Old-Fashioned Cat Names

Edgar is an Old English name historically associated with the tenth century English king known as Edgar the Peaceful. There was also a King Edgar of Scotland.
 Edgar has been a stalwart on the US <a href="https://nameberry.com/popular-names">popular names</a> lists, not dipping below the Top 400 until 2022, and is especially popular (as is Edgardo) with Latino families.
 Edgar plays a key role in King Lear and has had several distinguished namesakes, including artist Degas, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, and author and poet Edgar Allan Poe. In terms of style, however, most would rate it a distant third to Edward and Edmund. 
 Trivia tidbit: Joan Rivers' daughter Melissa named her son Edgar after her father, but he is called by his middle name Cooper.

Edgar

Sleek and stylish with a touch of quirkiness about it too, Maxine is a popular choice in Belgium and France, and has been climbing up the US charts too. Following a two decade absence, it re-entered the Top 1000 in 2016 and a recent year saw it rank just outside the Top 500. 
 
A relative of Maximillian and Maximus, Maxine shares the same aspirational Latin meaning of "greatest" and offers you a way to cool nicknames, like Max, Maxie, and Mina.
 
Used familiarly since the 20th-century, Maxine had its US peak in the years between 1915 and 1930, when it was a Top 100 choice, attached as it was to celebs of the era, such as actress Maxine Elliott and one of the singing Andrews Sisters. Since then, it has been notably borne by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Chinese-born writer Maxine Hong Kingston.
 
Musician Nick Hexum was slightly ahead of the trends when he and his wife Nikki named their daughter Maxine in 2011, a sister to Echo and Harlow.

Maxine

Edith was a hugely popular name a hundred years ago that's being revived among stylish parents in Stockholm and London. It's currently beginning to gain traction in the US among those with a taste for old-fashioned names with a soft but strong image. 
 The name of two American First Ladies, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, as well as that of several early English queens, Edith is one of the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon names. Widely used in nineteenth century novels, Edith was chosen by Louisa May Alcott for the heroine of her first novel The Inheritance, written when she was seventeen.
 Edith Wharton makes a fine literary namesake, with other noted bearers including poet Edith Sitwell, iconic Hollywood movie designer Edith Head, and for francophiles, there is the reference to Edith Piaf. With the rise of so many other E-starting names from Ella to Evelyn, and the adorable short form Edie, we predict that Edith will soon sound more like a cute toddler than a dated granny, especially with the Despicable Me character and the emergence of one of the most interesting characters on Downton Abbey, Lady Edith Crawley.

Edith

Mae, a sweet and springlike old-fashioned name, hadn't been on the national charts in forty years, but finally made it back in 2010. Mae is derived from May, the month name that was chosen for its connection to Maia, the Roman goddess of growth and motherhood. 
 
Mae can be used as a nickname for the names Mary and Margaret — actress Mae West was born Mary. Alternate spellings include May, Mei, and Maye. The May spelling makes it more of a month name, while Mae makes it an antique nickname name. Both can stand on their own, as seen by Hilary Duff's choice of Mae as her daughter's first name.
 Mae along with twin sister May is now one of the prettiest and most popular middle name options for girls (Eric Clapton has an Ella Mae, Greg Kinnear an Audrey Mae, Ian Ziering a Penna Mae). 
 
A Top 100 name through 1920, Mae was big in early film history — there were leading actresses named Mae Clarke, Mae Marsh, Mae Busch, and Mae Murray. Towering over them (figuratively) was Mae West, who changed the name from sweet to sophisticated. Madonna also played a character called Mae in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.
 
Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman to travel in space. Mae Whitman is a rising young actress seen recently on Parenthood and Arrested Development.
 
It may be worth noting that Mãe is the Portuguese word for mother, so if you've got Brazilian or Portuguese relatives, it's probably best to stick to May or Mei.

Beatrice is back. Stored in the attic for almost a century, the lovely Beatrice with its long literary (Shakespeare, Dante) and royal history is being looked at with fresh eyes by parents seeking a classic name with character and lots of upbeat nicknames, like Bea and Bee. 
 
Beatrice has some competition with more flavorful Beatrix and Beatriz these days. Beatrice is far more popular in the UK., ranking in the Top 100, while in the US Beatrice sits in a sweet spot in the middle of the Top 1000.

Beatrice is derived from Beatrix, a Latin name meaning "she who brings happiness." In the earliest sources it is also recorded as Viatrix, meaning "voyager", so there is some weight in both meanings.
 
