Judging by research carried out by pet insurers Animal Friends (a UK company it seems) cat owners tend to choose conventional and unadventurous names for their cats. Here is the top 20 list:
A lot of the names double up as human names. Perhaps all of them do. Although there must be a pile of names exclusively for cats.
Perhaps the driving force behind choosing names for humans is the fact that the domestic cat is becoming more and more a valued member of the family, which in turn makes it more likely the names will be safe and rather conservative.
Personally, I end up giving my cats nicknames anyway so even though the name might be conventional the name I end up using is not.
The research covered 60,000 policy holders and coincided with National Pet Month.
Cross-referencing between cats and dogs is interesting. Both Bella and Poppy are in the top three for both pets. The top five are remarkable similar between cats and dogs, which means that the type of animal has little effect on choosing a name.
This too indicates to me that people see their companion animals as little humans and as members of the family. This is a good thing as long as pet owners relate to their cat or dog as a cat and a dog when it comes to behavioural characteristics. Unless people do this there will be expectation problems leading to possible abandonment.
Michael-
Thank You for this posting. We do name our pets as official family
members, but you are correct in that we should never assume they are humans; even though they are sentient beings in their own right.
Eva say’s_