Where DID You Get That Name?

November 6, 2025

compiled by Krista Schmitt and Kate Preston

Names are personal and evocative, engaging our attention because they invoke associations with them as individual as taste in music, religion, sex, or politics. How many times have you heard a name and thought, “Wow, that’s beautiful!” or “Why in the world would parents name their baby THAT?” Cat owners are as name-sensitive as first-time parents; the following stories are proof.

Dark Star

A breeder of those silky black “parlor panthers” – Bombays – was saving the perfect name for an especially handsome kitten – But the name could only be for a boy. So, while girls came and went, the hopeful owner mused, “I had to wait … until ‘he’ came along.”  Finally, at long last, the carefully hoarded name landed on a beautiful, shiny baby panther: “Shemar Moore.”

Owner – Jeri Zottoli

 

Southern … or Sichuan?

Living in Virginia, this erudite owner had a cat named Li Shimin (李世民 – after a Tang dynasty emperor). But since this was in the Deep South, those who heard the name assumed it was based on two opposing Civil War icons, Robert E. Lee and William T. Sherman. The owner, as noted, was wise enough never to disabuse the listeners who believed the kitty’s name was Lee Sherman.

Owner – Tom Coffey

Komedy Kitten

Six rambunctious kittens, all without names, were running madly around the house of this owner. It happened that “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” was playing, when suddenly she realized the antics of the kittens zooming over the furniture matched the personalities in the comedy! Accordingly, Clark, Audrey, Ellen, et al. were christened, and Clark (the ringleader of mayhem) even gained some notoriety in the Household Pet competition at a cat show.

Owner – Mary Venable

 

Slightly Blue

An anonymous Cat Talk staff member confessed to naming a blue-cream female kitten after a provocative movie femme fatale. The kitten’s sire, “Casino Royale,” got his name from a James Bond “007” film. One of the usual Playboy-worthy actresses with the memorable name “Pussy Galore” appeared in that series, so you KNOW what this staff member named the Casino Royale daughter.

Owner – Anonymous