The Huffington Post tells us the popular cat names of 2019 but you should ignore them! You should put your stamp of authority on the selection of a name for your cat. It should be highly personalised. You don’t want to follow the crowd, do you?
In any case, all the names are for humans. I think that that is a bit of a copout. Cat names should be individually tailored and customised for the cat. You can take your lead from poets, artists and authors who are well known ailurophiles (cat lovers). They know best. Also, many purebred cats come from far away countries such as the Russian Blue or the Siamese with origins in far away countries. They should have names which reflect their origin. For example, Burmese cats should have names originating in Burma. This is a nice way to customise your cat’s name. People should be aware that some cat names are considered unlucky.
To return to the title of this article. I set out below the top 10 female and top 10 male names for cats in 2019 as reported by the Huffington Post.
Females
- Poppy
- Molly
- Luna
- Bella
- Daisy
- Millie
- Rosie
- Tilly
- Willow
- Lily
Males
- Charlie
- Oscar
- Alfie
- George
- Jasper
- Milo
- Leo
- Merlin
- Harry
- Monty
And below, I set out some names given by people who know how to name cats.
Cat names given by creative people
I realise that not all of us are as creative famous authors and poets but we all have a degree of creativity in us. Collett, the French novelist (1873-1954, who had a lifelong passion for cats wrote a book about her Chartreux purebred cat who she named Saha. TS Eliot, who is currently in the news because of the Cats movie based upon the theatrical version which in turn is based upon his collection poems: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, was highly imaginative in his naming of his cats: Wiscus, Pattipaws and Tantomile are three examples.
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) named his cat Atossa. Mark Twain, another great cat lover was also highly imaginative: Sour Mash, Appollinaris and Zoroaster are three examples. The former US president, Jimmy Carter named his Siamese cat Misty Malarky Yin Yang (I am not saying he is necessarily creative but well known). The humanitarian, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) called his cat Sizi.
The above are some examples. There are many more and of course I have to admit that some eminent authors and artists have named their cats with rather conventional names such as Charlotte Brontë who named her cat Tiger and Andy Warhol who named his two cats Hester and Sam.
That said, I would try and work out your own name. Perhaps it pays to give yourself time. You may change your mind. You may give your cat more than one name and you may settle on one of them. Sometimes cat names evolve and develop as you become closer to your cat.
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