What is the most common cat name in America?

For 2011 according to Veterinary Pet Insurance, who have a database of about 475,000 policies, the most common female cat name was “Bella” and the most common male cat name was “Max”.

Here is the top five male and  female cat names in America based in this huge database which is probably pretty accurate. Although on such a topic I am sure you’d agree that it is sensible to not rely too heavily on this information. Below the table, I add some further information.

 
For me, “Bella” means beautiful. It is related to the Latin word meaning beautiful. It is also a shortened version of names such as Isabella. “Max” means greatest in Latin as afar as I am aware. You can understand why they are popular cat names.

Across various polls it seems that for male cats the most common name is either “Tiger” or “Tigger”. Of these two, Tigger is marginally more popular, in the West generally, on my assessment. My mother called her ginger tabby cat, Tigger. He returned to the wild never to be seen again until he returned in very old age.

For female cats, I cannot come to a conclusion on the most common name over the preceding years. I don’t see a trend across different polls. However, “Chloe” and “Kitty” seem to feature well.

By comparison in the UK, in 2006, another insurance company, Direct Line, and the RSPCA did surveys of their paperwork and came up with the names below as the most common cat names. I also list the most common cat names in Australia based on a survey of 270,000 Nestle Purina PetCare customers….

 
As can be seen, “Tigger” features highly again.

Is it fair to say that some names are not gender related? This is, perhaps, why they are common. The name “Sooty” sounds as if it could be for male and female cats. The most common cat names are less imaginative and less adventurous than some of the best cat names, although this is a matter of opinion. What I am stating is that the most common cat names are not necessarily the best cat names.

Associated: (a) Siamese cat names (these are based on Thai human names) (b) Burmese cat names and (c) Black cat names.