Beatrice was the name of Queen Victoria's youngest child. And in Dante's epic poem The Divine Comedy, Beatrice is his guide through Paradise and is idealized as the embodiment of the spirit of love. In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice is the witty, high-spirited heroine. Other variants of the name include the French Béatrice and the Spanish and Portuguese Beatriz.
 
Nickname Bea actually stood alone on the popularity lists for four years at the beginning of the twentieth century — and it could happen again. Bea is sleek and modern, while Trixie sounds vintage and sassy — though if you favor Trixie, you may want to consider the Beatrix version of the name, which is reminiscent of watercolorist and children's author Beatrix Potter and has that surprising -x ending. Beatrice, on the other hand, feels gentler and more classic.
 
The Duke and Duchess of York, aka Fergie and Prince Andrew, thrust Beatrice back into the public eye when they chose it for their older daughter in 1988. The name can be pronounced with two syllables, BEE- or BEH-tris; with three, as in BEE- or BAY-ah-tris; or, as the Italians say it, with a magisterial four, bay-ah-TREE-chay.
 
Other names that mean happiness: Felicity and Hilary, either of which would make a good twin or sister name for Beatrice. Beatrice is also among the relatively rare <a href="https://nameberry.com/search/girls-names/b">girl names starting with B</a> that has a lot of current style value.

Beatrice

A Top 10 name from the 1880s until the 1920s, Frank has been falling for decades but last year reversed course for the first time in a century, edging up the popularity list a few notches. And Frank still has a certain warm, friendly real-guy grandpa flavor that could come back into style, like other such choices as Jake and Jack. 
 
Maybe thanks to Sinatra, it's become a new hipster favorite with such couples as Diana Krall and Elvis Costello. Along with Sinatra, Frank has a wide variety of interesting namesakes, including architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry, artist Frank Stella, director Frank Capra, musician Frank Zappa, and Muppeteer/director Frank Oz, to name a few. Musician Frank Ocean was born Christopher Breaux.
 
It's worth noting that despite its long decline, Frank has always remained in the Top 500 for boys. Also, the newly-cool girls' nickname-name Frankie may have given brother Frank a style boost.

Frank

Soft and simple, but no less magical, Faye is enjoying a quiet spell of popularity in the US. It broke the Top 1000 in 2014, and by 2023, was one of the fastest rising names on the charts. Faye is a perfect example of a name that fits in and stands out, recognizable and yet unexpected. It also makes a beautiful middle name option, if Mae and Rae are feeling too overdone.
The original Fay, Morgan le Fay, was a sorceress of the Arthurian Legends. Faye may also be used as a short form of Faith.

Faye

Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin's choice of this white-bearded Old Testament name helped bring it into the modern age, along with brethren Elijah, Isaiah and Isaac. User-friendly nicknames include Moe and Mose.
 
The biblical story of Moses is, of course, one of the most familiar from the Old Testament -- Moses being found as a baby in the bulrushes, growing up to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage and into the Promised Land, then bringing down the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai. 
 
Moshe, as in Israeli statesman Dayan, is the original Hebrew form of the name. In Spanish, it is Moises, and in Yiddish, Moishe.
 
A namesake from the world of sports is NBA Hall of Famer Moses Malone. Mose Allison, meanwhile, is a jazz blues pianist and singer.

Moses

Louise has for several decades now been seen as competent, studious, and efficient—desirable if not dramatic qualities. But now along with a raft of other L names, as well as cousin Eloise, Louise is up for reappreciation—sleek and chic, stylish in Paris, and starting to become so in the US as well. Louisa is perhaps more in tune with the times, but Louise has more edge. Louise has been on the rise lately, and reentered the US Top 1000 for the first time in a quarter century in 2016.
Louise has been a royal name in several countries, including Denmark, Sweden, France and England: currently Queen Elizabeth has a granddaughter named Louise via her son Prince Edward. It has been a staple on the Top 10 lists in Belgium and France in recent years.
Among her most notable bearers: iconic film actress Louise Brooks and modern sculptors Louise Bourgeois and Louise Nevelson. Louise is the middle name of both Madonna and Meryl Streep, and Louise was the character played by Susan Sarandon in the feminist road movie Thelma and Louise.
And there's also a nature reference—the beautiful Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Louise is one of many classic names newly fashionable as one of the trendy <a href="https://nameberry.com/search/girls-names/l">girls' names starting with L</a>.

