Naming Black Cats
How did you arrive at a name for your black cat? Did the name come from Egyptian history (did you know the Egyptians considered black cats lucky?), or perhaps from the middle ages when black cats were felt to be witches' "familiars" and feared as such? Salem seems to be a popular black cat name, harking back to the time in that city's past when witches and their cats were hung. Did you name your cat after his color? Plain old Blackie seems to be popular enough, but some folks reach out to black colored objects, such as Onyx, Obsidian, or Licorice. Then, of course is the plethora of possibilities stemming from the occult, which covers a wide range, including Diablo, Satan, and Witch.How about people, either real or fictional? Othello is a popular name for black cats, as is Sammy. It was interesting to learn that a Bombay cat named Barack Obama is making its appearance at the Madison Square Garden next weekend in the 6th annual CFA-Iams Cat Championship show. According to a press release, Barack and a McCain-representative-cat will be politicking for election as the “Purr-fect President”. Will the results of that election be a foreshadow of the U.S. Presidential election next month? Your guess is as good as mine.
So, I'd like to hear from people who share their homes with black cats. How did you come to name him or her? I'll add the best comments to a new article I'm writing on naming black cats. If you wish, you may also send me a photo of your black cat, by following the Photo Submittal Guidelines. Pictured here is a cat named Midnight.
Photo Credit: © Jeanne Buynak
Comments
My beautiful black angel is called Mort, after a Terry Pratchett character. If asked by children I say she is named after Morticia from the Aadams family.
All of my black cats have been (creatively) called “Ti Neg”, which in LA French means “Blackie”.
Our black cat was a stray that joined us on a walk one evening.He stayed at our side for all 3 miles. When we got home he followed us right into the house. Since he matched us step for step and was black we named him shadow.
I have two black cats, out of ten. They are called Mouseworker and Sister. I called the male Mouseworker because when he was a tiny kit he always wanted to help me to do the house work, he particularly liked the soft dry mop I used in the bedroom, every time he saw it he hitched a ride and helped, then his sister joined in on the act…so Siser!
We have 2 black cats. One is named Inkie. Obviously for black ink. The other is Mischief. My husband named him as a kitten because we found him in our car one time after calling and calling for him. Here he is looking out the window at us! He has lived up to his name! He is always getting into mischief!
Our two black cats already had the names “Spider” and “Kent.” We chose to leave them at that because I think it can be confusing to a cat that has been called one thing for a very long time, to suddenly be named something else. Anyway, we have our own multiple nicknames and pet names for all of our cats, as well. They DO look at us individually when we say their names, indicating that they recognize the name as theirs.
Not that they “answer” to them , though! They do as they please, which is how it should be!
Tao is the only one who actually runs to me when I call him, no matter what.
Our black cat, who is a very loving and affectionate former stray, went through a series of names until I found one that fit: “Pluto” from Edgar Allen Poe’s “Black Cat”.
My gorgeous black cats are named so that people would know we were a family; they are O and U.
I named my little black kitty, Sunny. It was perfect for her. She’s got such a bright personality and is such a sweetheart. It’s ironic for a black cat to be named Sunny
My handsome solid black kitty is name Blackie Chan – we wanted something that celebrated his color but was still a little bit different!
Our black cat was rescued from Roxbury so we were going to call her Roxy but she didn’t seem to like it. So, we thought of other names and thought of Maya because it is kind of a mysterious name. The second we called her that, she answered right away.
I named my black cat Kimi which means “she is who is without equal” in Japanese according to this website. It’s perfect too because I call her most of the time with her nickname which is “Miming” or cat in my language.
Our black cat is named Harley. My husband works in a motorcycle dealership and loves Harleys, thus naming our cat Harley. I’d say he named him perfectly because Harley’s purrs are so loud, we jokingly say “he doesn’t purr, he idles!”
We have a Salem. We named him this partly because one of my dad’s ancestors was one of the only men killed during the witch trials in Massachusetts. So while we know it’s a popular name, it has a bit more significance to us.
The two black cats that I adopted in October of 2005 were about six months old and were brothers. I decided to name them Merlin and Kreskin – paying homage to the two great entertainers known as “Merlin the Magician” and “The Amazing Kreskin”.
I got a black kitten for my “40″th but I had asked for a white one. So I named him “Shuddabeen white but ain’t” AKA “Shuddy”
The Obama story is funny. I think that Obama-the-cat should run for president! My black (and white) cat is named Mandalay. One of her less common nicknames is Black Beauty (after the horse).
My mostly black (with a little orange) tortie chose my family as her own on October 11. Her coloring screams Halloween; however, we named her Eva for All Hallows Eve, also celebrated on October 31.
