Hobo was a half-grown, skinny, dirty, funny-looking stray who
appeared on our patio each evening, when I'd feed him.  He did look
pitiful,  with long spindly legs that hadn't yet grown into his big
polydactyl feet.  I started calling him a little hobo 'cuz he only
came around for a handout, then disappeared to who-knows-where.  In
about a month or so, he began to stay and come in the house.  I've
often thought he deserved a more elegant name for he has become a
magnificent, gorgeous creature worthy of a regal title.

Speckles was also a stray who settled in quickly - a little tortie
always referred to as "that speckled cat who keeps hanging around."
Over time it evolved into "Speckles."  We took her with us when we
moved to another state and she, too, should have a better name.  She's
a sweetheart; she's been called my "shadow" because where I am, she
has to be!!

Jeanne

Well, Luna and Maya got their names because they look like ocelots, so we
wanted something mexican-sounding. Basho and Issa have that asian thing
going, so they're names after japanese zen poets. Rufous and Fez... that's
a harder one to figure out. Rufous because of the color and Fez just was
a fun name that seemed to fit the little critter. Xoxo is named for a town
in southern Mexico, Xoxocotlan. We saw the name of the town on the highway
when we were on vacation and immediately decided we should use that for
the new cat on the condos where we lived at the time. He has a very unusual
personality and a very funny face, so it just made sense to give him a name
that was both unusual and fun.

That's really neat. You know, many people believe cats will communicate their
names to their humans. When I first started reading about Persia, I thought she
was probably a Persian, and hence the name.

Sherry

When I adopted TuTu  from a shelter, she was called Ginger.  It did
not suit her and she really did not answer to it.  I adored my Siamese
who had gone to the Bridge a month earlier.  I decided to name her
Princess  Two.  That became Two - that became TuTu which she readily
responded to.

My mommy kitty Mimi named herself. She's a mini mommy who meowed "me me" so I
called her Mimi.

My black cat was named Lucky because black cats are considered unlucky. I was
lucky to have him.

My persian cat was called Pretty Kitty and Princess. Then I found out it was a
he so I had to change his name to Punkin, because he had pumpkin colored eyes
and he was super cute. He still preferred being called Pretty Kitty.

I had a cat that I named Shamu after the whale because he had the same color
markings, black with a white belly and a white spot on his back.

My cats Boots and Patches came with names.

Frank was named by the slaves of his mother. He was named after Frank Zappa,
because he has a little black spot on his chin, and they were reminded of
Zappa's beard. Frank was five months old by the time he came to me, so I let
him keep the name that he already knew, and I thought it was a cool cat name
anyway. It is only later that I've discovered that in every single movie and
TV-series in English, there is a shady character called Frank.

Nikki's name came partly from the first cat our family had. She was brought
home by my sister a few months before I was born, and she was named Rikki
after the mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi in The Jungle Book (Kipling's, not
Disney's). At the time when I got Nikki, a friend of mine had suddenly (a
few years later than the rest of the world) gone mad about the artist then
known as Prince, and she insisted I name my new kitten after one of his
songs. I picked Darling Nikki, seeing as it reminded me of Rikki, and since
she was such a little darling.

Most of our cats when I was growing up were named after characters in books,
or historical characters. There were Thomson and Thompson after the twin
detectives in the Tintin comics, there was Carmen after the opera, there was
Ulrika Eleonora after a Swedish queen. I can't remember them all.

--
Marina

We bought Jazz when the Disney movie ALADDIN just came out. The lady at the
pet store told us she was a she, so my daughter insisted on calling her
Jasmine (the princess in the film). Well, when we took the kitty to the vet
for 'her' first visit TED told us 'she' was actually a 'he'.
He had already gotten used to us calling him Jasmine, so Jasmine became Jazz
instead/
He is called several other things like
Jujube
Mimi
my sweet baboo

Jazz's mama

For the sake of brevity, I'll stick to the ones we have now.

Tanada:  the previous owners named her Alley, which didn't fit.  We'd
been reading Robert Lynn Asprin's "Myth" series, and had already named
Guido, the Mafia Hitcat after a character in the series.  Tanada, is a
trollop, just like the character in the series.  We tried it out on her
and she obviously liked it, so Tanada she is.

