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Most owner’s spend a considerable amount of time considering names for their feline companion(s).  I heard of one fellow who was naming his dogs for the Beach Boys’ song that has all those islands. . . Aruba, Jamaica, Key Largo..  After many years he was halfway through the song.

My three cats came from the same litter, and I wanted to name them with their predecessor in mind.  “Quninella” was my kitty for 20 years before she passed.  It took three kittens to take her place:  “Stella”, “Angel Bella”, and “Fella Othello”.  I was stuck with rhyming in my blood.

One book reports the most popular cat names in the 1980s were “Tiger” and “Samantha”.  By now perhaps the most common cat names have changed.

For whatever we call our cats, T. S. Elliott, in his book of poetry called “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”, considers the other names a cat has.  He poetically deliberates about what name the cat is called by other cats, and what the cat calls himself–the most secret of all names.

Here’s the first poem in the book, which has served as an inspiration for the musical “Cats”.

The Naming of Cats

 The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
   It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
 You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
 When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
 First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
   Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
 Such as Victor or Jonathan, or George or Bill Bailey -
   All of them sensible everyday names.
 There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
   Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
 Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
   But all of them sensible everyday names.
 But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
   A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
 Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
   Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
 Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
   Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
 Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
   Names that never belong to more than one cat.
 But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
   And that is the name that you never will guess;
 The name that no human research can discover -
   But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
 When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
   The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
 His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
   Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
     His ineffable effable
     Effanineffable
 Deep and inscrutable singular Name. - T S Elliot, from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats