Another year, another list of the most popular names for our furry overlords.
This one is based on data from a pet insurance company commissioned by US News & World Report, and while there are others based on things like chip registrations and veterinary records, they agree on pretty much all the most popular names.
So what are the top names we bestow on our little pals?
Unsurprisingly, Bella and Luna retained their top spots for female cats, while Leo ane Milo were the most popular names for male cats.
There’s not even a mention of the name Buddy, which is either a heresy which shall not go unpunished, or pretty cool because it’s kind of unique, and there are probably only like 25,000 Buddies in the US. Buddy hasn’t made up his mind yet, although I think he’s too lazy to go around punishing alleged heretics.
Interestingly, Luna and Bella are also the top names for female dogs. Leo enjoys enduring popularity due to its association with lions (panthera leo) while Milo owes its popularity at least in part to the film The Adventures of Milo and Otis.
Rounding out the list are Simba (Disney’s The Lion King), Nala from the same film, and traditional cat names like Kitty, Oreo, Shadow and Smokey, with the latter three referencing coat patterns and colors.
Pain In The Bud 
I can only say that there is one very pleased cat in Grove park today!!! – although she is slightly offended that her name is also in use with Dogs – Its a crime and a blessing that “Buddy” is not mentioned as he is mentioned many times in our house with reverance of course
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Bella’s an OG who popularized the name, obviously. The others are just followers. As for Bud, he could never be anything but a Buddy.
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Great to know Smokey is on the list. As a kid, 60 years ago, our family cat was Smokey, though we called normally him Mo for short. Happy memories!
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Were people using cat litter and keeping their cats at least partially indoors in the UK at the time? Surprisingly it’s only been some 75 years since litter was invented in Michigan and it took at least another decade for the inventor to grow the business to a national scale.
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Interesting questions. I think indoor cats like your own Little Buddy are a more recent phenomenon. Back then, everyone we knew who had a cat let it out to roam. We lived in a suburban area which helped make this a reasonable proposition. I suspect however – though I can’t prove it, of course – that people living in high density city centre residential areas simply didn’t have cats as pets.
We did try to keep Smokey in at night for his own safety, so he had to have a litter tray. But we never used proprietary cat litter, and instead filled an old baking tray with garden peat that Dad bought at the local garden centre and carried home in a big bag slung over the cross-bar of his bicycle (we were way too poor to have a car!) I just don’t remember cat litter being commercially available in those days, but even if it were we couldn’t have afforded it. Garden peat worked just fine. It was a totally different world back then!
A few years ago I wrote a tribute to Smokey for my blog, which includes some anecdotes about our lives – his and mine – as well as a grainy black and white photo. It’s available to read here: https://64reflections.home.blog/2021/08/04/my-first-cat/
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That’s a fantastic read and tribute to little Mo. I especially like the way you describe the disdainful Miss Milbourne and the episode with the frog poison-induced vet visit. Since my own feline overlord loudly shares his feelings about everything, I can sympathize with people staring daggers at you because your cat won’t shut up.
The breeder’s loss was your gain. It’s difficult to believe people consider certain animals worthless because they don’t meet breed standards, which are arbitrary.
I detect a bit of David Mitchell in your prose. The novelist, obviously, not the comedian. Off to read your other cat posts…
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David Mitchell? Thank you, kind sir, I’ll take that. I read Cloud Atlas 20 years ago; that man can write, so I’ll happily accept (though I hardly deserve!) the comparison.
I’m glad you liked reading about Our Mo. Knowing him was one of the greatest joys of my childhood / early teenage years. He taught me to understand that cats are people too, and much better company than most of the people I’ve ever met!
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I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since Cloud Atlas was published. If you haven’t read his other stuff, I highly recommend Ghostwritten and Slade House.
Indeed, cats are people too, with their own thoughts, feelings and, I’ve learned, strong opinions.
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Ramses is happy his name is not on the list. It would make him seem “ordinary” which he is definitely not.
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I don’t know how the British got “Ozymandias” from Ramses or Ramesses (II), but the most awesome poem ever (IMO) is associated with the name, so that’s pretty cool too.
I’m usually not big on poetry because I feel like a lot of poets either try too hard or are failed prose stylists, but Ozymandias is a master class in evoking powerful feelings and an incredibly vivid picture with just a few words.
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We used to have a Little Buddy! We currently have a Shelley and a Stripey, but we’ve usually gone with less used names for our cats’ formal names. I often just call all the boys “Buddy” (with suitable respect since I learned of your Buddy) and all the girls “Sweetheart”.
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Haha, both you and John mentioned using “Buddy” with respect or reverence. You know he’s not going to actually fly to your house and attack your ankles, right? 🙂
But that’s exactly how he got his name. I kept calling him “buddy” and “bud” while waiting for a name to inspire me, and after two weeks I was getting some weird looks from people when I told them he didn’t have a name yet.
In retrospect it was so obvious and fitting. Originally I was hoping for just buddythecat as the URL, but now I like littlebuddythecat.com
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Sgt Stripes is pleased that he is not being confused with other cats
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I didn’t realize there was a cartoon with a Sgt. Stripes the cat:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_Stripes_(TV_series)
Google shows there’s at least one other real cat named Sgt. Stripes, a cute tripod ginger tabby.
But it’s definitely one of the more unique cat names out there, and most people probably think of chevrons when they first hear it, as in “Congrats on earning your sergeant stripes!”
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As a cat shelter volunteer, I can vouch for “Oreo.” As for my cats’ names, I see another Tyler every once in a while but no Clarences or Melinkos. No Buddys either. Your Buddy is unique!
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I think Clarence is a great name. Tyler is too, and Melinko sounds like a Japanese parlor game, but Clarence just has that “cat feel,” like it was always intended to be a name for a cat.
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