Every Cat's Name Tells A Story

The current issue of Cat Fancy Magazine lists the winners for their 2011“Most Unusual (Cat) Name” contest.   From the more than 300 entries they received, they selected Mice-Tro,  Ghengis Tom, Nixi Nootzie, Ka Ching and Door Hinge.    While no one would consider using names like that for their human children, one thing most cat “parents” have in common is the desire to give their cat the most “purrfect” name – something that tells a story often by accentuating the cat’s unique appearance or personality. 

  

We thought it’d be fun to see what names were in our top list – selecting from a pool of over 700 cats that we've provided with spay/neuter vouchers so far this year.  It was hard choosing, but we did our best and here are our results:  Our top name was Still Here – it so aptly describes how many cats morph into their families.  This one showed up one day – and months later was “still here”.    Second prize goes to Roamio – a name proudly given to another stray cat that moved in with a family who -- at least until after he was fixed – roamed his neighborhood pleasing the ladies.   Chevy came in third – he’s a young kitten that a woman spotted under her neighbor’s truck – she told him about the kitten but he didn’t believe her – but an hour later, his truck was up on a hoist and it took three men to find him and get him out.  He brought the kitten back to the lady and of course she named him Chevy after his truck.  Honorable mentions go to Bob de Cat, Illuminati, Scruffalufagus, and Lucy Lu.

One thing is clear – there are as many cat names as there are cat guardians.  Of our 714 cat names only 12 repeated themselves more than 3 times – in order of frequency, they are:  Tiger (11), Precious (8), Angel (7), Blackie (6), Baby (5), Pumpkin (5), Missy (5), Callie (4), Smokey (4), Spooky (4), Sunshine (4) and Mama (4).     Human names are the most commonly used -- such as Lola, Oscar and Isabella.   Descriptive  “Cat” names came in second – like Kitty Gado, Meow, and Sylvester -- or Mittens, Snowflake, and, Gremlin.  About 10% are called by terms of endearment like Lovee, Tupelo and Baby Boo”.  Less than 6% of the cats had no name – because – as many of their guardians told us – the only thing they answer to is “Kitty”.  How true!