My late black cat, Boris, was named for the actor Boris Karloff who portrayed Frankenstein’s monster. The cat was ironically the most affectionate I’ve ever known.
I have a black cat about 1 year old.when i first got him i didnt want to give him any of the cliche black cat names.I kept saying whats the perfect name for a little black boy and thats when the name Rasta came to me.I also learned very early on that he loves ice cream so we call him Rasta Sunday.
We just adopted a black cat. The foundation we adopted her from named her Carmina however, we felt the name did not suit her. She is our Egyptian princess so we call her Cleo (short for Cleopatra).
My Black handsome man is named Raven and he proudly wears a purple color since he is also a fan of the Baltimor Ravens just like his mom! When our team has a bad game Raven always cheers me up with some of his kitty kisses and purring.
We have had a series of black cats all our married life. Our current two are named Jet and Kisha. We adopted Jet when she was just weaned and she just zoomed from one end of the house to the other. My husband was reminded of jet airplane, jet propelled. The name Kisha was from a book of cat names he found.
My little man, a black Persian, is named Hellcat. I was watching Cry Baby (one of my favorite movies) one day and during the number “High School Hellcats” I thought… that would be such a great name for a cat.
Weeks later when I first saw Hellcat’s picture I knew that he was going to be my little Hellcat. Despite his name… he is a total sweetheart.
As a child I also had a black cat named Elvis Purrsley. It fit him well… he just had that Elvis strut!
I have two black beauties. The first, Vladimir. I have always been interested in history and the occult. Vlad Dracul I found to have an interesting story, and I’ve always loved the name Vladimir. Russian history is also an interest, so it made sense to name my buy Vlad. My other cat’s name is Oksana. I wanted them to have the same name culturally, since they would now be brother and sis. Oksana to me is a particularly lovely name so my pretty girl became Oksana. However, they could both have easily been Osiris/Orion and Isis/Bast.
i have 2 black cats out of 9. my 11year old is called Eeky Mouse. when he was a tiny kitten and did the ‘crabwalking’ a lot he reminded me of a halloween cartoon cat where it would say ‘EEK’. therefore Eeky Mouse. the 2year old is named Boo-Boo. all 9 of our cats are former strays
My black Persian came to me already named:
“Salem”. He is entirely black and was born at Halloweeen time.
I have a black cat which I named Ali. It means “the exalted one” and he has lived up to his name.
My 1st cat was black w/white paws. We called her Sneakers. It fit her more than we could realize as she always snuck up behind us. All my black cats have alwys adopted us. Teddy was named after Ted Williams. He came to the house with a flea collar on, obviousl dumped at our house. So sweet after we fed him for about a week he just moved in, much to the chagrain of Dr. Watson, our 14 yrold cat who would never let us have other cats. She hissed and growled to no end. But Ted ignored her (he was a lover, not a fighter) and just kept on his merry way. Dr. Watson never would agree to keep him but if we walked in on them, they would be lying on the couch or bed together and Dr. Watson would look up in shock and turn to hiss at Ted as though to say, “I still don’t like him”. Then there was Josh. No matter what we trid to name him, it always came back to calling him Josh. It ws obviously his name. Some cats you don’t name, hey let you know what they’ll be called.
My first black cat I named Saambo, after little black sambo from long ago. My second black cat I named Spooky.
Because my big, beautiful black panther and I found each other at midnight on Halloween night 2007, I wanted to find a “witchy” name for him but not one of the over-used Halloween-y names. I love the movie Bell, Book and Candle with Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak, so I named him after her witch’s familiar cat in the movie, Pyewacket.
My black kitty was a stray and I kept saying to him ” you’re such a pretty kitty!” Thus,PK is his name. Peke,Peker and Peek-a-poo are nicknames,too. He’s my kitty with an agenda – always got something to do or say.
Our 11-1/2 year old black cat, Cisco, was named after the main character in the old-time TV series “The Cisco Kid.” The man playing Cisco was always dressed in black so we named him Cisco.
Our black long haired cat, Zippy, is 9 years old. When we adopted him as a kitten, his name was Onyx. My husband was throwing out names, and when he said Zippy, we both cracked up, and Zippy it was. He is sweet docile boy, and we do love him so. He also gets along good with our other cats.
My black cat was named Betty after the 1977 song “Black Betty” by the group RAM JAM.
My black cat is a Salem. I thought it was really original at the time. I’ve since learned there was a black cat on TV by that name, but oh well, I still like his name.
