How were your cats named?

[sirrahbed]

I just read about little Thumper and thought it would be fun to hear how some of you choose names for your cats. All of our cats, regular and foster over the years got "plain" names - they were Henry, Ralph, George(dog), Smokey, Freddie, Ebony(blacklab)Harvey, Eddie, Tascha, Bert, Ernie, Oscar (Sesame Street years with kids) My two newest babies are TS Eliot and Emily Dickinson because I am am/was a literature teacher and like American poets - I thought these names would be "dignified but cute and they fit the kitties! They came from the shelter as "Lucy and Louis" but I did not think they fit.
How about some of you guys?? Stories?

[CatDad]

The naming of my kitties are not that exciting.

Joey already had her name when we got her from the shelter. I figured she had gotten used to it and why add any more stress. She also responded to it.

Bob on the other hand had a different name when we got him and the shelter suggested that he get a new name to help seperate his old bad life from his new good one. My S.O. thought that he looked a little like a bob cat, and the name stuck. So I guess Bob really has to names, but the second one doesn't get used unless he is in trouble.

[Amber]

Maggie was named with a "M" because the shelter people sad it looked like she had the letter M on her forhead. Som Maggie just came up!

[kuhio98]

Meusette - I had just seen a cartoon where the main character had that name.

Velvet - Because that's what she felt like
Tomasina - Named her Tom and then she had kittens
Radar - He looked like Radar on MASH
Paul - Named after my mother's boyfriend
Cuddles - I named her Shadow but my brother called her Cuddles
Strutz - She strutted when she walked
Kuhio - Name of Hawaiian Royalty - She was my Princess

Halo - Kept saying "Hello" when she meowed and that morphed into Halo -- If we had thought longer we would have kept our Hawaiian theme going and named her Hilo

Cammie - Short for camouflage (Tortie kitty)
Molly - That was already her name
Seymour - Stray cat that showed up and we wanted to "See More" of him. WE DID!

[RedHedd]

My RB Goldie was named for her beautiful golden fur.

Mitzi was initially named Sweet Pea by Animalsavers. I didn't really like that name and it didn't take me long to come up with her new name. The minute she walked into my apartment one of the first things she did was start giving me the cutest little kitty high-fives with her little white paws. At first I thought she was polydactyl because her paws looked larger than I was used to - they looked like little white mitts .... and so she became my little Mitzi!

Mishi was named Mishigaas by Animalsavers; a misspelling of a Yiddish word meaning crazy, kooky, insane .... which he was and still is. Diana at Animalsavers called him Mishi for short. Mishi is also a word that my sister and I had made up when we were kids - a combination of Russian bad grammar (we're Russian by origin) and kiddie-silly creativity. To us it meant something soft and furry, which of course applies to all cats. When I first saw Mishi on the Petfinder website his name as well as him being exactly what I was looking for (red Maine Coon), made me think that he was meant to be my cat. So Mishi came home to be with me and Mitzi and kept his rescue shelter name.

.... and they lived happily ever after

[Prairie Purrs]

Originally posted by CatDad
Bob on the other hand had a different name when we got him and the shelter suggested that he get a new name to help seperate his old bad life from his new good one. My S.O. thought that he looked a little like a bob cat, and the name stuck.

That's just how my Bob got his name--when he was a kitten he looked like a miniature bobcat.

As for the others, Kacey, Kiri, Katie, and Cricket all got "K" sounding names in honor of my sweet RB tabby Keke. Lily and Hagrid were part of the "Harry Potter" litter. Oz is a little bit tiger, a little bit lion, and a little bit bear (oh, my!). Gatsby seemed like a good name for a tuxie boy. And Angel was part of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" litter.

[FurMomx6]

Opie was named after Ron Howard. My dad was the one who thought of that name. I didn't even know who Ron Howard was when we named him. I was about 8 or 9 so I had never heard of him.

KC we got from some kids that were giving away kittens infront of wal mart. We couldn't think of a name for her and just always called her Kitty Cat or Kitty. So, my mom thought of the name KC. It's short for Kitty Cat.

And that's how are cats were named!

[jazzcat]

I picked Ripley because I thought it was a good cat name.

After searching the Internet for names my husband and I finally agreed on Jazz. I initially was going to call her Jinx because she was so sickly and seem to be having a bad run of luck but everyone thought that was cruel.

The shelter had named my Scout, Goldie but she didn't respond to it and I wanted something different. I wanted to call her Soliel but my husband hated it. Again after looking online for days for a name we agreed on Scout.

My dog Disney got her name because I was having a hard time picking something and while I was trying to decide I saw a Disney World brochure.

[Craftlady]

Thumper.... because of her tail action

Butterscotch........ becaue of his color

Skinny......... because of his weight. Vet laughs when he puts on weight are you calling him "Fatty" and we said "no"

[Kirsten]

No, there's no special story behind the names Luna and Lily. Long before I got them I have decided my next cats' names would be Luna and Lily, because I just like the sound.

But my RB Katz has a story behind her name. When I got her, I wanted her to have a very special name, and then couldn't come up with one. So I started calling her "Katze", which means "cat" in German. After a while, she was just Katz, and she was called like that for the rest of her life (14 years).

And my RB Aysche... well, because she was a Persian, I wanted her to have an oriental name.

Kirsten

[Ally Cat's Mommy]

Ally is so named because she was a street-cat (ie alley-cat) when we found her (well, sort of - she just arrived in the garden one day), and also because she is skinny and crazy like Ally McBeal (my fav TV program).

Connor came home from the shelter with the name Thomas. I just though it sounded a bit formal for such a cuddle-bug )and I also guess I wanted to have a "fresh start" when I brought him home). I went onto babynames.com and picked a few celtic names (I was born in Scotland). Then I posted the list here and my good friends here at PT helped me name him

[Tonya]

I was at the pool at our old apartments and some lady had a newborn baby named Raven. I thought that was such a cool name that I named Raven that. At one point I had all R's. Ricki, Rosco, Raven, and Ron. When I got Ron, I was trying to think of an 'R' name. I know it sounds odd, but I named him after my dad. My biological father passed away when I was 1 and his name was Ron.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Tubby - Tubby is not quite as mean sounding as Fatty.

Peanut - that was what her first "mom" called her because she looks like a Peanut, and I kept the name because I thought she looked like a Peanut too.

[Samantha Puppy]

Sherman came to us already named.

[Vio&Juni]

We decided on name Juni for our Juni as Junior (male) or Junioara (female) - you see in Romanian there is difference. Juni sounded neutral.

Pichu got his name because he was so cuddly - and I always talk to kitties with so many names, so, I said - dechi, eshti un pichi gudurichi (so, you are a cuddly kiddo?) - and I realized this would be his name