The Top 10 Names NOT to Give Your Cat

purrs to Tater Tot.

I have to admit to trying to take time to think up original names for my fosters. That being said, my brother and sister-in-law have two cats: Max and Boots. What can you do?

I also try to avoid people names - then of course people as me about my cats Tim & Tom. Not my fault - they came with those names.

Love the list...and so very true.

Really like the "Roger That" name suggestion!
It gets me thinking of 1950's space mysteries ... like Lost in Space :*D

"Tater Tot" is a way cool name for a kitten... but what will he be called when he's a big, grown-up, chunky male with beefy shoulders like a football player?  You'd have to call him "Mr Potato-Head"!  He's very cute though... and I'm sure he'll be "Tater" when he's big!

Loved this post - made us all laugh.

I love the name Dammit.  I doubt I would ever have the courage to name a cat Dammit just because I'd be too embarrassed to ever mention him in public or take them to the vet, but thinking of all the hilarious play on words that would exist is tempting.

And I'll admit, I have a cat named Tigger.  I'm in no way offended it was near the top of the list, but I do have a reasoning.  He looks nothing like a tiger, he's actually a gray and white tortie rescue with a nub of a tail.  His huge hind legs and very muscular build makes him look exactly like a manx.  If I didn't know he was a rescued kitten from a stray, I would have assumed he was a pure bred manx.  We tried to think of a catchy name having to do with his nub tail, and we nearly settled on Stubbins.  But my wife didn't like it so I jokingly mentioned Tigger.

Tigger was my favorite Pooh character as a kid, and it was simply an ironic name.  The real Tigger bounced around on his tail, our Tigger has no tail.  For some reason my wife loved it and so it stuck.  But like you said, he could care less, as long as we feed him in time.

my son, a car geek, has Turbo and Deizel. My Twittens (short for 2 kittens) are Furfeather and Kalypso. I don't think we have ever used a 'normal' cat name. We've had Pins and Needles, Barely Visible  and Hardly Visible-both so black you could barely/hardly see them, DumCat, Princess Sweetie Bones, Yahoo, Lavender, Kitty Itty Bitty, Smidget, Samew, Sneaker-who liked to sleep in shoes, etc. I knew Kalypsos name as soon as I saw her-she's a sleek black little goddess of a cat who loves men. Furfeather took a couple of weeks before he told me his name-he is a big fluffy , sweetheart of a maine coon with a tail like a plume.

Now, I'm making a broad sweeping generalization here, of course, but I find most human names for cats really banal. Bob Dole is an exception, because he shared that name with a politician, and that makes it funny for both of them. But I really cringe at names like Debbie, Missy, Frank, Charlene, Gertrude, Dave, etc., etc. when introduced to an animal that is inherently so superior to a human. Bud? Really?? Ashley?! *gag*  

Cats deserve fun, descriptive names, since we mere humans can never begin to guess what they call themselves, and couldn't translate it into words even if we knew. Robin, really... Kevin? Kevin?!  *sigh*

Now MY cat has a name that fully captures his unique and nigh indescribable wonderfulness - a name so fitting that I can't actually bear to share it here, lest your readers pick up on it and it sweeps the nation and my cat becomes one of a thousand sharing his otherwise perfectly suited name, which rightfully should be HIS and only his.

However, I generally refer to him as Fluff.

I admit it, my Mommeh named my brother Harley.  But it is because he has such cool harlequin markings, his whole name is Harley Quinn.  At the shelter he was named Neptune.  Changing the name after adoption is sort of a ritual, like saying "you're mine now!"

I work in a vet clinic...a client actually named one of his cats Snatch, another named Roach, and we did have a little pooch called Scruffy Dammit, RIP Scruffy Dammit.. you were fiesty but had lots of character!

My parents like easy names for their pets.

We've always given ours...unique ones with a middle name (we only use both names if their in trouble. It works as well on cats as it does kids!)

We've got Luna Lovegood (grey and white female), Nebula Andromeda (female tortie with a half blind eye), Auora Bella (Nebula's mostly white and some orange sister), Apollo Anton (Tuxedo male. After my fav olympian, and usually his name is also followed by OH NO!....Bad pun is bad), Hala Calypso (grey ticked tabby female), Orion Edward (grey ticked tabby male), Rigel Fawkes (after Guy Fawkes and the phoenix, Rigel's grey ticked brother), Naboo Padme ( female tortie named after Star Wars planet and character! sister to Rigel and Orion), Eclipse Abyss (black with small white patch female. She appeared UNDER my parents house...we're still not sure how, so we gave her a mysterious name. She's also not friendly...so looking into her eyes is dangerous lol). Endor Amidala (female tortie, also named after Star Wars planet and character. She' had bad fleas...that kind of looked like little ewoks on a planet when we got her. My mother-in-law likes to relate her to the witch of Endor. She bites alot--the cat, not my mother-inlaw), and then brother and sister duo name Sirius Black and Nimbus Prescious (an intentional mispelling for the girl. Siriud id all black, has the orangest eyes I've ever seen, and thinks he's a dog. Nimbus is fluffy looking, tiny, sick when we got her and is a mostly white calico).

