June 27, 2003
Name the Kitten!
My roommate Josh adopted a stray kitten from across the street a few days ago. He's the cutest thing and has quickly learned that human fingers equal "awesome scratching things". If you ignore him, he'll find someplace nearby to fall asleep because he just likes being near a person. It only took a few days but he's completely adjusted to being indoors, was litterbox-trained in one day, and doesn't try to escape outdoors. I guess he knows how sweet this deal is, compared to duking it out with his brothers and sisters across the street for squirrel roadkill and tearing open garbage bags on Wednesday and Sunday nights.
The only problem is, he doesn't yet have a name. Since it is his cat, Josh has agreed to take suggestions but does reserve the right to reject any or all of them. Leave your suggestions in the comments for this post. I want to call him HREF, after the HTML attribute for the anchor tag.
Posted by Cameron Barrett at June 27, 2003 07:15 PMThere's always "Cat Five".... :-)
Posted by: reader at June 27, 2003 07:59 PM
Good-looking cat. How about "Velcro?" No need to explain, right?
Posted by: James Edmunds at June 27, 2003 08:23 PM
His head is cocked in the second photo in a way that reminds me of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. So Brent, Spiner, Data, Lore, or Soong might work. And there's always Curiosity or Spaught.
Posted by: Sumana at June 27, 2003 10:04 PM
Nice cat. Give him a little time for his personality to show before naming.
If he meows a lot, call him "Mr. Sassy-Fritz".
If he is haughty and looks down on humans, call him "Gothmog, destroyer of the universe".
Posted by: citizen Able at June 27, 2003 10:10 PM
Perhaps you should call him Slashdot, after the famed news weblog. Or wait! Filter! Filter is the perfect name for a cat. Could you not picture yourself scratching his neck and cooing "Good Filter!" Or, maybe you could call him Blog. Just, Blog. Here Blog. Come, Blog. Stop chewing the furniture, Blog. See how nicely that works? Google is also a cute cat name. Or...hmm.
Posted by: Kerri at June 27, 2003 11:15 PM
Looks like a "Pong" to me.
Posted by: dws at June 27, 2003 11:59 PM
His grey & white pattern reminds my of the old Soviet Spetsnaz arctic camoflage fatigues. Hmmm. . . "Spetsnaz," " 'Naz,' or "Nazzie."
The urban cat commando!
Posted by: Geoff at June 28, 2003 01:01 AM
Looks like a trout to me. Call him "Trout".
Posted by: Adam at June 28, 2003 01:25 AM
"velveeta elvis"
there can be no other name.
Posted by: b at June 28, 2003 01:39 AM
Gorby. Inquisitive, aristocratic, and has a few markings.
Posted by: Morrie at June 28, 2003 01:48 AM
Hel sounds and seems so happy and attached to his new human family! Because being so young and he already wants to be around you all the time, maybe a good name might be "Magnet" for always staying near. Maybe a name from literature that represents loyalty and love, like "Gunga DIn"
When I have named my pets it's always fun to try and match there traits and personality with your own image of what this animal might be like from the inside.
I think the best match I have come across is from a very close friend. She and her husband have a great cat who is now around 12 years old. His life-long passion has been chasing his tale. When she adopted him from the shelter at 8 weeks of age, she of course had to name him "Orbit".
Have fun naming this lucky little kitten!
Posted by: Michael Nerad at June 28, 2003 02:08 AM
mouse. call him mouse.
Posted by: ray at June 28, 2003 03:36 AM
Samson
Posted by: Baldur Bjarnason at June 28, 2003 08:40 AM
I'm fond of naming animals "human" names, like Brad or Mike. But that one looks like a Gary. Definitely a Gary.
Posted by: Track at June 28, 2003 12:13 PM
name him browser or mozilla or open source
Posted by: eric fader at June 28, 2003 12:44 PM
Um... Name him Horus. Or Bobcat. Or Jasper! Always liked the name Jasper...
Posted by: D|VA at June 28, 2003 01:26 PM
I can't believe no-one has yet suggested "Ceefur".
Alternatively you could call him Lynx or Sir Galahad or Ampersand.
Or Fred. I've always had a fondness for the name Fred. He looks like a fredcat.
*sigh*
I miss my cats.
Posted by: ann at June 28, 2003 06:11 PM
"Urban".
I think HREF is too harsh a name, with that "Aitch" sound right at the begining. (One friend cat of ours was named "F.S" for Film Series The Cat (in joke...they Tufts film series once made "Film Series: The T-Shirt" and it was mostly all black and so was the cat) which are the two worst feline syllables, sounds like hissing. So anyway, "Anchor" might be a better bet along the same lines. Or even "Tag".
(PS why is email address required?)
Posted by: Kirk at June 28, 2003 06:19 PM
Marshall - definitely Marshall...named after you know who.
Posted by: Susan at June 28, 2003 09:51 PM
I'll second Trout.
It's got a good beat and it's easy to dance to.
Posted by: Al at June 28, 2003 11:21 PM
Josh is leaning towards naming him Marshall, but has also thought that naming him Tivo, after his favorite television device. I really think the name Tivo is perfect for this cat but Josh needs to be convinced. Who else thinks this kitten's name should be Tivo?
This kitten is very content to sit next to you on the couch and watch TV. It's quite surreal.
