Naming your pet is a serious business, so of course you’lll want to go into the process armed with as much information as possible (or something). In the event that you either just got or are thinking of getting a cat, though, have no fear: Vocativ and Veterinary Pet Insurance recently teamed up to determine the most popular cat names in the U.S. Want something that follows the trends? Here’s what to pick! Want something totally unique? Here’s what not to pick! Cat names for all!
Veterinary Pet Insurance has a database of 75,000 insured cats at their fingertips, so all it took was a little number-crunching to come up with the most popular cat names in each state in the nation. I would argue that the resulting list (and the neatly-laid-out map that Vocativ created to go along with it) reveal something pretty telling: For some reason, the U.S. is still a tiny bit obsessed with Twilight. A whopping 14 states favor the name “Bella” for their feline companions over all others. 14. That is a lot of Bellas. Or, y’know, maybe we just need to work on our cat naming creativity skills. Either/or. To be honest, I’m actually surprised that “Katniss” doesn’t appear anywhere on the map; you’d think that the popularity of The Hunger Games and the built-in pun would be a shoe-in for at least one state, wouldn’t you?
Interestingly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of overlap with the most popular dog names of 2014. Vocativ points us towards this infographic from Rover, which includes “Max,” “Lucy,” “Chloe,” and (again) “Bella” as some of the top names for pooches last year — all of which also put in appearances in Veterinary Pet Insurance’s cat name data. In my head, cats always have dramatically different names than dogs; apparently that’s just me, though. Maybe I need to stop being so species-specific.
Head on over to Vocativ to see the map itself; check out the seven most popular cat names, along with which states they won and GIFs of what I think cats with those names probably look like, below:
1. Bella
For the curious, the 14 United States of Bella are: California, Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Wowzers.
2. Max
The next most popular cat name is “Max,” which reigns supreme in four states: Maine, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Arizona. I’m assuming most of them are male cats, but I kind of like the idea of a female cat named Max. Maybe if I ever adopt a third one, that’s what I’ll name her.
3. Oliver
Like “Max,” “Oliver” wins out in four states: Idaho, Virginia, New York, and New Hampshire. I wonder if any of them have a full name of “Oliver Twist?”
4. Lucy
Three states consider “Lucy” to be the best cat name ever, and interestingly, they’re all located in the southeastern area of the U.S.: South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama.
5. Lily
Our next and final three names each take the top spot in two states. For “Lily,” it’s Oregon and Utah.
6. Chloe
“Chloe” wins out in Maryland and Hawaii…
7. Charlie
…And “Charlie” takes the proverbial cake in Kansas and Indiana. Like “Max,” I think Charlie is a terrific name for both male and female cats; my parents had a girl cat they called Charlie before I was born — short for “Charlotte.”
Images: Giphy (8)
