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Literary cat names

72 names

Literary cat names are quietly the most personal kind. A name pulled from a book you love says something about you — and gives the cat a quiet inside joke that lives in your house for the next fifteen years. Atticus from To Kill a Mockingbird, Holly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, Gatsby, Scout, Pip, Hermione — these names land because they come with characters attached.

This collection covers cats from books (the obvious ones: Crookshanks from Harry Potter, Mr. Mistoffelees and Macavity from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Behemoth from The Master and Margarita), human characters with cat-like names or temperaments (Atticus, Holly, Gatsby, Heathcliff), and a few names borrowed from poets and authors themselves (Edgar after Allan Poe, Virginia after Woolf).

Literary cat names suit cats whose owners read — which is, statistically, most cats. They also tend to age well: a cat named Atticus will still be Atticus when she's seventeen, in a way that a more aggressively cute name might not survive. Browse the list below to find the character that matches your cat's personality.

Adora Belle

Moist von Lipwig's love interest in Pratchett's Going Postal

Artemis

Goddess of the hunt and the moon

Aslan

The great lion of Narnia in C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia

Behemoth

Talking black cat from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

Bilbo

The hobbit who finds the One Ring in Tolkien's The Hobbit

Binti

The young protagonist of Nnedi Okorafor's Africanfuturist novella

Buttercup

Prim's grumpy ginger cat in The Hunger Games

Cersei

The calculating queen from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

Cheshire

The grinning cat from Alice in Wonderland

Church

The cat in Stephen King's Pet Sematary

Cinder

The cyborg mechanic-Cinderella of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles

Crookshanks

Hermione's half-Kneazle from Harry Potter

Cullen

The vampire family in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight

Diesel

Charlie's Maine Coon in Miranda James's cozy mystery series

Dinah

Alice's cat in Alice in Wonderland

Dragon

The black-and-white cat in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Firestar

The flame-colored leader of ThunderClan in the Warriors series

Ginger

A talking cat in C.S. Lewis's The Last Battle

Gingivere

The kind ginger cat in Brian Jacques's Mossflower

Greebo

Nanny Ogg's cat in Terry Pratchett's Discworld

Harriet

The aspiring writer in Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy

Harry Cat

The tabby cat in George Selden's A Cricket in Times Square

Hazel

Hazel Grace Lancaster, narrator of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars

Jellicle

A type of cat from T.S. Eliot's poems and Cats the musical

Jonas

The Receiver of Memory in Lois Lowry's The Giver

Junie B.

The unfiltered kindergartner of Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones books

Karou

The blue-haired art student in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Katniss

The Mockingjay heroine of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games

Katsa

The Graceling with a killing Grace in Kristin Cashore's novel

Kaz

Kaz Brekker, criminal mastermind in Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows

Khaleesi

Mother of Dragons — Daenerys Targaryen's title in Game of Thrones

Liesel

The young book thief in Markus Zusak's WWII novel

Lisbeth

The fierce hacker from Stieg Larsson's Millennium series

Lyra

The lyre — small but storied northern constellation

Macavity

The mystery cat from T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Matilda

The genius child heroine of Roald Dahl's Matilda

Maurice

The talking cat in Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Max

The wolf-suited hero of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are

Merricat

The narrator of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Milo

The bored boy in Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth

Miss Marple

Agatha Christie's sharp-eyed amateur sleuth

Miss Peregrine

The ymbryne headmistress in Ransom Riggs's Peculiar Children series

Mogget

The mysterious cat-shaped Free Magic servant in Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series

Monty

The rakish young lord in Mackenzi Lee's A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Moxie

A spirited modern name with literary use

Mrs. Norris

Filch's cat in Harry Potter

Murphy

Mrs. Murry's name in Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time

Naga

A character from Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char

Omakayas

The young Ojibwe heroine of Louise Erdrich's The Birchbark House

Pennywise

The shape-shifting horror from Stephen King's It

Percy

The demigod son of Poseidon in Rick Riordan's series

Phineas

The charismatic athlete in John Knowles's A Separate Peace

Pippin

The youngest hobbit in The Lord of the Rings

Pluto

The black cat in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat"

Princess Buttercup

The heroine of William Goldman's The Princess Bride

Richard Parker

The Bengal tiger in Yann Martel's Life of Pi

Ronan

The dream-pulling Lynch brother in Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle

Rue

The young tribute from District 11 in The Hunger Games

Sadie

The vengeful protagonist of Courtney Summers's Sadie

Simon

The gay teen protagonist of Becky Albertalli's Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Skippyjon Jones

The Siamese cat who thinks he's a Chihuahua in Judy Schachner's picture books

Snowbell

The family cat in E.B. White's Stuart Little

Socks

The white-pawed cat in Beverly Cleary's Socks

Splat

The big-eyed black cat in Rob Scotton's Splat the Cat books

Starr

The narrator of Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give

Stelmaria

Lord Asriel's snow-leopard dæmon in His Dark Materials

Tesseract

The four-dimensional travel concept in A Wrinkle in Time

Tiger Lily

The Neverland princess in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan

Tigger

The bouncing tiger from Winnie-the-Pooh

Trixie

The teen sleuth of Julie Campbell's Trixie Belden mysteries

Westing

The eccentric millionaire in Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game

Wilbur

The kindhearted pig in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web