Louise

Clover is a charming, perky choice if you want to move beyond hothouse blooms like Rose and Lily, and it's recently become a new celeb favorite, chosen by both Neal McDonough and Natasha Gregson Wagner, who used it to honor her mother, Natalie Wood, one of whose most iconic films was Inside Daisy Clover. 
 Clover also has a long association with good luck, via the four-leaf clover, and through the shamrock symbol of Ireland. It first came to wide notice via a couple of soap opera characters.
 In the movie The Good Shepherd , Angelina Jolie's character is called Clover--but her birth name was actually Margaret.

Clover

Sweet Charlotte nickname Lottie might be considered a nostalgic great-grandma name that conjures up lockets and lace, and — like Nellie, Josie, Hattie, Tillie, and Milly — has considerable vintage charm. In the UK, however, it feels like a totally familiar choice, having ranked in the Top 1000 since the 90s, the Top 100 since 2014, and the Top 50 since 2023. 
 
In the US, it was Top 100 name at the end of the 19th-century, but fell off the popularity list in 1960 with classic longform Charlotte remaining the preferred option. Now, with "nicknames-as-given-names" truly back in style, it made its reappearance in the US charts back in 2022 and has since risen to sit just outside the Top 500 in a recent year.
 
Sharing the meaning of Charlotte, Charles, and Caroline ("free man"), Lottie notably appears in the novel The Little Princess and in the film The Princess and the Frog.
 
While Charlotte is the classic full name for Lottie, you might also consider it a nickname for Loretta, Liselotte, and Ottilie. And if you love Lottie but want something less popular, there's Lettie, Dottie, Lissy, Leni, and Lolly.

Lottie

This sweet nickname name has seen a recent revival in the US, breaking the Top 1000 in 2019 for the first time in 40 years. By 2024, it became one of the fastest rising girl names, chasing sister name Eleanor up the charts, spurred on by the rise of other vintage gems like Margot, Millie, Willa, and Lottie. 
 
Nellie is an elaboration of Nell, a medieval diminutive of names starting with El, such as Eleanor and Ellen, though it equally works for Penelope, Antonella, and more. It may have arisen from the affectionate phrase "mine El" which was later reinterpreted as "my Nel", much like "mine Anne" became "my Nan" and then "Nancy". 

Nellie is an international choice, well-used throughout Europe. She is one of the top names in England and Wales and Sweden, while succinct spelling Nelly is also popular in Czechia and the UK. Over in the US, Nellie was given to around 590 girls, and featured in the Top 600.

Nellie

Bruce is a Norman place name made famous by the Scottish king Robert the Bruce, who won Scotland's independence from England in the fourteenth century. Hugely popular in the 40s and 50s, it has since declined in popularity, but nevertheless remains in the US Top 600 and has featured consistently in the latter end of the England and Wales Top 1000 since the 90s.
 
A nature connected choice, meaning "from the brushwood thicket" or "from the willow land", Bruce has a plethora of famous connections: Lee, Springsteen, Dern, Forsyth, and Willis being just a few. Noteworthy fictional Bruces include Batman's Bruce Wayne, Marvel's Bruce Banner, and the shark from Finding Nemo, while in Australia, the name was at one time Bruce was so widespread, it became a nickname for any Ozzie man. 
 
Strong and solid, but perhaps a little too close to word brute for some, could Bruce regain some of its lost popularity in coming years, riding on the back of word name Truce? Time will tell, but an interesting alternative is Brix, the Normandy place name where the Bruce family originated.

Bruce

Despite her somewhat prissy, puritanical air, Priscilla has managed to stay widely used for well over a century -- it reached as high as Number 127 in 1940 -- appreciated for its delicacy and solid history.
 A New Testament name, it was Priscilla with whom the apostle Paul stayed while spreading the gospel in Corinth. It was common in the ancient Roman world and later was a favorite of the seventeenth century Puritans. Priscilla Mullins (Alden), remembered for her co-starring role in Longfellow's poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, making Priscilla one of the perfect <a href="https://nameberry.com/list/645/delicious-thanksgiving-names">Thanksgiving baby names</a>. There was also a sympathetic Priscilla in Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance.
 The most conspicuous contemporary bearer of the name is Priscilla Presley, and it's what J. R. R. Tolkien named his only daughter.
 If you find the nickname Prissy too prissy, you could use the British-inflected Cilla.

