What do you name a cat?

This is Max. Fresh off the camera just this morning. He's only pretending to be sweet, you know. In real life he's very much a buddy and all of that stuff, but he's also very good at getting into things that he really shouldn't.

He's a busy little boy, Max. Even though the cat food commercials will do their best to convince you that he's a senior citizen now.

Frankly, I act more like a senior citizen than he ever does.

Anyway, here's the question for today. Is Max a good name for a cat like Max? I named him, you know. Before he arrived (from someone's farm. He was a barn kitten) we didn't know if they'd bring us a male or a female, and my mother had only picked out a girl's name. Mandy. Ugh. My apologies to anyone out there named Mandy -- or with a cat named Mandy -- but I'm more than a little glad that Max turned out to be a boy.

And where did the name Max come from? No clue, really. Just before they brought him to us my grandmother had asked what the cat's name was going to be, and my mom had said Mandy if it's a girl. "But what if it's a boy?" made me blurt out Max before my mom had a chance to recall any other Barry Manilow songs... so Max it was when the squealing little puffball was brought to the door.

Man, he could scream for a tiny thing.

He's quieted down some since. The other cat (whom we used to call Meep in fun, since that's the only sound she ever seemed to make) got louder as she got older, but not Max.

The other cat, by the way, is Penny. Maybe I'll find a photo of her for tomorrow. Penny got her name because that was the colour of her eyes when she was a kitten. They've got a bit more green in them now, but I think it's a little too late to rename her Old Copper. Besides, I call her Lumpy most of the time anyway.

So are these good names for cats? I know T.S. Eliot had his ideas about that sort of thing, but in real life are Penny and Max decent names for cats? I have to admit, this family doesn't have a history of terribly creative names for pets. The various dogs were Snoopy, Barney, and Rikki (from a misheard song lyric, of all things), and the cats were Scruffy, Twerpy, Freddie, Candy, and Taffy. The last two were around at the same time... I guess we were having a sweet-tooth moment when they got named. We also had a Humphrey, but he was actually my aunt's cat so none of us get credit for the name there.

Reading that list, I notice that Max is sort of the odd cat out. Apparently pet names in our family are supposed to end in a y. Ah well. Sorry, Maxie.

So, pretty lame names? I don't know. They serve their purpose, they're not too cute, and since I tend to call animals by nicknames most of the time (not sure how I got into that habit, since I don't do it with people) I suppose it shouldn't really matter in the end.

I'd make some joke here about not coming when they're called anyway, but in fact both of our cats are very good at answering to their names.

Maybe it does matter, then.

I'm sure I don't know, and since I have other things to get done this morning I don't really have time to come to a conclusion either way.






You can, if you need one.