Girl Cat Names Inspired by Old Ladies, Goddesses and a Cat Named Dave

If you’ve visited the site before, you might have already heard the story of how we named our brother/sister cats. We adopted them from Miami Animal Rescue, and they had named them Otis and Ollie, which, while cute, seemed sort of off to me to give them both boy names to start! We knew we wanted to name them on our own, but it took us MONTHS. It became a running joke at the vet’s office because every time we came in for a checkup (which was a lot since we were dealing with ringworm, allergies, tummy issues, etc. but thankfully they’re great now!) they had different names.

First, we went with Ella for our girl and Louis for our boy (named after Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong). I didn’t love calling her Ella, so we switched to one of my other favorite singers, Nina (for Nina Simone). But that didn’t seem to fit either. We ended up naming her Thelma because Thelma & Louise was such an iconic duo that we decided on Thelma and Louis (also because they were found in a car).

Thelma has been a daddy’s girl from the beginning. We met her at the foster’s home and she immediately went to my husband’s lap. But I can confidently say she’s also a mommy’s girl, since she sleeps at my feet now. She’s the more timid of the two cats, cautiously entering new rooms and perching at the window to watch the birds. I am so happy we found a name that I think suits her very well. (Thelma, it turns out, is an old lady name. More on that to come.)

Even though I read what felt like an endless list of girl cat names when we first got Thelma and Louis, it’s been a few years so I wanted to take a refresher course! So, I read through about 45 Reddit threads and more than 2,500 comments from people trying to name a girl cat, and I compiled all of the names into lists. A few categories came up over and over: old lady names, tortie and calico names, princesses and goddesses, and girl cats with boy names. There are some amazing options here! If you’re looking to name a girl cat, read on!

The names that came up the most

Penelope was suggested more than any other name, in 13 different threads, sometimes as Princess Penelope. Other names that came up in multiple threads were Clementine, Minnie, Willow, Opal, Callie, Margaret and Gertrude (each one in seven to ten threads), as well as Luna (probably a nod to the fact that it’s one of the most popular cat names).

A few of the names seemed to work best for certain cats, such as Opal for cats with striking eyes, Clementine for orange girls, or Margaret for when you want to be able to use cute nicknames (Maggie, Meg or Peg). Other reasons included honoring loved ones (one Opal suggestion was a nod to the name of the person’s gran), or, in the case of Minnie (sometimes used as a nickname for Minerva), using it only when she’s being nice to you!

Old lady names are having a moment

Five separate threads asked for suggestions of old lady names for a cat! The most popular suggestion was Gertrude (or the nicknames Gertie or Trudy), but other suggestions included Mildred, Mabel, Edna, Edith, Beatrice, Agnes, Winifred, Ethel, Prudence, Marjorie and Maude.

Thelma appeared in two of the threads! Apparently my cat has an old lady name! I’m okay with that. Other people offered names based on personal connections (one person’s mom’s name is Edna, another’s mom’s middle name is Beryl, which dates her to the 1920s) or pop culture (The Golden Girls, including Betty White and Bea Arthur!).

My favorites are Lolly, for Little Old Lady, and Gertie, for what it becomes when your cat gets feisty.

Gertie for short or guurrrr when she’s feeling feisty!

— via Reddit.com

Names for torties and calicos

Tortoiseshell and calico cats are almost always girls (see the box below for the scientific explanation), so they get their own threads. Calliope won this one by a mile. One person asked whether their calico was a Calliope or a Delphi, and Calliope took it, with Calli or Lope for short. Callie was the next most popular, though at least one commenter implored the owner not to shorten it to Cali. Other suggestions: Marble, Checkers, Freckles, Miss Patchington the First, Paisley, Butterscotch, Tiramisu and Tortellini.

Some tortoiseshell cats are split right down the middle, with one side orange and the other side darker. Suggestions for those cats: Two-Face, Halfsies, Half and Half, Gemini, and Janus (the two-faced Roman god).