Then we got the dogs--Ares Reed (chihuaha/daschaund on the one side and beagle on the other--his sister and him are 40lbs), Ariel Jasmine, Angel Baby (a chihuaha), and a minature daschaund rescue (we think she's full blooded) named Ambria Yavin-4 (two star wars planets in that one!)

Our overall theme is Celestial whether it be gods and goddesses, planets or stars. And the dogs all have A names.

LOVE the name tater tot!

My sister has a cat named Homerun XD

My first kitties were Athena & Zeus (obviously, I was into Greek mythology st the time). 16 years later, after they'd gone to the rainbow bridge, we got Ruby (named after a bluegrass song--we're huge bluegrass fans) and Banjo (again cuz of bluegrass). Sadly, Banjo had FIP and passed 5 months later. We got 2 new kittens to be Ruby's furfriends, and to pay homage to our poor baby Banjo, we named the kittens after 2 of our favorite banjo players, Scruggs & Vann (for Earl Scruggs & Mark Vann).

I have 14 cats. Their names are:

Monster aka Monty, white and siamese patched, 7

The Siamese brothers:

Tai, 7

Chi, 7

The rest:

Miss Kitty, black, 6

Tigger, tabby, 5

Bear, black, 4

Smokey, blue, 4

Lacy, blue, 4

Elizabeth aka Lizzy (Pride and Prejiduce), siamese, 4

Whisper Kitty (Noisest cat we've ever had), black, 4

Tinsel (found right before Christmas), grey bulls eye tabby, 2.5

Toby, white with tabby striped patches, 2.5

Brother and Sister Bengals:

Jasmine, silver bengal, 10months

Kipling, brown spotted bengal, 10months

A neighbor had a cat named DC.  Turns out it stood for Damned Cat, but she was too polite to say so in front of children...

We also had a neighbor with a cat named Kitty Cat.  They said that they were just using Kitty Cat as something to call him until they could think of a good name, but they took so long to come up with one, he only answered to Kitty Cat.

I think our most unusual cat name was Kermit Zero Yo-Yo Kitty (known affectionately as "Kermie").  This is what happens when you have small children and end up naming the cat by committee.

one last one we had for one of our fosters was 'smidget'.  She was so tiny and her white furs had grey brush strokes all over.  Her vocal chords were anything but tiny though which was so at odds with her diminuitve size.  She was the first to be adopted with that name.  Where did she go live?  With a GREAT DANE!!!   LOVED IT! 

My current cats both had different names when I adopted them.  My long-haired tabby was Fiona - which was a pretty name for a pretty cat - but had to go because I didn't want a cat whose name could be shortened to Fifi!  So it actually took me a week or so to come up with a name for her, and I finally decided to name her after an owl because she looks just like one with her big round eyes and tufted ears.  Then the challenge was to find a pretty owl name (because she's just a beautiful, dainty little cat). That was harder than I thought it would be! Apparently no language has a word for Owl that sounds pretty. I finally had a revelation and decided to name her after "Sophos Glaukopis" - the Greek phrase referering to the goddess Athena's "wise little owl".  Hence she became Sophie - and it's a name that fits her perfectly.

 The other, a Turkish Van mix, came to us with the name Lila and I wanted to name her something closer to her heritage. So after scouring Turkish and Arabic baby names, she became Zehra - which means "white" and "flower". It suits her and she's learning the name.

I've had lots of kitties.   My mom always rescued cats, and folks often dumped them on her.  One of the first kitties I remember was Corky.  He was black and white and got his name from my dad, who said he was "putting a cork on having any more cats, hence the name, but it was far from the end of the cats."  I had a white cat named Drifter, a buff colored tabby named Beans (because he loved to eat beans), and a black and white cat named Hamlet (Hammy for short.)  I had a white cat with little yellow spots named Piccolo, a pastel tortie named Little Guy (she was actually a little girl, but would only come to that name), Starch, a beautfiul marmalade tabby, and a dark gray Persian named Pichou (pronounced Pee-shew), which is French for "little slipper" because he liked to sleep with his head in shoes.  We had one beautiful tabby named Suds, because she loved to suck on your shirt collar and get you soaking wet, and Pedro,which we shortened to Pedo,  a gray and white tabby who looked like he had a mustache.  I had a black cat with orange eyes named Potion.  My current cats are Maggie, which is short for Magpie, because she always goes after shiny things and carries them away, and Cody, short for Commander Cody from Star Wars because he has two C's on his stomach---one on each side.  Most of our cats are named after things they like or do.  We usually choose the unusual because cats are independent and each is unique.  :)

Best name ... Melonbelly. It is. You know it is.

