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Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:00 pm
by amylou
I have adopted a male tabby kitten today & I’m struggling with a name! I love odd names or ‘human’ names but I just can’t find one I like.

Did you wait a couple of days before naming your fur baby because one day, a name just made sense? :)

Re: Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:20 pm
by Mollycat
The last time I properly named a kitten was July 1987. I did my school history project on politics in the Olympic games and named her Misha after the Moscow Games mascot Misha the bear. To be totally honest she was a brindle Tortie and I really wanted to call her Haggis but my mother wouldn't let me.

Since then my cats have been second-hand and already named, although I didn't know Henry was Archie when he first decided to move in and had I known he was planning to stay I would have given him a proper name, not just Henry the Hoover because he hoovered up all our other cat's leftover food!

I have always wanted a Ginger and never had one and I would love to call him Oscar, after an old neighbour's lovely friendly Ginger when I was a kid, even long before Misha was born.

Before Misha we had Clownie - we were there at her birth - who was the funny one of the litter. Then Ellie, who would have been Elliott after TS Eliot the poet via a cat in a book I loved, but she was a girl so she became just Ellie.

Re: Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 5:25 pm
by fjm
I have definitely always needed to try names on an animal to find one that fits, although I start with lots of ideas from books and other sources. I have had a Shouna (from her registered name), a Toby, Minou, and Rosie (came with that name). Pippin and his brother were meant to be Pippin and Merry, but Merry didn't work as a name and the brother became Mallow. Tilly arrived with the name Susie, but was obviously going to grow into a cat of considerable character so was renamed Ottoline, although always called Tilly.

I'd try running down lists of names online, and see which work. Or some photos may spark good ideas - kitten photos are always welcome!

Re: Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 6:24 pm
by Ruth B
Virtually every cat i've had has come ready named as they are from rescues and I rarely feel the need to change their name. The one exception is one of the current cats, Freyja, she originally was called Katie, and as I'd had a cat called Katie previously I felt I wanted a different name for her. She came as one of a pair, and the other was Saturn, so I started looking at ancient pantheons for inspiration. Isis was considered, but as it was a time when the Islamic State in Syria was being problematic I decided that standing in the garden yelling 'come on Isis' probably wasn't a good idea, Frig was briefly considered, but I decided she would likely end up as 'that Frigging cat' so was also discarded, and Freyja settled on (apparently Saturn and his siblings were named after planets, but never mind). I do think Terry Pratchett made a good point in one of his books, when you name a cat, make sure it is a name you don't mind yelling at 10.00 at night while shaking a box of crunchies.
There are plenty of places to look for inspiration from ancient pantheons, to moons, stars and planets, to TV characters, it's just a case of finding one that fits.

Mollycat, I'm not sure what it is about Ginger cats being called Oscar, my previous boss had one. One night he and the other person he was going into business with were desperately trying to think what to call the company when it was meant to be registered the next day, they had gone through all manner of names and couldn't come up with anything they liked. In the end for want of coming up with anything better, the one suggested OTC, Oscar the Cat, which is what it became. For a long time they wouldn't admit to what OTC actually stood for, but eventually the secret got out. When I went self employed I decided I wanted a trading name that wasn't just my name, so following their lead I now trade as FTC Leather Goods, the FTC can stand for many things, but I know what it really stands for, and having mentioned my cats name, I think you can have a good guess.

Re: Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 6:57 pm
by Mollycat
The Oscar I knew was a pair with Marmaduke, which I've always assumed is the common one of the two. Yes it does seem to go together.

There's always Ceefer Cat, DC, and other such plays on words, too. Literary ones - Pushkin being my personal favourite (the same people I knew had a boxer dog called Tolstoy to go with Pushkin) or Eliot.

A very good point about shouting a name late at night, and a good case against people names. There seems to be a spate of Dave cats at the moment where I live, in fact one black Dave has picked me out as a friend and yells at me to come down if I see him out the window.




Which I'm half embarrassed to say I do.

Re: Help with name! Male tabby

Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:58 pm
by fjm
I knew one opera lover who called her cat Figaro, just so she could call him in at night - "Figaro! Figaro-FIgaro-FIGARRRRO!"