Cat Names That Start With B

Brigitte is the French version of the ancient Irish Brighid long associated with 1950s sex symbol Brigitte Bardot. If you want to pronounce Brigitte the French way, it's brih-ZHEET.

You know who Beyonce is. One of the most famous people in the world. When she was born, her name was truly unique; it was a riff on her mom's maiden name, Biyence, with an accent over the final e.

Most will see this as a refreshing middle name possibility, but Bristol Palin baby daddy Levi Johnston used it as a first name for his new daughter, Breeze Beretta.

Bayou? No, but it sounds the same, and since both the Indonesian name and the English word have appealing nature meanings, this is a perfect choice for the family that wants to bridge cultures.

Blu is a new (nu?) spin on an increasingly popular color name, also spelled Blue and Bleu by celebrity parents. Blu is the spelling used for one of the (male) Waldrop quintuplets, but the name is gender neutral.

Despite the light, pretty sound of Bella for a girl, the boys' name Bela has dark and mysterious undertones, thanks to Dracula actor Bela Lugosi. Béla is also the first name of composer Bartók.

Great Irish middle name choice for Shakespeare lovers.

A melodic choice for lullaby-lovers.

One "bald" name we can get behind, thanks to pioneering African-American author James Baldwin – though the name is now also associated with the Baldwin brothers, particularly Alec.

So uncool it's almost cool, Bertie makes for a boyish nickname for Alberta, Roberta, Bertille, Albertine... or just use it on its own, à la Billie or Frankie.

Branch is an attractive name with associations both with trees and with branching out into brave new worlds. Baseball's Branch (born Wesley, with Branch as his middle name) Rickey broke the color barrier by hiring Jackie Robinson for the Dodgers. Like Leaf, Branch makes a nice, not-so-obvious, addition to the tree category.

This fanciful Irish extension of Bridget is known here through the wacky Amelia Bedelia books for kids -- an association your child may or may not like.

Beren is a Noldorin name created by J. R. R. Tolkien for his fantasy universe. A great hero in the books, Beren is notable for his love story with Luthien — so notable that Beren and Luthien are the names on the gravestone of Tolkien and his wife, Edith.

Baby is rarely seen as a given name — or even nickname — these days, although it did rank in the Top 1000 from 1989 to 2003. These instances can be accounted for in two ways. Firstly, infants whose birth certificates are not filled out on time are given generic placeholders for registration, such as Infant, Unknown, or Baby. But more influential during this decade was the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, starring Jennifer Grey as Frances "Baby" Houseman. It's the origin of the famed line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

This name of famed philosopher, mathematician and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell becomes slightly more plausible with the French pronunciation, bare-TRAHN. Another noted bearer is French director and screenwriter Bertrand Tavernier.

You can call your baby "babe," but don't name her that.

The name of a monk who is the patron saint of blacksmiths -- not a twentieth-century occupation or baby name.

Banana is one fruity name we wouldn't recommend. Pick Plum instead. There is a Japanese novelist whose pen name is Banana Yoshimoto--birth name Mahoko.

An unusual floral -wen name which was the name of an 1878 opera by Welsh composer Joseph Parry.