by Stacey Miner

Created on: January 05, 2010

People do not give cats names.  Cats choose their names for themselves.  The best we as human beings can hope for as servants to our feline masters is to merely suggest a name that is tolerable enough for our kitty friends to respond to.

Once a cat has decided that a particular name is acceptable, it is next to impossible to persuade him or her to allow any alternative.  This is a complication that I have personally tried to tackle on many grand occasions of adopting a feline friend from an agency or organization.  They always tell you that you're free to choose a different name for you cat when you take them home with you, but it's been in my experience that there is no compromising with the kitty.

The first cat I ever chose for myself was a silver tabby barn cat that my father let me bring home from a friend's farm.  This cat, fortunately, had not been previously named.  I recall him being such a tiny little thing, maybe even the runt of his litter.  Even though he grew to be a much larger tom than he started off as in his kittenhood, as a child and a fan of popular television shows of my age, I suggested the name Pee-Wee to him, and that seemed to settle well enough with him.  He always came when I called him.

In later years, long after Pee-Wee was gone, I had the opportunity to adopt another cat from a pet store.  I was heading into my adulthood, freshly eighteen, and moving out on my own.  This cat was the only kitten left for purchase, and was a beautiful black and gray tabby that I decided to name Isis.  She seemed okay with that name.  Given the long history of felines of the world, what kitty wouldn't be?

However, the next cat that I adopted was an orange tabby that came pre-named Tigger.  I adopted him from my brother, who had taken him in for a friend of his, because he really isn't much of a cat person.  He had already been neutered and spent some months adopting to his suggested name, and I must say he lived up to it as a skittish and bouncy little tom.  There just didn't seem to be any other name that suited him.

The third cat we brought into our family was from the local Humane Society.  I must admit that she's an evil cat if ever one did live.  This one again came pre-named, and here is where I first heard the phrase, "You can rename her if you want."  She's a pure white oriental short hair with one green eye and one blue eye.  She came with the name China. 

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