat until she could think of one, but it stuck. Nothing else suited her - and of course PC can stand for anything you want it to.

Five of my 7 kitties came from the shelter; some came with names that suited them at the start. Venus, a Russian blue at age 13 when we adopted her, strikes an elegant pose. Kizzy, a black DSH, whom we adopted with Venus, already liked her name, and so we kept it. When we got Coco, an 18-pound black male, we knew that monicker had to go. As is fitting in our car freak family, he wound up with something automotively-themed: Crankshaft, something that keeps turning and hardly ever gives out as long as its well-oiled. (And Cranky makes such a good nickname). Charlene the Maine Coon became Shelby Ford Mustang (my favorite car, and my favorite cat). And then, the 5-week-old black torty kitten that survived on grasshoppers until someone plucked her from their front stoop, became Spitfire, an homage to her intense personality, as well as to the beloved old British sports car.

Cat names just seem to come to me mostly; however, Sadie's name came with her when we met and she was 5/yrs.

Abby, on the other hand, had silly names: Miss Priss and Mumma Kitty. She was originally called Mumma Kitty since she came to the shelter orignally with a litter of kittens. She was renamed Miss Priss on her 2nd stay at the shelter stay since she had loads of cattitude. I didn't like either, so I decided she'd pick out her own name.

Since my name is Gail, a derivative of Abigail and my new companion, destined to share our lives together since we both lost our loved ones, I thought of Abby, also a derivative of Abigail. Now we are "Abby" + "Gail" ...cheeky but she likes it! When I 1st called her Abby, she turned around and meowed in assent, LOL!

I agree it is sometimes difficult to pick out a name. My cat Lia(Himalaya, after the mountains) was named as such because he is a snow marble and his markings reminded me of mountains. I also like to name all my cats with an a in their name or an ar in the name. I call my cats Ara cats. Not a registered cattery name but for my own well being. Our Savannah was named Aurora B orealis because she is beautiful colored and she changes wheb the light hits her. My boyfriend insisted on naming his cat Quanah Parker after the Indian cheif. We researched Quanah Parkers childrens names when our kittens were born wanting to name them after the Parker family. Most of them had normal names. So we chose Peta Nacona (Quanahs father) and Prarie Flower (Quanahs sister). These names also fit with the lettering pattern I like, the a's and the ar's.

The only way I remember things is to send a message to my email from my cell phone. I'll think of an idea in bed and know I'll forget it by morning so I text it to myself. That way when I check my email its there. It works the same way with names and ideas

I love the story of Bert being named by the momma kitty! Even cats pick better cat names than I do. LOL!

I keep thinking of names for kitties and think, "oh, I should write that down". I never do and then when a new friend comes along I can't remember - and they were such good names! My sister thinks a cat needs dignity so they should have people names not ones like "puss" or "tiddles"; Phillip and I agree that we'll begin with something ending in an "-ie" sound, and then a nickname will come along (probably from the cat, lol!) and the cat will choose which one to answer to when called...

What drives me crazy about geneaology is the first male son is named after the paternal grandfather. When you get as deep into it as I have its hard to have 50 people with the exact same name. I'll bet it was confusing when the second child died and was buried in the family plot. I need to just come on over to England and tell everyone Edward I was my 27th great grandfather and I want my share of the kingdom. I've been watching The Tudors on Netflix and Henry VIII mistress Elizabeth Blount was a distant cousin of mine. Her great grandfather was like my 27th great grandfather.

I love your cats names Elisa.
We've had quite a few cats over the 37 years since our first one who my late mother simply called Kitty.
One mother cat Christened her own baby. She was a homeless cat who one day walked in and dropped the month old kitten she was carrying, onto the kitchen floor. I said 'And who is this ?' She replied 'Brrrrrt' So Bert he became and he lived with us for 17 years. We eventually rehomed Mrs Cat and the second baby she brought us.
Somehow since then each time a new kitten or cat came into our lives we try a few names that seem to suit and as soon as the right one comes up, we know.
At present we have Walter and Jozef. Walter was easy to name, he came from Walter Street. Joseph suited Jo straight away but as we don't like the way some people pronounce that name with an S, we changed it to Z and while we were on we changed the ph on the end to F. He then had a very original name.
A bit off subject Elisa but I know you are like me interested in genealogy. Well in our country in the 17/1800s a lot of children died at a very young age and their name was often given to the next baby born of the same sex.
We have quite a few in our family tree like that.

Anna, you've been wanting a Peanut like Laura wanted a Garfield. Imagine my surprise when I went to look at the kitties in the back room and Andrea said "You really need to take Garfield." Talk about fate. He's so GRATEFUL to us you wouldn't believe it. Can't wait to see a pic of Peanut

Almost all of my fosters/rescues have come to me without names. I have enjoyed naming them and watching their little personalities to see if the name fits. I have a female kitten named Turbo. My 8 year old son says that's a boy name, but she is fast and runs everywhere like she is turbo-charged. It fits. I have wanted to name a cat Blue for some time but I hadn't had any cats come in that were the gray color. Until Lulu that is, but then Blue obviously didn't fit her. I am currently deciding on a name for my newest rescue. His shelter name was Jump and it just doesn't quite fit. I'm leaning towards Peanut, but I'm waiting to see if personality fits it!

I am really, really, really bad at naming cats. It's weird because I'm a fairly creative person: I can write poems and songs with rhyming words, when I taught I mostly created my own materials and I think I write pretty well. But if asked to come up with a name for a cat I will invariably come up with a stupid name that doesn't fit the cat at all.

I was going to name Monty "Snowball" because he's a black cat and the opposite name to the right one seemed funny to me. Geez. I was walking at Pike Lake, talking to my sister on my cell phone, to tell her to go down into my apartment and see little Snowball in the box I'd made up for him.

Jen immediately said, without even pausing to think about it, "Why don't you call him Monty?" She's pretty creative in her own right as a musician, painter and writer. Add to that list cat namer. I had thought about it all day, but within a couple of seconds she had the perfect name for my new feline friend!

Their last name will be easy to remember. WHINEYBUTT. They meow a lot. We found they were hungry and wanted formula. Preferably fed to them with a syringe. They're either very needy or very lazy. Either way they line up in Lauras lap, get a mouthfull then go to the back of the line and start over. They've got her trained.

First, I think you have a bit of a talent for cat names! This probably comes from having an extreme empathy with cats and dogs and you know words.

I tend to find a name instinctively. It comes to my head based on the cat's character and my feelings.

That said a lot of people look up names on the internet.

Perhaps a test of a good cat caretaker is whether they can make up a good name without resorting to looking anything up!