The Best Cat Names Ever

Hah! Reminds me of a time when a friend of my mother’s had finally decided that as her work travel demands were increasing, her vet could no longer foist all the injured/found/homeless cats on her. She’d keep her existing gang, but no more new ones.

So about six weeks after the last one died of old age, a storm brought a tiny wisp of shivering wet fur to her back porch. As she looked out and saw the little guy, she groaned, “Lord, not again!” So the cat acquired the name “Lord Nottigin.”

My grandmother had a cat she named “Tasmanian Devil”. Taz came to us one day when my boyfriend (now roommate/ex-boyfriend), who was renting a room at my grandmother’s house at the time, and a friend of his found this skinny, scrawny little grey kitten up in the foothills where they had been hiking. My roommate’s idea was to see if my mom or somebody else wanted the kitten and he wasn’t too happy when my grandmother wanted to keep Taz instead because he thought there were too many cats in the house already. Considering two of the cats were his and two were mine, I felt that it was about time that my grandmother had another cat of her own. Besides, it was her house so he had no say in the matter. So Taz stayed.

Taz got the name Tasmanian Devil because, once he recovered from having nearly starved to death and got used to his new home, he became a whirlwind of trouble! He never grew very big and, during the time we had him, always looked like he was about 6 months old. But trouble sometimes comes in small packages. He was such a little troublemaker that, whenever we heard any kind of commotion – a cat fight, something falling(usually something big falling), sounds of breaking glass, the garbage can being tipped over.. etc… we would simply yell, “TAZ WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!!!” and Taz would usually appear from the general vicinity of the noise.

Unfortunately Taz’ time with us was all too brief. Not long after my grandmother passed away, Taz disappeared. I think he was about 1 1/2 years old when he vanished. But he gave us a lot of entertainment in that short period of time.

I had a cat we called Kazoo, because that’s what she sounded like.

We had a pair of brown tabbies: Bonnie and Clyde.

I name my purebreds after artists, so I had a mama cat we called Trekkie – Her name was Tee LaTrec. And we kept her daughter who we never showed, hence: Shuttle.

When one of my granddaughters was little we adopted a throw-away cat who was a long-haired orangie. I let her name him and she (at the age of 3) named him Marmalade after her favorite jam. One day she caught me giving him heck for being on the counter and I was yelling “Get off there you Fuzz-head! Well she had trouble saying her F’s at the time so he became “Puzzhead”. My ex still has that cat and he is still Puzzhead and it has been 10 years!

Years ago, our neighbors got a cat called Monkey. I always thought that was a strange name for a cat – until I got one of my own! We are always telling Tikka what a little monkey she is. And when I look back on what a character little Monkey was, I realize the name was perfect!

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve enjoyed some of the cat names I’ve come up with.

There was Karma… sometimes she was Good Karma, other times she was Bad Karma.

Keph was named after a character in a book (Kephias was the name of the character).

Odd was the name of an odd-eyed white cat with red van markings.

Therefore, when a white cat with same-color eyes and black van markings showed up, his name became Even.

My dad named a black & white kitten Spindacular (combination of Spin and spectacular, which is what he did best).

There was Bunky, short for Carbunculus, named for the rusty-red undercoat under a dull black topcoat (when he arrived, seriously malnourished and very thin).

But my favorite was Booger, also known as the Boogerman, Boogerboy, the Boogermonster, the Boogermeister, the Hooded Avenger, the Masked Avenger, and Butthead. He was the smartest cat I ever had, very much a ‘mama’s boy,’ and had a black mask, white chops, and a tiny black mark coming out of one nostril. After I saw his marking, what *else* was I supposed to call him?!?

At the shelter I worked at there was a cat named “Fig” as he was so elusive and timid as he was rarely seen. It’s short for Figment of the imagination.

Had a cute kitten when I was in high school we named John Boy, because my mentally challenged sister loved the Waltons so much. Mom dropped him off for neutering, and later that day recieved a phone call from the vet who said he was sorry, he couldn’t neuter John Boy, but wanted to make sure it was okay to spay her. We decided to not change her name and she remained John Boy until the day she died.

Nora’s real name is Le Noir (everyone pronounces it like Lenore). She is not all black, but she had a brother who was all white and his name was Le Blanc. Nora is a very dark tabby. They were my sister-in-law’s cats; Nora now lives with me and Le Blanc went to live with another family.

Nibs is actually Nabby. When she is in a goofy mood I call her Abby Normal (after a certain scene in a certain movie which is one of my favorites).