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What are some popular cat names in your country? Back in the UK, where I’m from, you can hardly step outside without a Tigger, Smudge, Felix, or Sooty crossing your path. It stands to reason that Japan also has a dedicated pool of much-loved kitty names to choose from, and pet insurance company Anikomu recently conducted a poll to find out which ones are the most popular.
In anticipation of Neko no Hi (Cat Day) on Feb 22 (mark your calendars, and don’t forget it’s also Ninja Day!), Anikomu announced the results of their kitty naming poll for 2015. In top place overall is Sora (Sky), which has held firm in the top position since 2012. “Sora” is a generally popular name overall in Japan, and not just for cats, so it’s not surprising to see it popping up in first place again this year.
The second-place spot for female cat names was Luna, which made a massive jump this year from last year’s tenth place. Not too surprising, when you consider that incredibly popular anime series "Sailor Moon" had a revival last year. Sailor Moon’s pet cat is, of course, named Luna.
In the male cat category, the suitably feline Leo took second place, with third place going to the very Japanese-sounding Kotaro. As a variant of Leo, Leon also appeared in fifth place. There were some cute names for the boys, too, including food-based names Marron (Chestnut) and Cocoa as well as others such as Maru (Round) and Fuku (Lucky).
In the female kitty category, the overall top name was Momo (Peach), and there were plenty of flowery names in the top ten, including Hana (Flower) and Sakura (Cherry Blossom). Rin (Bell) also appears at number 7.
From the results of the survey, we can tell that in Japan names based on popular foods or nature are quite commonly used for pets, whereas in the West we’re more likely to give names that are either human names or otherwise based off the animal’s appearance.
Source: Eltha
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18 Comments
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kcjapan
Why love Japan? Neko no Hi (Cat Day) on Feb 22 (mark your calendars, and don’t forget it’s also Ninja Day!) - article
No Maru? If reincarnation is true then Maru is hard to beat. Is Wiskers too wrong? He's Mr. Wiskers to strangers, and bites, still.
Himajin
Maru is listed as 'Mary', a typo. I agree, Maru's a hard act to follow :-)
Moderator
Yes, that was a typo.
USNinJapan2
The article doesn't divulge what the most popular male cat name is. That's pretty bizarre.
Himajin
No problem about the typo, I just realized that Maru was included bynthendefinition :-)
TumbleDry
Hmmm... Not really original names. Well, not sure mine have original names either...
Loki, male Norwegian forest cat
Anahita, female Persian cat
harvey pekar
Jiji for me. Obvious reason, from Ghibli's Kiki's Delivery Service.
danalawton1@yahoo.com
So what is the most popular name.... or is there a Fee Line?
Maria
In Polish, 'kot' means 'cat'. Other Slavonic languages will have similar-sounding words. Coincidence? Probably.
browny1
When I first came here, my nice middle-aged neighbours had a moggy called "cat".
At first I thought it was a nickname and they were saying "cat, cat" like some people say "here kitty" or "neko-chan".
But no, it's real name was "cat" - they thought it was cool to have an english name.
HaraldBloodaxe
A friend of mine called his cat "Bollocks", so he could go out in the park shouting its name when it didn't come home to be fed.
Kato_Koshiro
True! In my house there's three cats named Surume, Nori and Gohan and they are always hungry. But they refuse to eat surume, nori or gohan. They are not cannibals!
Ian Robertson
Interesting. My two abbys are Aulwyn and Elmira.
Tessa
My dad had a cat named Blackie!!!
cevin7
No "Tama" for male cat any longer!? I guess the trend has moved on!
Fox Sora Winters
If I ever get a cat (God help me if I do), I would probably name it 虎 - "Tora" (Japanese for Tiger) for a male, or maybe 黒狐 - Kuroko (Japanese for Black Fox) for a female. Then again, I'm pretty weird. I could just as easily name a cat "Dave".
1glenn
"Stinky" and "Boots."
Segador
We call our female cat... cat (gato in spanish). Well, in reality we call her: gato, nyanko, nyankichi, bicho (bug), gatchan and fu.... stupid cat dont scratch the furniture! Thats was a joke is a very gentle and loving cat who never do anything wrong.