Posted by: Cam at June 28, 2003 11:29 PM
I'm drawing blanks on a name for him, but gosh, he's adorable. Kudos to Josh for rescuing him.
I can share the story of how my cat Elby got her name. My ex-wife and I adopted her, a year-old, solid black stray, from the Madison Humane Society in the fall of 1992, soon after we had married.
The cat lounged about our apartment on Jenifer (one 'n') Street for a couple of months without a name. We couldn't settle on one. I was leaning towards 'Misha', but Julie thought it sounded too much like 'Mia', another black cat of our acquaintance. So we referred to her as the little black cat.
One evening, I returned from campus, and Julie announced that the cat's name was "Elby", from the phoneticization of the initials of her epithet: Little Black. It was perfect.
Elby is still black, but not little at all.
Don't worry, Josh will find a name for him.
Posted by: Bill Humphries at June 29, 2003 02:46 AM
DO YOU PARTY? LIKE TO DRINK AND HAVE FUN? YOUR CAT'S NAME SHOULD REFLECT THAT. "MARTINI" "MARTIN" FOR SHORT.
-OR-
A FAV AMOUNG SOME STR8T GUYS I KNOW... "MR. SANCHEZ"
Posted by: jOSH lAURENCE at June 29, 2003 07:30 PM
Some of my favorite cats have been named after astronomy. My favorite favorite: Kepler.
Posted by: Scott at June 30, 2003 09:17 AM
I'm Josh's downstairs tenant. We think the cat is super-cute as well, and are hoping he gets on well with our cat (also a stray, from Philly originally) named Smitty.
How 'bout
Tito
Shaugnessy
Zero
Bickle
Fulbright
Bushwick
Lord Goldstein
Thaddeus
Goose
Shutler
Don
Bismark
I could go on for minutes....
Posted by: Jason at June 30, 2003 09:27 AM
How about Sputnik? The ears remind me of Sputnik, and it's a cool name!
Posted by: cat at June 30, 2003 09:48 AM
How about "Div"? Or "Span"? Or even "Cascade"-- "Cassie" or "Cade" for short.
Posted by: Eamon at June 30, 2003 10:19 AM
how about osx (as in "ex" not "10")
Posted by: thepostman at June 30, 2003 11:11 AM
I'm all for technology-inspired names, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the cat was "Speck".
Posted by: Bill Brown at June 30, 2003 11:40 AM
I'm with Track: Human names or hilarious and endearing. I would name him:
Phil.
Posted by: f5 at June 30, 2003 12:29 PM
Even though I suggested Velcro earlier, I am kind of liking Trout, too. Something spunky about that cat, and there's something spunky about naming a cat after a wily game fish.
Posted by: James Edmunds at June 30, 2003 10:11 PM
I've always wanted to name a cat 'Spock', but that will never happen because I hate cats.
But anyway, why complicate things? How about plain old simple 'Mr. Kitty Cat'?
Posted by: TommyFish at July 1, 2003 12:37 AM
Tivo gets my vote. Nice looking cat.
Posted by: Ashe at July 1, 2003 09:36 AM
Name the kitten "Wagahai". Wagahai is the male form of "I" in Japanese and is in the title of Natsume Soseki's book "Wagahai wa neko dearu" (I am a cat). This is a novel full of sarcasm, supposedly narrated by a cat. "I" (wagahai) has been an alley cat, until he sneaks into a house because of unbearable hunger and comes to live with the family there.
Posted by: Randy Scott at July 1, 2003 01:07 PM
Human names: I think Fred is a winner. (Going through same problem with my own kitten...but he's no Fred.)
Tivo: It's excellent, except I just had a TA in chem who we called Tivo, and if your cat is anything like him, you'll be cleaning cat poop out of everything and never get your grades, but hey, otherwise, have at it.
Posted by: Liz at July 1, 2003 08:09 PM
Call him "Dog" or another non-cat animal name-- "Trout" is okay but I like "Mouse" better. "Grep" is kindof nice, but "Perl" is even better, cos his colors are rather pearly. Not too masculine a name though. "Moz" for Mozilla might be nice, and I'd be all about "Tivo," except Josh already has a Tivo in his life! Finally, "Captain Cursor" would be hilarious, although he might not appreciate that.
Posted by: susank at July 2, 2003 01:55 AM
Name him Schroedinger, and call him "dinger" for short. Then try to figure out if he is a wave or a particle.
Posted by: Ryan at July 2, 2003 05:37 PM
Norbert or Cletus
Posted by: Al&Amy at July 3, 2003 11:06 PM
snitzel, onix, sanoske
Posted by: unknown at July 5, 2003 02:38 PM
I think a good name for this cat is "Chance"...because you saved him from the outside world of being a stray cat...and gave him a second chance...He looks like a chance to!
Posted by: Billy Atwell at July 7, 2003 04:59 AM
I'm Josh's brother. I vote for "Steinmetz." It's our nickname for the low-cost-low-quality clothing store in our hometown. (Kinda like Marshall's, only for older people.)
Posted by: Michael at July 13, 2003 12:08 PM
So what did you namr it?
Posted by: James Edmunds at July 21, 2003 11:58 PM
If u havn't already named him then I would have to say I like the names Gizmo or Miracle. I'm not sure why I like Gizmo, maybe its because I liked the movie Gremlins. Miracle because its just a good name.
Posted by: Theresa at October 24, 2003 03:35 PM
