Cat Names That Start With B

Benedita is easy for an English speaker to pronounce yet sounds just uncommon enough to be intriguing. And with Benedict more in mainstream use, Benedita feels possible.

The original southern Good Ol' Boy.

A playful and whimsical choice for a child that works as a given name or a nickname (perhaps for Beatrix).

Unusual two-syllable choice with a real pronunciation challenge.

Great Irish middle name choice for Shakespeare lovers.

A melodic choice for lullaby-lovers. Brahms might also make a trendy s-ending nickname for Abraham.

Similar to the Turkish name Bilge (Bil-jeh), which has the same meaning.

Bennett doesn't really need feminizing — over 100 baby girls in 2020 were given the name as it is — but if you need to make it clear that it's a girl name, Bennette is one way to do that.

Bayou? No, but it sounds the same, and since both the Indonesian name and the English word have appealing nature meanings, this is a perfect choice for the family that wants to bridge cultures.

A surname with more force than most.

While Barthelemy does not garner much attention these days, it has a storied history in French-speaking countries. Notable bearers include geologist and explorer Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, philosopher Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire, and historian and writer Jean-Barthélemy Hauréau, to name a few.

Baby is rarely seen as a given name — or even nickname — these days, although it did rank in the Top 1000 from 1989 to 2003. These instances can be accounted for in two ways. Firstly, infants whose birth certificates are not filled out on time are given generic placeholders for registration, such as Infant, Unknown, or Baby. But more influential during this decade was the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, starring Jennifer Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman. It's the origin of the famed line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

Comes with a monocle.

A slow and sultry southern choice that's definitely cool for babies of either gender. While the word feels French and has its roots in 18th century French Louisiana, it derives from the Choctaw word bayuk, which means "small stream."

Wildly optimistic -- and unrealistic -- choice.

Beren is a gender-neutral name that's rare in the US, given last year to 20 baby boys and only five baby girls. But it's simple, distinctive, and yes, strong, plus it comes with an amazing nickname -- Berry.

Blakesley is the name of a village in England, also sometimes found as a surname along with Blakely and Blakeley, turned into a first name for their daughter by reality stars Trista and Ryan Sutter. Blakesley joins other -ley ending names -- Hadley, Finley -- as one of the most popular forms of unisex names with a girlish spin.

Shakespeare's classic drunken fool. In fact, this name, carried to Britain by the Normans, was quite popular until it was brought into disrepute by the low-life character who haunts taverns with Falstaff in Shakespeare's history plays.

A new, rising word name for boys that has the advantage of sharing sounds with more common names like Bryson and Braydon. And the disadvantage of getting confused with them.

It's most commonly associated with the French elephant, but Babar ironically means "tiger."