Does everyone re-name cats?

[Desley (booktigger)]

I rarely change names, as with the ones I adopt, they are oldies, and if they have had that name all their life, I dont think they should have to cope with a new name. With fosters, i tend not to and leave it to the new owners, although i had to change one last year, I wasn't registering a cat called Swiggie.

[Cat_Crazy]

I adopted Tilly from a grim looking cat rescue place... she didn't have a name just "female cat". They couldn't tell me much about her past, only that she had been brought into the rescue with a litter of young kittens. Obviously the kittens got re-homed quickly, but no-one wanted her (being black prob wasn't in her favour either - cant understand why people reject black cats, they are gorgeous  ).. It was my decision to name her Tilly and I think it suits her. 

[Kittybabe (Ruth)]

Lexy is Alexandra, her name was Jessie. She ignored me studiously when I called her and blinked when I called her Lexy, so Lexy it was.

[Den]

Memphis was called Pinky 

Although he did live up to his name by wearing the latest shade of whiskas kitten loaf!! His white bits were a garish pinky meaty colour and he smelt like eau de chicken.

[JackSpratt]

We didn't dare change Noni Baroni's name as JS woudda had our guts for garters    There is and never has been any question that it suits her to a tee.  Her previous name was Fluffy it seems 

Hehe! I think it suits her - and the fact it became a title adds to the overall appropriateness of such feline royalty.

To answer the question; yes I do always change names. The reason is I like to think of it as part of a step to a newer, better life. New name, new life. All the cats we share our home with had names I'd not have chosen myself and certainly not for these cats. (Carrie was Domino, Jack was Tiny , Sage was Haribo and Astryd was Chelsea.) All of them are utter babes.

[blackcat]

I have changed some and kept some - depending on how awful the previous name was and how it was acquired. For example Sofie was called Gerty when I adopted her at the RSPCA and they assured me it was simply the name she had been assigned - not her real name. Bob was called dinar which when spoken sounded like a girl's name. Smidgen was named Smidgen and Esther was named Esther. Both names I was comfy with, so kept them.

If I am changing a name of long-standing I try to go for something that is phonicly similar or at least has the same number of syllables. So dinar became bobcat which was later reduced to bob.

Getting a cat used to its name is similar to getting a dog used to the name you call it. You call the name and provide a food reward when you get a response. Then gradually reduce the food rewards so that they are offered only occasionally.

[maryas]

When I got Bonnie from the RSPCA in December 2007 I didn't want to change her name as I thought it suited her fine.

Mary

[LadyJane]

I really like the name Samson but if it's getting shortened, as names inevitably do, then I can imagine it gets a bit confusing if he has the same name as you 

I do quite like the name and it does suit him but I can just see us getting terribly confused.  The only other one I've come up with is Monty (Montgomery) but is that more of a dogs name?

We did consider calling him Grommit (as our surname is Wallace) but that doesn't really work.

[MrsR]

Depends on their story.

Sofa, Misha, Bunty and Poppy kept their names
Sylvester & Freddy didn't
Elvis didn't have a name that we knew

[Rosella moggy]

We didn't dare change Noni Baroni's name as JS woudda had our guts for garters    There is and never has been any question that it suits her to a tee.  Her previous name was Fluffy it seems 

Lucas was Kali for a few days until I realised his lady bits didn't look quite so ladylike  The name change hasn't caused him any long lasting psychological damage   

I think the root of our Freddie's psychlogical damage  is having to put up with being called Hugo previously.  A Hugo he's most definately not    I remember OH going on his own to visit "Hugo" when he was still at RSPCA.  OH hadn't seen him so I said he should look out for a white/tabby cat called Hugo.  He phoned me from RSPCA to announce he was giving Henry a big cuddle  .  My workmates fell about laffin when they heard me sternly say "put Henry down and go and find Hugo!" and yes .... of course I do think of Henry on occasion 

[Kirst]

Beavis was (and still officially is!) Panjandarum Goldbraid - and there was NO WAY I was yelling that across the back garden!