Priscilla

Augustine is more substantial (and saintly) than August, less pretentious than Augustus, and, along with its nickname Gus, is definitely a viable choice. 
 Augustine is actually the diminutive form of Augustus and achieved its fame via the great fourth century saint, St. Augustine of Hippo, whose teachings and writings had a great effect on early Christianity.
 A major character in Uncle Tom's Cabin is Augustine St. Clare. The full name of the author of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake is James Augustine Aloysius Joyce.
 Model Linda Evangelista chose the French form Augustin for her son, also used by Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger as a middle name for their son James.
 The Spanish Agustin is experiencing a wild burst of popularity in South America: in recent years it has been the number one name in Uruguay and in the Top 5 in Argentina.

Augustine

Cute but cool, fresh but familiar, Ozzy was one of the fastest-rising boy names of 2021 and has continued to rise in the US and the UK ever since. While hard-core rocker Ozzy Osbourne might not be everyone's idea of a role model, his nickname name, along with others like it (think Iggy, Ziggy and Izzy) are forging their own way up the charts. 
 
Derived from the Old English element os meaning "God" or "divine", or from the Irish oss meaning "deer", Ozzy can also be spelled as Ozzie, or for those outside of Australia, Aussie. It could work as a nickname for oldy-worldy Oswald or Osmond, or for popular Oscar and Biblical Ozias. 
 
Currently in the UK Top 500 and the US Top 650, it was given to 470 American boys in 2024, along with an increasing number of girls.

Ozzy

Frankie is a vintage nickname name for girls, with a down-to-earth country feel. It's one of the hottest boyish nicknames for girls, in the forefront of that trend. 

This renewed interest placed Frankie back in the US Top 1000 for girls in 2015 after a 41-year hiatus. It's still rising in the US for girls, now given to more than twice as many baby girls as boys. In England and Wales, Australia, and New Zealand, it's popular for both sexes but still slightly ahead for boys.

Drew Barrymore, who helped popularize and glamorize boyish names for girls, has a daughter named Frankie. On TV's Better Things, Pamela Adlon's middle daughter is named Frankie (sister to Max and Duke, both girls).

Frankie

Maybe it's because she shares that winning -elle sound with Isabel and Bella, but Estelle is no longer seen as a muumuu-wearing canasta player of a certain age (think George Costanza's mother on Seinfeld or Joey Tribbiani's talent agent in Friends). This could be in part thanks to the young Royal Couple of Sweden, who chose it for their firstborn daughter, or the single-named British R&B singer. It reentered the US Top 1000 in 2012 after a nearly fifty-year absence.
 Latin version Estella, introduced in Great Expectations, also has energy and charm, while Estrella is another stylish member of this star-related club. Ali Landry has a daughter named Estela. Este and Estee are also in the wind.

Estelle

Cleo, one of the few girls' names to boast the cool-yet-lively o ending, is of course short for Cleopatra, the name of one of the most powerful women in history.
 Cleo was most popular in the early decades of the twentieth century--when it was also used for boys. The opening of the Egyptian tombs along with the 1917 silent film starring Theda Bara popularized a range of now-obscure Cleopatra diminutives, including Cleora, and Cleola. 
 A distinguished bearer is the British jazz singer Cleo Laine, and there have been Cleos on two TV dramas: ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Maybe the fact that Cleo was recently chosen by Friends' David Schwimmer will ignite a welcome revival.
 Sound-alike Clio is the name of the ancient Greek mythological muse of history and heroic poetry, one that is rich with modern charm and would also make an intriguing choice,

Cleo

Celebrated in song—the rock 'n' roll classic "Louie, Louie"—this is a gregarious, friendly spelling of Louis which will hopefully get you the -ee pronunciation you want. A familiar choice in the late 19th- and early 20th-century, Louie re-entered the US Top 1000 in 2015 and is currently a Top 50 choice in England, Wales, and Scotland.
 
Ultimately derived from the Germanic Ludwig, via the French Louis, it combines a softer sound with a strong, warrior meaning. Also familiar in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, it may appeal to those who like Bennie over Benny, Albie over Alby, Margo to Margot.
 It's the given name of actor and comedian Louie Anderson.

Louie

Old-fashioned cat names are one of the biggest trends in pet names. 

 such as Lucy and Cleo, Oliver and Leo, top the charts year after year.

 include Betty, Georgia, and Susanna. In addition to Oliver, other 

 that may appeal include Effie, Lottie, Chaz, and Ozzy.

It's charming to use old-fashioned names for cats that are not back in style for humans. These include crusty-cool choices such as Enid and Ernest, Velma and Vernon.

Old-fashioned cat names including vintage girl and boy cat names, with meaning, origin, and popularity (Page 6)