Berfert:  Another character in Robert Lynn Asprin'g "Myth" series.  In
the series, "Berfert" is a salamander, and Berfert walked like a
salamander with his legs to the sides and his toes pointed in.  It also
fit his quirky sense of humor.  Berfert seems to love his name, except
for when one of the kids teases Mike and calls Berfert "Pervert."  

QC:  Named after the Quality Control office that Rob used to work in.
The QC shop started out being called the TI shop, then went to the QC
shop, and is now back to the TI shop.  We were trying to come up with a
name that Rob would agree with since he kept saying that we had two cats
and that was enough.  QC won him over without her name, but it fits her
any way and she seems to prefer it.

Merlin:  When we brought him home from the soldier who was giving him up
at PetSmart, his name was Tiger, which didn't fit him one bit.  I had
the kids + Jason, Mike's best friend helping us name him.  Jason said
Merlin, and Merlin went up to him and started Rubbing against him.  The
two are still best friends.

Pine Cone:  A bit of a joke this one.  We had hired one of the neighbor
girls to take care of our cats while we were camping.  I promised her
that I not only would pay her, but bring her back a pine cone.  PC found
us and adopted us and I joked that I would bring him back to Elizabeth.
Needless to say, Elizabeth's father said no way to having a third cat,
and Pine Cone took over the house.  Pine Cone, really fits him in some
obscure way, we're still not sure how, and he prefers having a different
name.  

Penelope Marie:  I can't remember who named Penelope, just that I tacked
on the Marie so that her initials would be PMS.  She seems to prefer
being called Miss Pretty Penny, but will also answer to Penny or Penny
Marie.

PFC (tomorrow he gets promoted to Specialist) Huey:  Named by Rob's
unit.  They found him on Blackhawk St. on Simmons Airfield and decided
that Blackhawk was not a good name for him, so dubbed him Huey.  Huey
made himself at home in the hangar until we could get there to take him
home with us.  When we arrived, I thought he looked like a private
lounging around between jobs, and added the PFC (Private First Class) to
his name.  

Squeakers:  When he was rescued from our front yard, the only sound he
could make was a kind of squeak.  We didn't think he'd make it through
the night, let alone into the handsome young man he is today.  His daddy
is going to be so proud of him when he comes back from the Middle East.

Rascal:  We didn't name her.  Jim's sister decided that she was a rascal
and gave it to her.  I think I would have tried for something different,
as I keep getting vibes that she tolerates being called Rascal out of
old age (she's 13) and habit, but it would be too rough on her and the
boys if I were to change her name now.

And that's it.  Again, if I were to add in all the other cats, this
would be as long as a feature length movie.

Pam S.

Purrsia would have been cool too.

I chose Brio's name on www.thesaurus.com. Typed in words that spoke of her
character -- animated, life, gusto, energy, enthusiasm, vigor etc. and saw
"brio" as a synonym time and time again. I thought it'd make a cool name for
my full-of-life kitten. Now people keep asking me why I named my cat after
Italian soda pop. 8-) I hadn't heard of Brio soda until after I named her. I
like the name Brio a lot anyway.

Abby came with her name and we were told she know her name. Well I don't think
she did but after a few days of calling her Abby, she knew it. Cinnamon had a
different name when we adopted her. The shelter names their cats to keep records
on them but I was told she didn't know that name. We named her for her colors,
she is a tordie.

Ann

i was a great fan of TS Elliots cats and had always said my second Cat would
be a Grizabella as that was the name of the cat chosen to return again.
Unfortunately my grizabella turned out to be male so he become magical mr
mistoffelees which turned out quite apt as he kept my elderly cat Sily alive
for 10 more months. the cat i then got to help him get over the loss of
silky than had to be a Grizabella, and quite a glamour cat she has become.

Cati

I got Lucky (RB) when she was almost a year old, and her former humans
never named her(!). But the story was that the friend who gave her to me
had taken  his daughter (they later moved into a no-cat condo)  to a
neighbor's farm, where there were literally dozens of skinny, not too
healthy, kittens in the barn. The little girl called out 'here kitty',
and the only kitten that came to her over was the beautiful tuxedo cat I
named Lucky. I figured I was lucky to get her, and likely, Lucky was
about the only kitten who lived more than a few years. The barn wasn't
heated, and the people simply ignored the cats and kittens except to
give them away, if they could :-(  I was blessed with 16 years with the
most wonderfully affectionate and sweet cat you could imagine.

