Cat Names That Start With B

High-kicking cohort of Coco, Gigi, Fifi, Kiki, et al.

The middle name of the Travoltas' Ella, this French color alternative hasn't caught on with many other parents.

A bit too bad-boy (think bars, beer, Harley) for us, as well as being the name of a grain.

Although she declared her independence as far back as the reign of Elizabeth I--Good Queen Bess, Bess now sounds less passé than Beth or Betsy.

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.

If you want a pan-Scandinavian name with energy and style that could have been a winner, if not for the sound-alike water filtration company Brita.

More colorful than Blanche, but blanker than Bianca.

It's been shown that notable political figures often impact the use of their names, and the same can — sort of — be said about Bernie Sanders. His name increased in use by 47% between 2015 and 2016 (albeit, to a peak of only 21 baby boys given the name). By 2017, Bernie has decreased in usage by almost 60%.

Great Irish middle name choice for Shakespeare lovers.

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.

With the recent arrival of fruit names like Apple and Plum, this more traditional example, symbolic of fertility, might rise in popularity. Photographer Berry Berenson was born Berinthia.

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 name is usually seen as a surname, but could be used as a first in the tradition of Cooper, Sawyer etc.

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

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.

Boo may have started out as a nickname for the male character Arthur "Boo" Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird and these days may be closely associated with another male Boo, the "world's cutest dog" or with the adorable little girl in Monsters, Inc.

Boo as a first name first achieved notoriety as the name of the child-man in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. Arthur "Boo" Radley was meant to be frightening, but only in a simple, non-threatening way. More recently, Boo has been used as the middle name of one of chef Jamie Oliver's children and the nickname in the middle of television's Honey Boo Boo. Boo is also the name of the world's cutest dog and of the adorable little girl in Monsters Inc. In a more basic way, Boo is a term of endearment.

Bente, pronounced ben-tah, is a popular girls' name in both The Netherlands and Denmark though largely unknown in the English-speaking world. It suffers by being a near-homonym of the English word bent, not the best dictionary equivalent for a first name. Still, if you're looking for a girls' name that equates to Ben or Benjamin or Benedict, this may be one of your best bets.

These days, it's more likely you'd call your daughter the popular Belle or Bella.

Unusual two-syllable choice with a real pronunciation challenge.