The 25 Most Popular Cat Names (From Real Licensing Data)

There is a moment, usually around day two of cat ownership, when you realize this animal is not going to respond to its name the way a dog does. The cat knows its name. The cat simply has opinions about whether to honor you with a response. And somehow, this doesn't stop people from choosing names very carefully — perhaps more carefully than they would for a dog. Naming a cat feels less like naming a friend and more like naming a character. Someone with presence. Someone with mystery.

We pulled real pet licensing records across five major cat breeds — Domestic Shorthair, Siamese, Maine Coon, Persian, and American Shorthair — and aggregated the data to find the true top 25 popular cat names. No surveys, no online polls, no guessing. Just registration data from cities that actually require pet licensing.

What we found tells a story about how cat owners think differently from dog owners — and why that difference shows up so clearly in the names they choose.

The Top 10: A Different Kind of Name

Luna leads the cat rankings with 88 registered cats, and it isn't close. In the overall pet rankings, Luna sits at #3 — but among cats specifically, she pulls further ahead of the pack. The fit is almost too obvious once you see it. Luna means moon. Cats are nocturnal, silver-eyed, drawn to windowsills at 2 a.m. They bring an aura of quiet mystery that the moon also carries. If any pet was going to claim this name, it was always going to be the cat.

Lucy at 41 and Lily at 38 round out the top five girls' names alongside Bella at 37. All three are soft, slightly vintage, and carry a gentle femininity without veering into the precious or the cutesy. Lucy in particular has a literary warmth to it — not quite regal, but quietly distinguished. It suits a cat that sits in the same chair every afternoon and watches you work.

Charlie at 40 and Oliver at 39 lead the boys. Both are human names in the fullest sense — names you'd find on a Victorian novel's cast list. Charlie has a roguish, friendly edge. Oliver has a literary weight. Neither screams "dog park." Both suit an animal that prefers the indoors.

Pepper at 36 is the first name in the top ten that feels more cat than human, landing at #7. It's sharp, a little spicy, slightly unpredictable — all accurate descriptors for a cat. Shadow at 34 follows at #8 and earns its place in cat naming lore: no name more accurately describes a cat that trails you silently through the house at midnight.

Max at 33 feels like a holdover from the dog world — it's a top name for dogs and humans alike — but cat owners have clearly adopted it too, giving it a quieter context. And Loki at 33 finishes the top ten with a wink: the Norse trickster god, patron of mischief and chaos, the name that says "we know exactly what kind of animal this is."

What Cats Don't Get Called: Coco, Rocky, Teddy

The overall pet top 10 — Bella, Max, Luna, Charlie, Coco, Lola, Rocky, Lucy, Milo, Teddy — and the cat top 25 share more than a few names. But three of those ten popular pet names are nowhere to be found in the cat rankings: Coco, Rocky, and Teddy.

It's not an accident. Each of those names carries an energy that maps naturally onto dogs and poorly onto cats.

Rocky implies movement, muscle, exertion — a name that belongs on a dog who charges at waves. Cats don't charge. They consider. Rocky on a cat would be a small, private joke, and most owners aren't in a jokey mood when they're naming their Persian.

Teddy is warmth and softness, yes, but also accessibility — a name for an animal that wants to be held and cuddled and is pleased about it. Cats permit affection on their own schedule. Teddy implies availability. Most cat owners understand this isn't quite right.

Coco is energetic and sweet, with a faint tropical brightness to it. It's a Labrador name wearing a good coat. Cat owners tend to drift toward something quieter, more interior. They want a name that doesn't feel like it's trying too hard.

What the cat top 25 skews toward instead: names that feel still. Willow. Shadow. Olive. Jasper. Names that carry a quiet authority, not a bouncy invitation. The cat naming instinct is to find a name the cat could plausibly have chosen for itself, if cats cared about such things.

The Japanese & Sweet Theme: Momo, Mochi, Kiki

Three names in the cat top 20 stand out immediately for sharing a very specific aesthetic: Momo at #14 with 28 registrations, Mochi at #19 with 25, and Kiki at #20 with 25.

None of these names appear in the top 25 for dogs. All three land comfortably in the cat top 20. That's not a coincidence — it's a specific cultural and aesthetic sensibility that cats seem to unlock in their owners.

Momo is a Japanese word for peach, and it has that soft round energy: small, sweet, slightly translucent. Mochi is the sticky rice cake — and if you've ever held a very small cat, especially a fluffy kitten who hasn't grown into its paws yet, you understand why someone looked at it and thought mochi. Kiki is playful and bright, with a French-Japanese crossover that gives it a certain chic without trying to be chic.

What these names share is a focus on cuteness that is specific and textured rather than generic. It's not "Fluffy." It's not "Snowball." It's a cuteness that comes with a reference, a tiny piece of culture carried into the naming moment. Dog owners occasionally land here too, but rarely this consistently.