One person wanted darker, gothier names for their tortie. Suggestions: Belladonna, Morticia, Wednesday, Nightshade and Siouxsie Sioux. Another person wanted spooky season names: Pyewacket, Ember, Spooky, Winifred Sanderson (from Hocus Pocus), and Tonks (for Nymphadora Tonks from Harry Potter).

Some people just went with what they’d named their own tortie.

Oh I vote for Fang! I had a tortie named Fang. She was the best baby!

— via Reddit.com

Princesses, queens and goddesses

Princess was in the title of three threads, and was in 13 threads either by itself or in front of another name. This is probably the safest classic name.

The princess I didn’t expect was Princess Donut (four threads), a cat character from the book series Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. Her full name is Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk (yes, someone spelled out all of her show titles), and she’s a Persian show cat and a tortie.

Goddess names included Persephone, Athena, Hera, Minerva, Freya, Selene and Juno, and there were suggestions for Cleopatra (or Cleo). One commenter looked at the picture of a kitten and instantly knew her name, and her husband’s name. This one had me laughing.

Her name is Lady Humongous. Lord Humongous is her husband. Oh, and I’m calling my lawyer right now to write her into my will.

— via Reddit.com

Can a girl cat have a boy name?

Of course she can. My own Thelma came home from the rescue with a boy’s name, and Louis is a boy named after a movie about two women. Apparently kittens are hard to tell apart, gender-wise, so lots of girls end up with boy names. One person’s dad named a fluffy street cat Jacob, took Jacob to the vet and found out Jacob was a girl, so now she’s Jakey. Another person named a girl kitten Ford and kept it, and someone’s friend had a female Siamese named Bruce. (It goes the other way too, which I cover in the boy cat names post.)

The best stories were about cats named Dave. One person found a stray kitten 15 years ago, named her Dave, found out she was a girl, and called her Princess Dave for the next 12 years. That was a reply in a thread from another person whose girl is also named Dave, and whose neighbor was not amused.

This little angel is Dave. My son named her before we knew what gender she was. […] Dave fits her and we didn’t even considering changing it when we found out she was a she. […] Our late 60’s (F) neighbor is having a bloody TANTRUM because her name is Dave. “YOU CANT CALL HER DAVE! SHES A GIRL!!!” 🤣🤣

— via Reddit.com

The Name Bank

In addition to the suggestions above for old lady names, torties and calicos, and princesses and goddesses, a few other categories are below: flowers and plants, gemstones, sweet things, music and movie icons, heroines from books, movies and TV, and famous girl cats, both real and from cartoons and books. Some names have a short comment saying where they’re from, and I tried not to put a name in more than one box.

For a cat with striking eyes, gemstones.

Then the sweet stuff.

Music and movie icons, mostly ones you’d know by first name alone.

Heroines from books, movies and TV.

And famous girl cats, real and fictional.

She’ll end up with a nickname anyway

Pick whatever you want, your cat is getting a nickname. (Though Thelma and Louis don’t really have nicknames, unless you count Bub and Beautiful as nicknames, LOL.) If you name your cat Gertrude, she’s Gertie. Calliope is Calli. Margaret is Maggie. One commenter said their mom put Dolce on all of her cat’s paperwork, but they’ve never once called the cat that. She’s Titi. Another person suggested the name Stella (from A Streetcar Named Desire) just for the fun of yelling it, which is a good reminder to say a name out loud before you commit.

There was a whole thread from someone who hated their cat’s name. They went to adopt her, and after a long, exhausting day the cat knocked over an Audi Hot Wheels car and the boyfriend wanted to name her Audi. They weren’t thrilled about the name, but a lot of the comments suggested just using a nickname instead, and she’d still respond to it. And sometimes the name just sticks, you can’t explain why, but it just does.

My cat’s name is Misha (my 8-year-old sister named her). Why Misha? Nobody knows, or where she got the name from… no one questions the name anymore, we just accept it…

— via Reddit.com

So, tell us! What’s your girl’s name? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear it.