Cat Names from Alonzo to Zizi
You don’t have to be a cat fancier to appreciate a name with a sleek feline feel. These cat names range from cute kitten names to powerful panthers and tigers, and can be looked at from several points of view: names with cat-related meanings (starring the extended Leo family), cats in books, movies, television—real and animated–and cats named by well-known humans.
First of all, the most obvious:
CALICO
CAT, KAT
KITTY
PUMA
TIGER
Then there are:
NAMES WITH FELINE MEANINGS
ARI, ARIEL, ARIELLA
FALINE
LAVI
LEANDER, LEANDRO
LEO
LEON, LEONA, LEONIE
LEONARD, LEONARDO
LEONTYNE
LEOPARDO
LEOPOLD
LEV
LEYA—lion in Hindu
LIONEL
LLEW
LLEWELWYN
NANTALE
USAMA
LITERARY & SCREEN CATS
There are so many cool cat names in books, movies, and television shows, we could just scratch the surface:
FEMALES:
CATARINA, The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe
DEMETER, the musical Cats
DINAH, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll
FANCHETTE, Claudine à l’école; Claudine à Paris, Colette
GINGER, Ginger and Pickles, Beatrix Potter
HARRIET, Catwings, Ursula Le Guin
HENRIETTA, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood
ISIS, Batman-TV
JEMIMA, the musical Cats
MABLE, Orlando the Marmalade Cat, Kathleen Hale
MEHITABEL, archy & mehitabel, Don Marquis
MYRTLE, The X-Files-TV
PANSY, Orlando the Marmalade Cat, Kathleen Hale
TABITHA Twitchit, Beatrix Potter
THOMASINA, The Cat Who Thought She Was God and The Three Lives of Thomasina, Paul Gallico
ZIZI, La Ménagerie Intime, Théophile Gautier
MALES
ALONZO, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot; also musical Cats
CLOVIS, Sleepwalkers, Stephen King
GARETH, Time Cat, Lloyd Alexander
GIPSY, Penrod & Sam, Booth Tarkington
GUS (Asparagus), Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot; also musical Cats
LIONEL, The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man, Lloyd Alexander
MORRIS, 9 Lives cat food commercials
ORION, Men in Black
ORLANDO the Marmalade Cat series, Kathleen Hale
PLATO, the musical Cats
PUTNEY, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
QUAXO, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, T.S. Eliot
SALEM, Sabrina the Teenaged Witch
SAMSON, The Church Mice series, Graham Oakley
TAO, The Incredible Journey, Sheila Burnford
WEBSTER, The Story of Webster, P.G. Wodehouse
COMIX & ANIMATED CATS
(In this category, it would probably be best not to dwell too much on the appearance or personalities of these cats–fat or ferocious– but focus on the appeal of the name.)
ARLENE, Garfield’s girlfriend
BERLIOZ, The Aristocats
CAGNEY, Gargoyles
CLEO, Heathcliff
FARON, Peanuts
FELIX the Cat
FIGARO, Pinocchio
FRITZ the Cat
GARFIELD
HEATHCLIFF
MILO, The Adventures of Milo & Otis
OLIVER, Oliver & Company
SYLVESTER, Warner Bros cartoons
TOM, Tom & Jerry cartoons
TOULOUSE, The Aristocats
SOME FAMOUS FELINE PETS and their owners (writers, especially, came up with some creative names)
AJAX – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
APPOLONINARIS — Mark Twain
ATOSSA — Matthew Arnold
BEPPO—Lord Byron, Jorge Luis Borges
CATARINA — Edgar Allan Poe
CHOPIN – F. Scott Fitzgerald
COBBY – Thomas Hardy
CUBA — Ernest Hemingway
FOSS — Edward Lear
MICETTO — Pope Leo XII
MINOU – Georges Sand
NELSON — Winston Churchill
PERRUQUE –Cardinal Richelieu
SELIMA — Horace Walpole
SIZI — Albert Schweizer
TOPAZ – Tennessee Williams
WILLIAMINA — Charles Dickens (first named William until he realized it was a girl)
THE BIG CATS
ASLAN (lion), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
CLARENCE (lion), Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion
ELSA (lion), Born Free by Joy Adamson
FRASIER (lion), Frasier, the Sensuous Lion
HOBBES (tiger), Calvin and Hobbes
KIARA, (_lion), Lion King II: Simba’s Pride_
KIMBA (lion), Kimba the White Lion series
KOVU (lion), Lion King II: Simba’s pride
LOTA (panther), Island of Lost Souls
NALA (lion), The Lion King
PATRINA (tiger), A Tiger Walks
PIPPA (cheetah), Pippa the Cheetah and her Cubs, Joy Adamson
SABU (tiger), A Tiger Walks
SIMBA (lion), The Lion King
SPENCER (lion), The Lionhearts
ZIRA (lion), Lion King II: Simba’s Pride