Jerry was originally Drake , and Gizzy was Ziggy Stardust....................we still call him Ziggy sometimes.


Fredcat has always been fredcat as he was a stray and we dont know his history.

[tab]

Amber didnt have a name as she kind of walked in off the street and stayed.
Mogs is officially called Enid though. She arrived at the end of E month at the recue and they were getting short of names. I didnt feel that the name suited her and spent the first week or so saying things like well mogs what shall we call you and then going through names but soon realised she answered to Mogs so it stuck 
love
Tab

[fluffybunny]

I think many cats respond to the tone rather than the actual words in any case.  We used to think that Sooty thought his name was "hello" anyway as that's what we usually said to him 

Geoffrey was called Rio when he arrived and I just couldn't face having any of my cats named after a footballer, so we changed it.  I'm sure you'll agree Geoffrey is a much better name for a cat    Milly was called Milly though and we kept that because it's fine as a name and it suited her. 

[Tiggy's Mum]

I really like the name Samson but if it's getting shortened, as names inevitably do, then I can imagine it gets a bit confusing if he has the same name as you 

I think if you pick a name that sounds similar to his current one he'll adapt to it just fine, let's face it cats come when the treats are rattled not when they're called - although having said that mine do come when they're called but only because they know they're getting treats 

Lucas was Kali for a few days until I realised his lady bits didn't look quite so ladylike  The name change hasn't caused him any long lasting psychological damage 

[Gillian Harvey]

Oh and I forgot - Lacie (6yrs) was called Lucy - but already have a Lucy, so at least Lacie sounded similar, BB (9yrs) was called Baby, again BB sounded close enough! - and she certainly knows her name 

Harry was called Conker by CP - hmmm!

[Sabrina (Auferstehen)]

When I adopted Penguin he answered to it so I’ve kept the name, though I use variations. Pengi, Pengers.. etc

Smoke was called Megan… however she’s never answered to either

[bunglycat]

Smartie was 18 months old and called Spartacus - he responded very quickly to Smartie (now 12 years old)( tried to pick something with the same starting letter -seems to help )
Winston was 4 years old and  called Wispa ( now 11 years old)
Bungle/Bungly was 5 years and would not answer to anything else -but she is deaf in one ear ! (now only 9 years old)
Sophie was 4 years old has stayed Sophie ( into her 16th  year)
Phoebe was 10 years old - now called Fi Fi  ( but my sister called her the Dark Duchess  as she is very haughty ) now almost 11 years old.

[Janeyk]

We just adopt oldies so tend to keep their names if they've always had them, eg Smokey and Timmy were 14 and 15 and Byron was 23.  We did change Schui's though because although he too was old he was a stray so didn't have a name, CP had called him William but we changed it because he was deaf anyway so didn't know what we were calling him.

[hOrZa]

I didn't all my boys have the names they came with and the girl came nameless so picked Missy as she was the only miss in a house of misters.

[Gillian Harvey]

It depends really. When I took Millie on, she was 15 years old, and was called Muppet - there was no way I was calling her that despite her having had the name for 15 years LOL! She responded to Millie straight away. Poppy was called Angel, didnt like that name either, so Poppy she became. Gwyngala (bit of a moutful!) became Gwynnie, but I actually call her Toots most of the time LOL, which she knows and responds to.

Suzie kept her name, because she was definitely a Suzie!, Gypsy remained Gypsy, and Honey is still Honey. My Joe started off as Freddy (that was my choice while he was still at the breeders house) but when I got him home, he wasnt a Freddy, he was very much a Joe! 

[LadyJane]

Hi,

Just wondering whether most people on here re-name their cats when they get them or do you just stick to whatever name they already have?

When we had Samson he didn't seem to respond to his name very much so we considered changing it.  My name is Sam so things could get confusing if he starts to be called Sam/Sammy etc but as yet we haven't changed it.

Do cats take long to get used to new names?

I wanted to rename Samson to Oliver/Ollie but Hubby said no way as that's what his Sisters cat is called.