Well, I don’t have any actual conventions, but I have had a number of cats with various reasons for their names. I will be including cats both past and present.
Circe (died last June 28, at the age of 15.5) had been adopted from a rescue when she was 6.5 years old. She was a long hair dilute calico, and Circe had been her shelter name, and I did not change it (she’d been through enough in her life–she’d been through a failed adoption before I got her).
Autumn (died April 25 this year at the approximate age of 12.5, maybe 13) came from the same rescue. She was a calico, and this was her shelter name also but I don’t think there’s a more perfect name for a calico cat who is rescued during the fall season. She had GI lymphoma, which shortened her life. It is believed that she was the mother of the next two (they were all rescued together and it looked like a dump job due to the location they were rescued from).
Domino (died Sept 18 last year at the approximate age of 11.5) had GI lymphoma and a heart murmur that meant he could not have the steroids usually given to slow the disease. He was a black-and-white cow print DSH who was, as we said, so sweet they named a brand of sugar after him (yes, Domino brand sugar was called that long before Domino the cat, but …) We also, if we felt like ordering from Domino’s for dinner would say “let’s have the feline chef prepare dinner” and still will sometimes say “let’s have the ghost chef cook tonight”.
TV, now the grand lady of the house, is approximately 12. She is a DSH black-and-white tuxie girl (yes, black-and-white TV).
Cosette (usually just called Cosy) is approximately 9 years old. She rescued herself, showing up in front of the house one cold February night, emaciated and sick. Even though I had four cats (see above) at the time, I brought her in (stopping first in the garage until I got her to the vet) and knew that the starving waif would become a beautiful lady cat. She is a DSH dilute tortie (but the tortitude is full volume), but is named for the character in Les Miserables (no diacriticals on keyboard).
A little over four years ago, a trio of gray/mostly gray cats showed up. Socks (gray tabby with white feet), Lady Jane (gray tabby whose face just looks very aristocratic), and Callie (mostly gray dilute calico). Between the three of them, they gave birth to 9 kittens, of whom only two survived. I did manage to TNR Socks and Lady Jane (who still show up to eat, but remain untouchable), Callie disappeared around the time I started my TNR project.
Jemmy-any-dots (usually just Jemmy, JemJem, or … yeah, you get the idea), who was born probably in May four years ago, is a DSH brown tabby with spots on his sides. So I modified his name from the character in Cats, Jenny-any-dots whose “coat is of the tabby kind with tiger stripes and leopard spots”. I was able to trap him when he was 6mo old and got him neutered and he has lived indoors with me ever since. He is Socks’ son.
Leo is an orange tabby, also born around the same time as Jemmy, from Callie. Leo just seemed to be the right name for him, and I trapped him and brought him indoors at the same time as Jemmy. When they lived outside, Jemmy and Leo were bonded, and even though they’re probably more like cousins from the standpoint of biology (could be half-brothers), they remain a bonded pair who like to snuggle together.
Unfortunately, others in the neighborhood don’t seem to be prone to spay/neuter, so I had Char (DSH solid gray, was Charcoal until I was able to confirm female) show up and sometime around last May she gave birth to a litter that included my last adoptee.
Pandora (sole survivor of Char’s litter), I captured and brought indoors almost exactly a year ago (July 17). She is kind of the genetic lottery winner with multiple recessive traits–she is a DLH colorpoint (dilute tortie). When I brought her in, she was very sick (upper respiratory infection) and heavily flea-infested, so she might not have made it if I hadn’t brought her in when I did. She’s now thoroughly spoiled rotten. I had thought of going to mythology since she came to me soon after I’d lost Circe, and so I settled on Pandora for the pan-dorable girl.
