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Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Did you change your rescue cat's name?

74 replies

TheCategoryIs · 28/10/2021 19:37

Just wondering what everyone's stories are - we just kept the name the rescue gave our cat.

I've never had to name a child and don't know you cope with that responsibility so just seemed easier all round!

So I now have a cat apparently named after (psychopath kid) Bobby Beale from EastEnders (which I don't even watch).

OP posts:
cuttlefishgame · 28/10/2021 19:42

I've had a few rescues over the years, and all of them have kept their names. The only one actually named by the shelter was a kitten, so he wouldn't have known any different, and we liked it anyway. I specifically asked about the others, and was told that the names they had were the ones they came in with when they were signed over.

trumpisagit · 28/10/2021 19:57

We kept the name because it suited her.
If it was a terrible name I think I would adapt rather than change it.
Eg Miffy to Misty etc

tinselandlights · 28/10/2021 20:20

We changed our rescue cat's name but he'd only been there a short while so he didn't 'know' his name.

TheGirlInTheGreenDress · 28/10/2021 20:23

Like a PP, I changed my rescue cat’s name too as I wasn’t keen on the name. She’d only been there a few weeks.

Kendodd · 28/10/2021 20:25

No
We didn't change the rescue dogs name either.

JamMakingWannaBe · 28/10/2021 20:28

We renamed both our rescue cats.

Iamanicepersonreally · 28/10/2021 20:29

I've had 2 rescue cats. Both of them had been strays and only been at the shelter a short time so nobody knew what the original names were.

With the first one, I kept the name the shelter gave her. With the second cat, I changed it

WhatsitWiggle · 28/10/2021 20:29

Our rescue had arrived there from a previous home so they knew her history, so we kept her name.

Squ1ggle · 28/10/2021 20:30

Yes but only for kittens, when we adopted an older cat we kept her name the same. The last kitten was 'kitten number 2' at the shelter so definitely had to give him a new one Grin

ParmigianoReggiano · 28/10/2021 20:30

Yes, we renamed our rescue kittens.

SnottyLottie · 28/10/2021 20:31

I altered ours slightly

Think Jake > Jack, Dolly > Molly

It sounds similar enough for them to prick their ears up (they bloody well know I’m calling them they just choose to ignore me) whilst being more my style

Pascha · 28/10/2021 20:32

We renamed our latest two. I hated the ones they came with so we picked new ones. Honestly, they forgot their old names very quickly. It really didn't matter to them.

TicTac80 · 28/10/2021 20:33

I kept the name of one of my rescue kittens (Cookie). I renamed the other as her name sounded too similar to the name of my 1yr old cat Arya.

Nepenthe · 28/10/2021 20:33

Yes, he was two years old, and called Ben. I thought Ben was a crap name for a cat, so I changed it :)

Toddlerteaplease · 28/10/2021 20:33

I didn't particularly like The late Maia's name. But decided that at the age of five, they would know their names. I found out later that they had been named by the rescue. As the awful kitten farm owner didn't give them names.

Cheddar is such a fab name and suits her so well I didn't change it. Though I discovered her full name was mini cheddar. So I dropped that but. As she says she's a bit sensitive about being small.

mobear · 28/10/2021 20:34

Yes, but he was a kitten and it was the name the foster home had given him, so he'd not had it long - and it was the same as my last ex-boyfriend's.

WildFlowerBees · 28/10/2021 20:35

Yes because they had ridiculous names one of them being Fitzgig. No way was I using that!

Toddlerteaplease · 28/10/2021 20:35

I tried to persuade my bishop friend to rename his cats, suitable Catholic names. But he kept their original names.

My parents cats name was so ridiculous. Mr Bizzle. So he was swiftly renamed!

AnnaMagnani · 28/10/2021 20:41

Lulu and Lala. Changed before they had even arrived with us 😭

Judystilldreamsofhorses · 28/10/2021 20:44

We renamed ours but to something that had very similar sounds - eg Daffy to Daphne. She came direct from a family who had had her from kitten to three, rather than a rescue.

polkadotpjs · 28/10/2021 20:50

If change from Bobby too but maybe keep the "o" sound and go vaguely similar sound. I bet he won't care though !

Brusca · 28/10/2021 20:51

Rescue one came with a name she didn't answer to and ended up called Puss for ages until ds came along and named her when he was a toddler as she looked like a cat in a picture book.

Rescue two came with a name that suited him and he answered to so he kept his name.

Rescue three (current) was picked up as part of a group of 4 feral/semi-feral cats and the name the rescue gave her didn't suit so we re-named her.

bananafruitcake · 28/10/2021 20:52

Yes we renamed the cat we have now. We didn’t rename the cat we had previously though

RandomMess · 28/10/2021 21:14

We've had 4 rehomes

The last 3 all had name changes! They were called by their pedigree names and we switched for various reasons. Cats all managed fine

TheShades · 28/10/2021 21:18

We really liked our first one's name so kept it.

After that we got a pair and one had a name really similar to one of our DC. We felt weird changing one but not the other so gave them both new names

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