I like some of your cat names, particularly Tater Tot, and Roger That. I had a huge tom cat I named Major Tom, a playful kitten I named Bounce, who lived up to his name--always gave me a bounce when I petted him! His sister's name was Pounce. Downy, Snuggle, and Cuddle are some other names I have thought of. I had 4 kittens born on Palm Sunday, so named them Glory, Praise, Alleluia, and Hosanna. I rescue cats and give them away, so have lots of names I can't even remember!

Nissa Faradae, is our champagne and white girl; it means "Spirit who guards a homestead".

answers to Nissa, Nissy, Nis

Oberon Baemy, is our black male (six weeks younger than his half-sister Nissa); his name means "Black Prince, brave as Bear"

answers to Oberon, Obie, Obe

Both are unique names, and fitting to their personalities.

I have 4 cats. Oliver , Olivia, Oscar & OliveOyl.

I think people who names thier cats stupid & mean names shouldn't really have a cat.  Having a cat or a pet for that matter, should be a pleasant experience & if you name it like the names on the list above then you should not have a cat. Why be mean about it? How would you like to called mean names as your real legal name? geez.... well, that's my opinion & some people just don't understand.

Maurice: Medium hair orange tabby.. We were kids when we named him

Theo: short hair orange tabby with blue eyes

Wolfgang/ Wolfie: answered to Wolfie. Grey and black  wolf like tabby.  Strong stripes. Striking. 

Blackbeard and Soya: Short hair tuxedos brother and sister.  He had a semi white face with a black "beard". She was very dainty and mostly black with extremely almond shaped eyes. 

Pheobe and Blackie.  Pheobe tuxedo black and white short hair.  Blackie's real name we later found out was Sherlock.. But Blackie had somehow stuck and he responded to it. Medium hair black catfish visible fangs that stuck out .

All my babies. All deeply loved and dearly missed.  About to adopt two identical orange tabbies.. Full grown... Named by shelter Ginger and Marmalade.  Strongly considering changing names.  

I like themed names, but over time the cats always tend to name themselves:

Gizmo

Shadow

Athena aka Fluffernutter, goddess of war (long haird white kitten with spots of orange and grey) ... and her mom (feral outdoor cat) Mamma Fluff (looks exactly like her daughter ^ ) AKA Miss Piggy.

Mooch  (another feral, Orange, and probably Athena's dad as she has his ears) with the sweetest Moocher of a face you'll ever see.

What I want to name my cats: 

Gonzo, Rowlf, Scooter, Rizzo, Sweetums, Zoot, and of course, Animal :) But as you can see above, most of our cats are Girls and Shadow totally named himself.

No, not Mr Pussy!

Zigzag: not named after rolling papers. Aka gizmo. His favorite spot was in my lap.

Spike: a wicked cool cat who thought he was a dog. He killed voles, moles, mice and chipmunks by the hundreds but never killed a bird. Also a lap cat.

Zack: ultra laid back, long hair, loved to be brushed - even his belly

Dagger: named after Dagney Taggart of Atlas Shrugged fame. Not so much a lap cat but loves attention and is usually in the same room as I am. Has supernatural hearing and can tell when I open the fridge if it's to get her food or not.

The last three are also nicknamed Stinky. Spike had stinky breath because he LOVED tuna, Zack had a stinky bottom sometimes because of his long fur, and Dagger has a stinky litter box because she doesn't bury her poops.

We had a cat named Honda. You could hear him purring anywhere in the house.

My neighbor, who is very nice, has/d cats named Tabby, Butterscotch, Snowball, Pumpkin and Smokey. Yes, for the exact reasons you guessed.

Another friend named his cat Schroedinger. Awesome.

Another friend named her cat Winston and her dog Churchill.

There's a brand of catfood here called Felix... and SO many cat's are called Felix.  If you know who Felix Unger of 'The Odd Couple' is, well... that's why we named ours Oscar ; )

Of course, that meant that if we ever had a second, then 'Felix' would be have been the obvious choice.

Next door there's a 'Harlequin'...

It suits him well as his Front-Left and Hind-Right quarters are almost all white, whereas the opposite quarters are a busy tortoiseshell.  Of course, they usually just call him 'Harley' : )

When I lived in Spain there was an ex-pat with a brown cat with perfect blue eyes... it was such a rare looking cat that just about everyone stopped and commented.

His name?  'Frank' ... after ol' blue eyes himself apparently : )

-Gary