Musical Cat Names

Vocal name seldom heard, with most elle-ending names these days dropped in favor of the more straightforward Elle and Ella.

A melodic choice for lullaby-lovers.

There's only one. Okay, two.

A daring middle name possibility for classical concertgoers. Alternatives are Wolfgang and Amadeus.

The name of a small yellow bird that hasn't taken off in the way that some of its avian sisters – like Robin, Wren or Lark – have.

Last name occasionally used as a first, can be seen as a Lance Armstrong athlete-hero name.

Peaceful and melodic, but a bit pretentious.

ALLEGRA is a delicate ballet-dancer name; ALLEGRO, which means a fast-paced movement in music, is stronger and more vibrant.

A canto is a literary term denoting a long passage in a poem. Dante's Divine Comedy is broken into such cantos. As a name, Canto packs in literary credentials with pithy punch.

Ronen derives from the Hebrew word ron, meaning "song," but in America it is also used as a spelling variation of the Irish name Ronan. With both Ronan and Ronin is the Top 500, Ronen has also gained more attention. Given to 86 babies in 2023, it has more than doubled in use over the last decade.

Octave shortens Octavius to a more manageable length, keeping the "eighth" meaning. In English speaking countries, however, people could easily confuse this with the musical term octave.

In medieval France, a troubadour was a knighted lyric poet who composed and sang songs about courtly love. As a baby name, Troubadour makes a romantic and stately choice for a child, although this bold choice may be better relegated as a middle name.

This is an outside possibility for opera-lovers, with the additional eco/color factor.

In addition to being the term for a job performing music, Gig has been used as a name, as in onetime actor Gig Young--who was born Byron but took his stage name from a character he played.

An offbeat word name referring to the speed of a piece of music.

Ahuli's pleasant beat makes it a striking option for a son.

Fanciful, edging toward bizarre.

Used as a first name for a handful of girls every year, Joplin could be seen as a distant cousin of other -lin names, like Caitlin, Brooklyn and Braelynn. We think it works even better as a musical middle name possibility for fans of Janis... or Scott. Both great connections — albeit very different from one another.

Toccata is delicate and musical yes, but still somehow unappealing.