A few months ago I rescued two ferals (one grey long-hair and one jet black short hair) who were trapped inside the fenced tarmac at our local Air Force base. Two females, I wanted ancient royalty names so researched Egyptian, Arabic and African queen names. Most were barely pronouceable, and “Cleo” did not seem a good fit for either one. So, I decided to name them after the land the queens ruled over,namely, Cairo (grey kitty) and Sheba (black kitty). It has taken time and patience, but these two are now integrating into our family and getting along with my other 3 cats and 2 German Shepherds.
We chose the name Midnight for our newest cat because she is so sleek, silky and so black. We also have an older black cat Charley, which I found about 9 years ago when he was just a mere kitten. It seemed to suit him, and now he looks more like a miniature panther because he is so large. We are just hoping that Midnight will become friendly with our other 4 cats.
I (age 81) am now living (in Switzerland) with my sixth black tomcat: the first, when I was a little girl in the U.S., was named Satan; the next, when I was married, was named Felix by my husband; the first here in Switzerland was named Zyschtig (Swiss dialect for Tuesday as I got him on a Tuesday and his companion was named Swiss word for Monday); then there was Scan, actually my mother’s cat, because we found him when she came from the hospital after a CAT scan!); the last two, brothers, were nicknamed Jeudi (French for Thursday, their companion is named Swiss word for Wednesday) in addition to their own names (already old cats when they came). If I last that long, I suppose there will be more days of the week…
My boyfriend and I each had a black cat before we met eachother! His is Pablo, mine is Atticus.
My first black cat (part siamese, but all black) was named Spooky to start with, which morphed into Garfield’s teddy-bear’s name, ‘Pooky, which eventually became Pooka, the name we finally settled on. This was before I knew that a pooka (puka?) is an Irish animal spirit, sort of like Harvey, so that fit really well.
I’ve never been one to use “standard” cat names, especially tricky with black cats, and try to avoid them. My next black cat, a stray that had been hanging around the same area for a few consecutive nights, I decided to give a space name, and despite it being the opposite of his color, I picked Nova. The first time I ever picked him up, he put his paws around my neck and gave me a hug.
When I got my current black cat, he had hints of stripes that I thought would be more prominent as he got older, so I wanted a name reminiscent of smoke, and decided on Wisp. The stripes disappeared, and he now weighs close to 20 lbs. (the biggest cat I’ve ever had) and is hardly a “wisp.” On his first excursion outside, he earned himself the nickname “Lawn Panther,” and that’s how my friends refer to him.
Someday I’ll write in about Mouse, Jigsaw, and Justa.
P.S.- Why are kitty captions dumbed down?
My husband & I have two black cats. One is a 16 year old male named Malkm, and the other is a 2 year old female named Elpha, which is short for Elphaba (named after the wicked witch from the novel/musical “Wicked.” Black cats rule!!
I found my all black kitty on the way home from grabbing dinner after work. I always get the same thing at this local restaurant-called a Greek Popeye. At first we were gonna name her Popeye because we thought she was a boy when we first saw her. But we then decided on Olive because of Popeye’s girlfriend in the cartoon. And Olive is perfect for a black kitty- I call her my little black olive!
When I went to adopt a kitten at the shelter, I was told that a black cat is very difficult to adopt because people are afraid of them. So I named my little black kitten Willow after a character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The name was chosen to be soft, sweet and non-threatening but with a magical twist. I adopted her a week before Halloween.
Our precious little cat looks like a Chinese work of art, because she is so delicate, graceful and beautiful. Because of these attributes, we wanted to give her a very feminine name, so we chose Jasmine. She is the star of the neigbhourhood. People invite her into their kitchens for a visit or have her visit with them on their front porches with a little blanket set out just for her. To say that Jasmine rules is an understatement!
i named my new black 3 month old male kitten Spirit. I have two other older cats that live with my parents named Lucky Eddie, and Tigerlily( she was mine), and now i have my lil mister spirit
We found our black stray hiding in our back yard. Eventually we named him Eclipse because he had a very small white spot on his stomach.
My black cat is named Orpheus after my favorite movie of all time, “Black Orpheus.” (He also looks like a Greek god
)
I have two really beautiful thirteen week old black kittens which are brother and sister and were rescued by myself from an old barn near where i live After several weeks of nursing them back to health and taming they have won my household over with there constant antics and unbelievable personalities the male kitty has a tip of white on his chin and bitty tips of white on all four paws hence the name white paws seemed to stick or as my son would say its his native american name. his sister however who was clearly the runt of the litter and can eat her weight five times over yet never seems to gain any is black all over without a hint of any other color. her dainty and sweet personality won her the name ebony reflecting her dark magnificent color. truly a halloween kitty she arches her back and wiggles her behind when she comes to greet you making ebony the charmer who will win the heart of the staunchest cat enemy. I would love to leave some pictures of my beautiful babies but i need to get some batteries for my camera so next time i will send some pictures of my darling angels ebony and white paws.
