Tigger tops list for Edmonton cat names
Pet monikers demonstrate penchant for humanizing animal companions
Their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of strings and there are at least 272 of them in Edmonton.
Tigger is the top name for cats in our city, according to a Journal analysis of Edmonton’s licensed cat database. Nearly one per cent of the 34,000 felines licensed here carry the moniker inspired by Winnie the Pooh’s bouncy, exuberant pal.
English author A.A. Milne created the tiger character in the late 1920s, in his second collection of children’s stories about a honey-loving bear and friends. Disney has since made Tigger into a lispy cartoon star.
“The wonderful thing about Tiggers is I’m the only one,” goes the tiger’s personal anthem.
Not in Edmonton, it would seem. We don’t even reserve the name for members of the cat family, as there are 56 licensed dogs also named Tigger.
Shadow is second most popular cat name here (209 licensed cats), following by Max (201) and Smokey (187). In fifth place is the classic, if unimaginative, Kitty (175).
Licensed pets represent about onethird of the city’s total domestic cat population, according to the city’s Department of Community Services.
Cat name preferences in Edmonton are on par with trends elsewhere. U.S. firm Veterinary Pet Insurance releases a list of top names every year based on its database of more than 485,000 insured pets. VPI’S top cat name in 2011? Bella, followed by Max and Chloe. Tigger was 10th. Laura Wattenberg, author of The
Baby Name Wizard, says names like Tigger demonstrate children’s involvement in the pet naming process. “Kids are more like to call a cat Smokey,” Wattenberg says from Boston. “Parents are more likely to have human ideas.”
Cat and dog names today demonstrate our penchant for humanizing pets, for identifying them as part of the family. Many names are now favourites for babies and fur babies alike. “Both Bella and Max are rising for children, despite their canine popularity,” says Linda Rosenkrantz, founder of nameberry.com.
Bella is the No. 10 name for licensed cats in Edmonton, and the fifth most popular for licensed dogs, the database analysis revealed. Buddy beat Max as the top licensed dog name in our city, but totalled up, Max triumphs as top name for licensed cats and dogs combined.
Political blogger Dave Cournoyer’s mini-dachshund is Maximus Dogus, or Max for short. “Every dog deserves a Roman name,” Cournoyer jokes. He drew his inspiration from cult classic The Grinch Who Stole
Christmas.
“When Max first joined our family he immediately reminded us of everyone’s favourite antlerwearing dog.”
Gord Lacey’s Siberian forest cat is a Max. The cat came with the name and Lacey decided to keep it.
He ponders a moment about why the name works. “It’s easy to yell. ‘Max, stop that!’ ” he says.
“I’m horrible at naming stuff,” he adds. Growing up, his pets’ names were all very literal: a rabbit named Bunny, a hamster with a stripe named Stripe.
Li terature indicates dogs had names before cats, says
Most cats in human history must just have been ‘cat.’
University of Alberta English professor John Considine
University of Alberta English professor John Considine. There are ancient references to dogs with names, he explains, but named cats in writing are scant. There’s a cat with a name in a ninth-century poem by an Irish monk, he notes. Samuel Johnson had a cat called Hodge. Shakespeare didn’t name cats, though he named dogs.
“Most cats in human history must just have been ‘cat,’ ” Considine says.
These days, cat names are influenced by dog names, he says, but only if they’re human names, and not dog-specific ones.
“It would be rather odd to call a cat Fido, but Max or Bella are transferable names, no more incongruous for cat than for dog.”
There are three licensed cats named Fido in Edmonton.