Cats may not be your best friend — but they do know your name

DHousehold cats paid attention to the monitor for longer when the wrong name was called Scientific Reports

omesticated felines know the name of their owners, scientists have discovered in a world first. Before now it was known that cats knew their own names, but it remained a mystery as to whether they knew the names of those around them.

A team of researchers from Kyoto University in Japan sought to find out whether cats know the names of other cats and also those of their owners.

In the first experiment, a total of 48 cats were recruited (29 lived in a cafe and 19 were domestic pets) and the felines were shown a photo of a cat they lived with.

At the same time, a stranger would say either the true name of the cat or another, unrelated, name.

The response of the cat was tracked to see if it was confused by the incorrect name and, if it was, it would stare at the image for longer, puzzling over the mismatch.

This, the scientists say, is a sign the cat knew the pictured animal’s real name.

“Household cats paid attention to the monitor for longer when the wrong name was called, indicating an ‘expectancy violation effect’,” the researchers said in their study, published in the journal Scientific Reports.

This experiment was then repeated but with photos of the owners of 26 newly recruited cats taking part.

The strength of the connection was stronger for felines than it was for humans, but the researchers are confident that cats do have some ability to learn their owner’s name.

“This study provides evidence that cats link a companion’s name and corresponding face without explicit training,” the scientists said.