Stray Cats: Name Ideas for Stray or Rescued Cats
Are you looking for that perfect cat name that just fits your kitty? Naming a cat can be difficult. One way many pet owners do it is to look for a name that goes with your cat’s personality, physical characteristic or maybe how you found him or her? For example, is your kitty a stray that you found?
Here are some names ideas for cats that are known to be strays or rescued kitties. Many strays are named for the street where they were found or the community where they were found. For example, I know a kitty named “Main Street” and another cat named “Belmont” because he was found wandering in “Belmont County”. Another common way is by the day of the week that you found the cat – I know a cat named “Tuesday” that was found on a Tuesday.
I hope this list gives you some ideas or helps you find the perfect name for your cat!
Stray or Rescued Kitty Names
- Abby, which was short for Abandoned Kitty
- Alice (for Alice in Wonderland)
- Alley (found in an alley)
- Angel
- Attitude: Atti-cat
- Berm (found by the side of the road)
- Bingo – it was my lucky day when I found this one!
- Bones (skin and bones when they found him)
- Boyfriend – because I liked telling people I took my boyfriend and had him neutered
- Buddy
- Bum
- Bumper
- Cat Yeta – for yet-a-nother cat!
- Cantmandu (for the city)
- CDC (for my co-dependent cat – he is always at my side)
- Chance (you took a chance on each other, or you have him a second chance at life)
- Clinger – they way they stick to you
- Caymen – he just “came in”
- Diamond (a precious find)
- DC – (darn cat)
- Dumped (he was Dumped and we took him in)
- Dreamer
- Engie (for a cat found sleeping under the hood of a car – Engine)
- E.T. – for a found sick kitty with big eyes and very little hair
- Eponine- after a character, a homeless girl, in “Les Miserables”
- Fleabag – found with fleas
- FIONA CAT- If ya own a cat…ya may as well own 10.
- Fightclub – took in a cat that had been in a fight and wounded
- Found (pair of kittens were named Lost and Found!)
- Foster (for foster child)
- Gem
- Gimpy – found limping
- Glory
- Gulliver …And yes, Gulliver did travel…
- Gypsy
- Happy
- Hazard
- Heaven (you found a little piece of Heaven)
- Heidi – used on cat that was scared and “hiding”
- Hideaway
- HodgePodge
- Hobo
- Houdini. He would disappear but always wanted to be found.
- Hope – for a pet given home for a second chance
- Hoover – the stray would eat anything
- Gem (found a real gem!)
- Impulse
- Indira
- Ivy (she “grew on me”)
- Jackpot – cat hit the jackpot when he found this home
- Jesse – It means gift and he truly named for a cat that was a gift from God
- Je t’aime. This is actually French for “I love you”.
- Journey (Cat was on a journey that led to you…or vise versa)
- Karma
- Kabootle
- K.C. for Kitty Cat
- Kaffey
- Keeper
- Kismit which means fate
- Kitty Cat
- Kit Cat
- LOST
- Lotus
- Lottie (found in a parking lot)
- “Mo,” as in One Mo’ Kitty!
- Noname
- NONA (no name for a cat that didn’t have a name)
- Nuisance
- Tenshu- ‘little thief’ – for a stray that kept eating all the outside cat food until the bowl was empty
- Lechat (pronounced le sha) French for The Cat
- Lucky
- Main Street – found on Main Street
- M.C. – for my cat
- Malachi meaning a special messenger from God
- Magic – (appeared like magic)
- Muzby because we must be crazy to take in another cat!
- Tunji- American Indian Miwok- Means “cat”
- Maybe – maybe she will make it and maybe I’ll keep her
- Margarita ( just like tequila bottles have a worm in the bottle, she had a worm in her neck when she showed up)
- “Mo,” as in One Mo’ Kitty!
- Miss Kittie
- Mystakat he was a mystery cat
- Newbie or Newton are great cat names for the new kids on the block.
- Oops
- Omi – (pronounced: “oh-mee”)
- Paycheck – started costing us our paycheck
- Pest
- Percy, short for Perseverance
- P.C. for Pussy Cat
- Pest
- Palomine, for Pal of Mine
- Mr. Purrsuasive -“Purrs” or “Mr. P” for short!
- Pooka means good luck charm
- Poser who posed as a resident long enough to fall in love with
- Random
- Reiki – in Japanese means “spiritually guided life force energy” practiced by reiki masters who lay their hands upon the sick or injured to heal.
- Pickles (was in a “pickle” when found
- Podunk -found out in the middle of nowhere
- Retread – found in an old tire along the road
- Riffraff
- Riley – now the cat is lving the Life of Riley
- Romeo – for a cat that was roaming around and seems to be a real lover!
- Roamin – he constantly wanted to roam until he was neutered
- Rokkie! For the new kid on the block
- Reuben, which is Hebrew for “He has seen my misery.”
- Ruckus (he created a Ruckus when we brought him home)
- Secret
- Scram
- Scampy
- Stitch
- Solo (she is very much a loner amongst the rest of the cats)
- Something – because we kept him for so long without a name that we had to call him something
- Snafu
- Stray Kitty
- Sticky – cat stuck to us and sort of “chose” us
- Scruffy
- Stucker – I named one of our kittens “Stucker” after he got stuck up a tree, then stuck in my car, then stuck in the neighbor’s garage overnight. And he stuck to us.
- Sweetie
- Sparkle – because she gave my husband a sparkle in his eye
- Taggers for Tag A Long. Because he tags along where ever I go
- Tastrophe (Tass for short). I figured the “cat” part of catastrophe
- TC – that cat. We called him that cat so long we named him TC when we adopted him
- Treasure – a real find
- Tramp
- Tuesday – Kitty found on that day of the week
- Turnup – for a cat that just “turned up”
- Vader -short for “Invader”
- Velcro (he sticks with you)
- Yonchi- means Lucky in Chinese (he’s a rescued formally feral cat)
- Yuuki – Means “spirit” in Japanese
- WN WN – pronounced one one – waste not/want not