I got Blizzard (RB) as a kitten. She a was pure white, and raced around
my tiny house, seemly everywhere at once. Blizzard seemed like a natural
name for her!

~~~~~~~~
Life without cats would be only marginally worth living.
TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie.

How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
- Robert Heinlein

How did you name your little critters?

Rama's full pedigree name is  Riokay Like No Other, (that is the name he
came with) I couldn't make a name out of that, tried several names before I
came up with Rama, the name suits him, he is a big boy.

Phoebe's name is Sweet Phoebe, which I chose as I was going through "I like
old fashioned names" at the time (still do, I also had a Hannah and a Emily,
both now spayed and rehomed in a loving pet home) Phoebe is a very beautiful
and regal lilac Burmese.

Bobbi is Roberta Mac, named after my cousin, Robert MacKenzie.

Bruno, Freya and Gigi (all litter mates) came to me with their names, I
didn't really like Bruno, thought it more a d*g name than a cat name but it
stuck as at the time I had so much else going on in my life I didn't have
the energy to think up another name, I liked Freya so was happy for that to
be her name, I still have trouble with Gigi but seeing as I have had these
three cats for nearly two years that is how it will stay.

When I sell kittens I like the new slaves to come up with their names as it
is a real hassle to try and come up with something original, if they want to
wait until they get the kitten home to see if he/she looks like a Boris or a
Doris I put my thinking cap on and name them. I tend to go with people type
names.

Lois

I named Bunter after (a character in a series of detective novels) Lord
Peter Wimsey's valet.  It was the perfect name for my devoted sidekick.

Emily came with her name when we adopted her from the local animal shelter.
It's a pretty name for a pretty cat, so we kept it.

When we took in my mother-in-law's cat, Fella, I began calling him my little
sweet pea.  This eventually morped into Mr Peabody.

My parents got their kittens right around the time of the "Nannygate"
scandal - and so they dubbed the sisters Zoe and Kimba.

Brenda

Laku already had his name when we got him and we didn't want to change a
name he was accustomed to. His mommy's hoomins had named him Laku, which
means licorice in Finnish as he's solid black, well, very extremely dark
brown, not blue-black, but still black, all the way from nose to
toepads. The only time he can seem to have some other color in his fur
is under direct strong lamplight or sunlight, which makes a reddish hued
tabby pattern appear.

Jasper just seemed to fit.  We got his mother at the same time, and both
came up with Jemima, so we needed another J name to go with it.

Carrie came with her name, so we saw no reason to change it.  She seems
quite happy with it.

Izzie (RB) is another story entirely.  I got her from the friend of a
work colleague; friend was emigrating, and needed to home said kitty.  I
went to see her, and picked her up for a cuddle.  She wasn't having any
of this, and jumped, landing very neatly with all her feet pointing out
like a dancer. Working on the dancer theme, we came up with Izzie as in
Isadora Duncan.  Unfortunately, she was no-where near as elegant as the
real thing, being a very clumsy kitty!

Purdey was brought home by Tigger (both long since RB) on a snowy night
back in 1977.  I was only a kid then, and deeply into The New Avengers
on TV.  Mum told me that the kitten was a girl, so I named it Purdey
after the Joanna Lumley character.  By the time we got Purdey to the
vet, and it became apparent that she was a he, the name had stuck.  He
was a very purry cat anyhow, so maybe it *was* suitable.

I was having trouble coming up with a name for one of mine once, so I asked
her grandmother what her name should be. Grandma replied, "Nia." So that
became her name.

Another kitty that I found dying of starvation, feral, but too weak to run
from my rescuing hands, got the name "Spider" because that's what she
resembled.

Abelard got his name from the breeder who gave him to me. He's an
abyssinian, and I wanted a name that could be shortened to "Aby" or "Abbie."

"Cotton", a large white Maine Coon, was so named not because he was the
color of a cotton ball but rather because when he was very small he liked to
play with the waste cotton (motes) from the gin that I used to stuff into
the cracks in the walls of my cabin in the Arizona mountains.

"Safford" was named after a town in southeastern Arizona, the next town up
the road from Thatcher, which is where I found my Tibetan terrier puppy
named Thatcher, because he was the next pet I got after the puppy.