50 Famous Cat Names For Your Legendary Feline

Famous Cat Names

If your cat reminds you of a certain well known feline, you may want to name your cat after them. Throughout history, humanity has been fascinated by cats. What started out as pest control gradually became a friend.

They've found their way into myth and folklore and even still into modern pop culture. Well known people through history have kept company with cats. Here are some examples of famous people with their equally famous cat names.

Maybe this list can inspire you with a good cat name.

Famous Male Cat Names

Most fictional cats are toms. Tom of the Tom and Jerry cartoons is one, though for some reason he's called “Jasper” in some of the cartoons. (Notably the ones that aren't shown often due to a racist caricature.) Garfield, Heathcliff and newcomer Bucky rule the funny papers. Felix, Figaro and Sylvester are good names for black and white cats.

Tigger, Bagheera and Simba are a bit on the wild side, but make good cat names all the same. Garfield's nemesis Nermal is known as the world's cutest kitty cat.

Based on a photo in a book Jim Davis put out, it seems someone stationed in Abu Dhabi found a Nermal plushie in his care package. You can also check out our list of Disney cat names as well.

Lucifer, Azrael and Mr. Jinks were some naughty cats, Oliver, Milo and Thomas O'Malley are better role models for your cat.

Salem Saberhagen of “Sabrina the Teenaged Witch” fame and The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland are unpredictable cats that can't be classified as naughty or nice. Stimpy is on the dumb side and Mr. Bigglesworth is just the villain's lap candy.

For real life cats, there's Orangey who was in the films Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Incredible Shrinking Man and Morris the spokescat for 9 Lives cat food. The Japanese anime Dragon Ball has a feline character named Puar.

Sailor Venus of Sailor Moon has a cat sidekick named Artemis. In Azumanga Daioh, Chiyo's father is imagined to be a giant yellow cat who speaks both Japanese and English. (In the dub he speaks English and Spanish.)

Famous Female Cat Names

It comes as a surprise to many that Grumpy Cat is a female. (Hey, girls have bad moods too!) Her name is Tarter Sauce, affectionately known as Tard. A much nicer Siamese is Sagwa, whose curiosity gets her into trouble, but cleverness gets her out.

The Lion King and its sequel gives us the names Sarabi, Nala, Kiara and Zira. In the Japanese anime Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon has a cat sidekick named Luna who later has a kitten named Diana. You should also check out our full list of girl kitty names!

Most animated cats are male, but there are exceptions. Heathcliff's love interest was a chubby white cat named Sonia. “Hello Kitty! Konichiwa!” goes the theme to the Japanese children's anime Hello Kitty.  It's hard to say if Si and Am from Lady and the Tramp are boys, girls or even one of each.

Both were voiced by Peggy Lee, with her voice altered to a higher pitch. Alice of Alice in Wonderland has a little kitten named Dinah who Alice wonders if has ever eaten a bat.

In Through the Looking Glass, Dinah is a grown cat with her own kittens named Snowdrop and Kitty who Alice imagines as the White Queen and the Red Queen.

Famous cats throughout history

Presidents of the United States tend to be dog owners, but there were exceptions. Abraham Lincoln had two named Tabby and Dixie, whom Honest Abe claimed was smarter than his whole cabinet. Bill Clinton housed a black and white shorthair named Socks, though he claimed he was more of his daughter Chelsea's pet than his.

Another black and white feline from World War II was called Unsinkable Sam due to surviving three shipwrecks. Félicette was the first cat in space, sent up by the French space agency in 1963. A cat named Stubbs was voted mayor of Talkeetna, AK in 1997.

Cats with famous owners

Charles de Gaulle had a Chartreux named Gris-Gris that followed him everywhere. Florence Nightingale had many cats in her lifetime, many of which left little paw prints on her manuscripts. Isaac Newton not only defined the laws of gravity and motion, he also invented the cat flap.

Mark Twain adored cats and even his cynical nature couldn't find anything bad to say about them. The cubist painter Pablo Picasso recognized the dual nature of cats, depicting them both as mercilessly devouring birds and quietly cuddling up to Dora Maar.

Cats from mythology

One Celtic tale about cats goes like this. A sexton was on his way home at twilight when he saw a group of black cats carrying a cat sized coffin into the cemetery. As he watched the funeral procedure in amazement, one of the cats came up to him and said “Go tell Tom that Tim is dead.” Shocked, the sexton went home and told his wife all that happened.

He finished his bizarre tale with “And now I have to find Tom and tell him Tim is dead!” Just then, the old black cat that had been lying by the fireplace said “Tim is dead? Then I'm the King of the Cats!” With that, he flew up the chimney and was never seen again.

Freya the Norse goddess of love rode a chariot pulled by cats. In Greek mythology was a friend of Alcmene's who was turned into a cat for lying to Hera about the birth of Hercules. Hercules would grow up to fight the Nemean Lion. Cats were held sacred in Egypt as agents of Bast, the motherly protector.

Many Native American tribes tell tales of the The Aztecs recognized the jaguar as beautiful and terrifying all at once. Hindu gods are sometimes shown riding, a giant tiger.

The Ancient Chinese had stone statues of lions called; that were believed to be guardians. The male has his paw on a ball while the femalehas her paw on a cub.