I have 2 black cats. One is named Bast after the Egyptian cat god and the other is name Fireman Sam, because she likes to sit on the top of the bookshelf and my gf’s son used to yell “Fireman Sam Fireman Sam!” every time she went up there because he wanted Fireman Sam to come rescue her so I thought it would make a good name.
I named my black cat Zoe which means life in Greek because she has always been totally full of energy. She is 18 1//2 years old now and still can run with our 2 year old cat.
My cat has two names. The first is “Capri”, my daughter named her after the drink CapriSun.
I named her “Queen Sheba”. She reminds me of the Sheba cat food commercial and she responds to both names
I named my long – haired black cat, Meowser.I did not name him for his handsome looks,but for his loud and persistant meow.Ever since he came to me as a stray all he did was meow to get my attention.
I have two black cats- one a very rich solid black female with a bewitching attitude. Very shrewd and assertive. Hence “Sabrina”.
The other is a black Maine Coon male with a small white patch on his throat. “Perseus” pronounced Purr-see-us due 1)to his loud, almost constant purr. 2)Perseus in Greek legend is half god, son of Zeus. Since he looked very noble and mighty at 22lbs, it was the perfect choice!
when my cat had her last litter of five (3 Black and 2 Grey) my brother and I were on a “Twilight” kick at the time. So they got named accordingly, the 3 blacks are Emmett (the biggest one out of the litter), Jasper (the runt of the litter and also the most mischeivius), and Sarabi ( a “Lion King” reference) the greys we called Alice and Blaze (cause she had a tiny little blaze of white between her eyes)
A stray black cat took up at my Grandmother’s house and she jokeingly said that black cats are trouble so that became it’s name, Trouble. I’m told that trouble would climb into my crib to nap with me. My Daddy had a black cat they called DingBat because he said it was the dumbest cat ever. My beautiful black boy is named Wyatt after Peter Fonda’s charecter in the movie Easy Rider.
Jean Ann’s tale of PK reminded me of a cat (not black) our family adopted when I was a child. When we picked her up, I said “What a Pretty Kitty, and that became her name, Pretty Kitty. We called her Pretty.
When I became an adult, I did adopt a black cat, the first male cat I had ever had. He purred a lot, was pure black, and sleek. I decided to give him something masculine, so came up with Ferrari, as he is sleek and purrs like a Ferrari. Plus, he loved to go racing around outside.
My slender black femail is named Coco Miau. Coco for Coco Chanel who gave us the slender basic black dress. He adopted sister is Fifi Miau. Fifi because it’s French too and because she is so darned cute.
I love reading all these wonderful names of clearly well-loved black cats.
I’ve had more then one black cat in the last 35 yrs whose names ranged from Kitty, Mama Kitty, Rowdy and the latest Harley. Each had a small white spot so where not pure black but I loved them all the same.
Forgot to say why they got there names. Kitty walked in my door one day while I was letting my dogs in and stayed with us for 3 years, Mama Kitty was found by neighbor boys in river and needless to say Kitty and (at that time Little Kitty) became parents. Rowdy’s favorite place to be was on top of my curtain rod when a kitten hence Rowdy (when my daughter was born he slept with her all the time) then Harley well I ride so need I say more besides he sounds like a Harley at times. All great cats. My mother-in-law had told me that Kitty had siamese in him. When Kitty and Mama kitty had babies I got 3 black and a siamese. It was interesting.
I have a black cat and his name is Licorice. He is so funny…he can come when called, sit when told and “beg” for a treat.
I named my black cat Toby. I thought it was appropriate as he sure acts like Toby Mcguire of Spiderman fame. My cat likes to climb curtains and goes flying around the house for several minutes throughout the day. He seems to bounce off walls like Spidey and is quick to climb onto the coffee table whenever I ask him if he wants a snack. He has to shake hands with me first before I give him a treat.
He sleeps at the foot of my bed everynight and can be seen lying on his back throughout the night. He wakes me up every morning at 6:14 (yep!!! exactly) asking to be fed his food and water. This guys a great partner to have around. He’s a great watchcat and wuick to learn.
We had a black cat named “Bocephus” we called him “Bo”, he was a unique cat also my baby. He was named by my husband because the cat was a rambler. We had him fixed but, this didn’t keep him home. He lived 11 years, passed away a couple of years ago. When I talked to him, he meowed back to me like he understood everything I said to him. We miss him alot.
I have a black cat hes got little spects of white on him an his name is monster.