Taylor Swift & Mariska Hargitay’s Cat-Naming Has Officially Come “Full Circle”

It’s been nine years since Taylor Swift bestowed the name Olivia Benson upon one of her beloved cats. Since then, Mariska Hargitay — the Law & Order: SVU star who plays Olivia’s crime-solving namesake — has shown how honored she is by the tribute. The ultimate display came on Nov. 30, when she introduced her own new pet and revealed the name she fittingly pulled from Swift’s 2022 hit song “Karma.”

“Karma is a Cat @taylorswift,” she captioned a two-photo post featuring an adorable Siamese cat. “Meet Karma. My Cat.” She then added some pun- and Swift-inspired hashtags, including “MeAndKarmaVibeLikeThat,” “AndIKeepMySideOfMyPawClean,” and “KarmaIsACat.”

A Taylor-Approved Name

The day after Hargitay introduced Karma, Swift commented on the post, and she made it clear that she wholeheartedly approved of the gesture. “Are you serious?!!!! Nothing has ever come more full circle,” she wrote. “LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!”

Swift wasn’t the only one who loved to see it all come around like karma. More than 221,000 people liked Hargitay’s original post, and Swift’s comment got more than 23,000 hearts. Hargitay’s followers weighed in with additional appreciative reactions, including one fan who summed it up by writing, “two queens having cats named after each others [sic] is iconic.”

The Name & Fame Game

When Swift got Olivia Benson the cat in 2014, she became the proud owner of two felines. The older of the two, Meredith Grey, got her name from Grey’s Anatomy’s title character, played by Ellen Pompeo. As Swift explained to Rolling Stone not long after she adopted Olivia, her “theme” for her cats’ names was “strong, complex, independent women.” This held until she fell in love with a male kitten in 2019 and named him Benjamin Button, inspired by the 2008 movie.

All three of Swift’s cats have become famous for more than just their names. They’re adored for her photos of them on social media, music video appearances, and even modeling. In fact, Olivia Benson is reportedly the third-richest pet in the world, according to Cats.com in January. The site placed her net worth at a staggering $97 million.

Hargitay’s cat may never reach that same level of fame or fortune, but in the two pictures the actor shared, Karma’s life looks pretty good. Plus, if there’s any justice — and “Karma” says there is — the cat will even get to meet Swift in the future and give fans the “purring in my lap ’cause it loves me” moment they deserve.