Gray Cat Names

Could be the next Nova, now that celestial baby names are in the ascendent.

In the ancient Hindu religion, Indra is the warrior god of sky and rain. The vowel ending makes it sound feminine to the English speaker; it also sounds like the French river Indre.

A sweet and intuitive Finnish word name. The double U's up the quirkiness.

An interesting and attractive bicultural choice--the Hebrew version is used for babies born in spring, when turtledoves arrive--especially as a middle.

Guthrie, one of the most attractive Scottish names that's also a surname, has a particularly romantic, windswept aura, with a touch of the buckaroo thrown in.

Farrar has two separate origins: an occupational name meaning "smith", and a Scottish river name, from a Pictish word meaning "to wind". Barely ever recorded as a first name, Farrar is a blank slate that fits with the surname style that's popular today.

Stormi is like Sunni, with angst. If naming your child Storm or Stormy is asking for trouble, naming her Stormi -- as Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott did -- is asking for trouble of several different kinds. But we're sure she'll be adorable and as celebrity baby names go, this one is nearly normal.

Lupine (spelled Lupin outside of North America) is a flower related to sweetpeas. It was given its wolfish meaning because the plant was said to deplete the soil. Comedian Jenny Slate used it as a middle name for her daughter Ida in 2020.

In German, the word eisen means "iron." It was adapted as a surname for Ashkenazi Jews — many of which were ornamental and had no ties to one's family history. Metals such as gold (Gold), silver (Zilver or Silver), copper (Kupfer or Copper), and iron (Eisen) were common elements in ornamental surnames. Eisen was also seen as a habitational surname for someone from Eisenstadt, Austria.

Isambard is derived from Old German Isanbert, meaning "bright iron" or "famous iron". Its most famous bearer, rather fittingly, is the 19th century British civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, noted as one of the driving forces of the Industrial Revolution.

This occupational surname could find new life with those wishing to honor someone in their heritage who was connected to the tough-as-nails breed that was the pre-modern coal miner. Coll and Collie are some sweet nickname options to tone down the formality of this name.

One of the first reality show-inspired names (he was a Texas hunk on an early season of "Survivor"); hugely trendy for boys but just starting for girls.

One of several similar feminine names often found in the Muslim world but also a Native American name. And in Greenlandic, Naja means "a boy's younger sister", which could be a sweet connection to a big brother. It's a relatively popular name in Denmark.

Notable Wolfs like Blitzer, Mankowitz, and Kahn give this name a masculine bent, but nature names are inherently unisex, so we see no reason why Wolf can't be used on a baby girl.

Historically Wolf has been more common among German (where it's pronounced Vulf) and Jewish families, occasionally as a nickname for Wolfgang.

The nickname Wolfie softens and feminizes Wolf, while Wolfe turns it into a surname.

Stormy is on the rise following the birth of Kylie Jenner's daughter Stormi, although the starbaby's spelling has taken over the lead.

Ralphie is one of those short forms that have been out of style for so long it just might have a chance of coming back in, if you can get past seeing it as a desperate attempt to cute-ify a stodgy old man's name.

This inventive spelling of Graycen was among the fastest-risers of the year in 2019. It hit a peak in 2020, and dropped for both genders in 2021.

A more distinctive alternative to Angelo.

Unusual two-syllable choice with a real pronunciation challenge.