Need a name for my kitten

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Missk85
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Need a name for my kitten

Post by Missk85 »

He's a little black kitten that a stray had left at our home a few weeks ago. Now that he's 7 weeks we really need to get a name on the little guy

Here are my ideas

JINX

OZZY

ONYX

LOKI
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fjm
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by fjm »

Choose something you will be happy shouting around the neighbourhood at 3am when he goes exploring - two syllables ending in -y or -ee tend to be easiest for that!
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Lilith
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Lilith »

Hi and welcome - lol names are so subjective! And the cat often chooses anyway.

When I first met my eldest she was a scruffy little half-grown black tux; I took one look at her and said, 'Hallo, Mouse!' I like to give a cat a 'proper' name, but she's been Mouse for 16 years now.

I think Fjm has the right idea - a name you'll be comfortable with calling. 15 years ago a handsome ginger feral tom started to come to me for food; as he arrived around St Patrick's day I called him 'Paddy' but, with a Mosque just round the corner, I realised that 'Paddy' might be mistaken for the ignorant non-pc term ... and stayed up all night reading my dictionary of Celtic mythology. He became Finn - aka Finny, Finnegan, Finnbar ... the local kids called him 'Garfield' ... cats generate millions of nicknames! :lol:

Good luck with the naming :)
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Kay
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Kay »

Barbara Woodhouse (if anyone is old enough to remember her) used to say cats responded to names with an 's' sound - I wonder if that is where Puss came from? - and dogs to a 't' sound

Ozzy would fit her theory
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Lilith
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Lilith »

Oh lol yes! Walkeees!

I once read that 'Puss' came from Bast or Pasht, the Egyptian cat deity.

My Molly (in private!) responds to 'Lollylollylolly!' And Mouse likes 'Mowsey-Wowsey' ... ohh dear ... :oops: :oops: :lol:

But wait till you start naming snakes. My royal python is 'Shahi' - means 'royal' in Urdu and when he was small and cross he could say it too - 'SSSSSHHHHHHAAAAHHHHIIII'.

But nowadays he often gets called ... 'Sausage' ... :oops: :roll:
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Ruth B
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Ruth B »

TS Elliot stated that cats have three names, close, but most have far more. As I once heard it put:

They have an official name, the one you give them when young, that they are registered at the vets with, and in the case of pedigrees may be extremely long winded and include a number.

Then they have the name they are called at home most of the time, something simple, one or two syllables and that you don't mind shouting at 10.00 at night while rattling a box of crunchies or banging a dish with a spoon.

There is then the name for when they have climbed the loft ladder 'because it was there' and got themselves stuck behind the water tank. When you climb up to help them the ungrateful fiend isn't stuck at all and makes a rapid exit from the loft tearing your best shirt or blouse and lacerating the skin beneath, then proceeds to knock the loft ladder over leaving you stuck in the loft while everyone else is out of the house. Granted this isn't a name you need often, but it's worth having it lined up ready for the occasion.

Most of my cats have come ready named as adults from shelters. The one exception is Freyja. She came named Katie, I had already had had two Katies, one stayed Katie, the other became Suzie, but had to go back to the shelter due to disputes with my other cats (including the other Katie), so I wasn't having another Katie. As she was adopted along side another cat called Saturn I decided to stay with the theme however a few were disregarded, I decided that with the current state of affairs over in the Middle East standing in the garden shouting 'Isis, come on Isis' wasn't a good idea, and as for calling her Frig, we would just end up wondering 'what is that Frigging cat up to now'. Freyja has worked out quite well. As for Saturn, even the vets have misread it as Satan, which unfortunately does fit to an extent, although Saturn in his guise as lord or Misrule probably fits him better.

Also remember they do grow up. I once knew a big, butch, tuxedo cat called Pippin, it probably suited him fine when he was a kitten, but it didn't seem right when he was an adult.

Personally of the ones you listed I like Ozzy or Onyx, but it is a very personal choice.
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Lilith
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Lilith »

:lol: :lol: :lol:

But the last name is secret ...

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/t_ ... oems/15121

Lol I agree with the 'frigging cat' - the words used in this house are even worse and would be banned by the mods :lol:

No matter how you love them there are times when ... I once had a kitten whose nickname was Cookie. For 'Cooking Fat'. Yes, turn the spelling round, spoonerise, and you got it ... Later she became The Leopard but she was still a cooking fat! :o :shock: :lol:
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Ruth B
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Ruth B »

I'm not sure but I think the one about the specific name for the cat in the loft was courtesy of Sir Terry Pratchett in the Unadulterated Cat rather than TS Elliot.
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by alanc »

Ruth, I've just looked it up and the loft ladder name requirement does come from Sir Terry.
Tilly has at least 4 names (including her official pedigree name which I can never remember and has never been used since I signed the paperwork when buying her).
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MarySkater
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by MarySkater »

My Norwegian Forest Cat's pedigree name was Priya, but I thought that was too many letters, and made it Ria. She gets other names late at night when I'm relaxing before bed, she goes out in the rain and gets saturated, then comes in and rubs affectionately round my bare legs.
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Lilith
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Lilith »

Ah I thought that was your own experience, Ruth, the loft cat - I've read the Terry Pratchett book but forgot that bit. Ha, that's so damn typical of cats ... I'm sure many a fireman's been stuck at the top of a tree while the cat's moseyed to the bottom and sat smirking at him ...

Ohh, pedigree names ... only one thing worse, and that's choosing them. Mind you I did register a blue tabby-pointed boy as 'Twilight Zone' which I thought was rather neat, and while he was growing up he got named 'Tao'. When he went to his new owners they called him Tao, too ... I expect among other things ... :lol:
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Ruth B
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

Post by Ruth B »

My parent came very close to the loft incident with Stroppy's sister, Tufty.

When she was a kitten she managed to get into the loft, but the problem wasn't getting stuck behind the water tank, it was that she was so close to the side of the house they were scared that one wrong move would send her down the wall cavity. It didn't help that she was always the more nervous of the two and already upset realising she had done something wrong she wasn't letting anyone near her. Fortunately my Dad managed to grab her before it all went horribly wrong.

I guess knowing that story made the passage in Sir Terry's book stick.
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fjm
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Re: Need a name for my kitten

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Ah, THAT name! Pippin, when hardly more than a kitten, had a really bad accident resulting in a very serious diaphragmatic hernia - basically it was torn right across in a big, jagged mess. Three vets operated, resuscitated him twice, and told me it was touch and go whether he would make it through the night. Next morning he was yowling at them for breakfast, and I brought him home that afternoon, handling him as if he was made of the most delicate eggshells, as you can imagine. Ten minutes later he was out of my bedroom window, planning on jumping off the flat roof beneath it onto the kitchen window sill and thence into the garden, while my 80 year old father balanced on a wobbly ladder to intercept him and I tried to fit through a window I hadn't used as an exit since I was 12 years old... Yes, you definitely have to have THAT name in reserve if you have a cat!
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