There's probably something about cats — their small scale, their dense fur, their habit of curling into perfect spheres — that triggers the impulse. You look at a sleeping cat and think: this is exactly what mochi looks like. The name writes itself.

The Mythic & Literary: Loki, Freya, Jasper, Cleo

Dog owners name their pets after people. Cat owners name their pets after characters.

The evidence is in the data. Loki at #10, Jasper at #17 with 27 registrations, Cleo at #22 with 24, and Freya at #23 with 23 — all four names carry mythological or literary weight that goes well beyond a simple human name. Compare this to the Golden Retriever top 25, where the tone is closer to a kindergarten class list: Hudson, Sadie, Tucker, Finn.

Loki is the Norse trickster god, and it's hard to imagine a more perfectly chosen patron deity for cats. Loki shapeshifts, causes trouble, operates outside the normal rules, and somehow remains beloved despite everything. Sound familiar?

Freya is the Norse goddess of love, beauty, and — crucially — cats. In Norse mythology, Freya's chariot is pulled by two large cats. Cat owners who choose this name are, consciously or not, reaching back to a tradition that understood what cats are: not pets in the working-animal sense, but companions with their own divine authority.

Jasper comes from the Persian for "treasurer" and carries the weight of Victorian novels and Arthurian lore. It's a name for someone who sits in a leather armchair and has opinions. Cleo — short for Cleopatra — is practically a genre unto itself: the regal cat, the cat that conducts itself with the assurance of someone who was once worshipped, which, of course, cats were.

Cats suit these names because cats already behave like characters. They have consistent personality quirks. They make entrances. They have preferences that feel almost like politics. Giving a cat a mythological name is less an imposition and more a recognition.

Olive, Willow, Pepper: Nature That Isn't Sunny

Nature names appear in both dog and cat naming, but they don't choose the same nature.

Golden Retriever owners pick names built around sunlight and warmth — Sunny, Golden, Goldie, Honey. The energy is bright, expansive, and warm. It matches the breed. Cat owners go somewhere cooler and more textured: Willow at #12 with 31 registrations, Olive at #18 with 26, Pepper at #7 with 36.

Willow is graceful and melancholy in the best way — it bends, it trails, it suggests something slightly theatrical and very patient. Olive is the quietest possible green, muted and earthy, with a name that sounds like it belongs to someone who reads a lot. Pepper has a bite. It's sharp and unexpected and not entirely comfortable, which is exactly what cats are.

Even Shadow fits this pattern. It's not botanical, but it belongs to the same low-saturation palette. Shadow is what happens when a Sunny person goes nocturnal. It's the cat version of a nature name: still evocative, still tied to something real in the natural world, but turned away from the light.

This is a pattern worth naming: cat owners tend toward what you might call quiet nature. Not sunshine and open fields. Dappled shade. Still water. The kind of nature that watches rather than runs through it.

The Full Top 25

A few notes on names 11–25. Milo at #11 is interesting — it crosses freely between the cat and dog worlds (it's #9 in the overall pet top 10) and seems to work everywhere. Leo at #16 is quietly perfect for a cat: short, strong, and a direct reference to the lion, the large cat that domestic cats apparently believe they still are. Penny at #21 has the same lived-in vintage warmth as Lucy. And Oreo at #25 — the only food name on the list that isn't Japanese — earns its place by being genuinely descriptive: it exists almost exclusively for black-and-white cats.

If You're Naming a Cat Right Now

The data suggests three directions, each rooted in real naming instincts cat owners share.

If you want something timeless: The Victorian human names hold up beautifully. Oliver, Lucy, Jasper, Penny, Cleo. These names have been chosen by enough cat owners, independently, that there's clearly something right about them. They age gracefully and carry personality without being loud about it.

If you want something with character: The mythological and literary names reward the instinct. Loki and Freya have deep roots and feel earned rather than imposed. Shadow is one of those names that can only belong to a cat — trying to imagine a Labrador named Shadow is genuinely difficult. Luna is the standard for a reason: it fits so well that it almost doesn't feel chosen.

If you want something quieter and more personal: The nature names in this list — Willow, Olive, Pepper — are for people who want something that feels discovered rather than popular. They sound like they come from somewhere specific. They carry texture. They suit a cat that also seems to come from somewhere specific, even if that somewhere is your living room windowsill.

The broader insight from the data: cat names tend to be quieter, more interior, more literary than dog names. They reward observation. Cat owners look at their cat for a few days before deciding, and the name that arrives usually has something to do with what they've seen. That's not a bad approach for any naming decision, really. The cat's personality usually does the work. You just have to pay attention.

Browse the full pet name rankings or explore individual names like Luna, Loki, Mochi, and Freya. Curious how cat naming compares to dog naming overall? See our breakdown of what Golden Retriever owners actually name their dogs — the contrast is sharper than you'd expect.