2000+ Cat Names

Remember, the Muse is passive: someone else's inspiration.

When playwright Thomas Lanier Williams adopted the pen name of Tennessee, he created a new possibility among American place-names, although it's admittedly a bit bulky in size.

The Greek god Triton was the messenger of the sea and the son of sea god Neptune. He is usually represented as a merman, the the head and upper body of a human and the lower body of a sea creature. In The Little Mermaid he is the father of Ariel.

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.

Patience is a passive virtue turned engaging name, fresher than Hope, Faith, or even Charity. Its resemblance to the trendy Payton may be one reason for its recent spike in popularity.

Too tightly tied to the acronym for the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Muscular German name that never fully assimilated into American culture.

Jovan, the name of the supreme Roman deity, seems more extraterrestrial now -- and it's also firmly attached to a perfume label. Some parents may see it as a variation of Giovanni, the Italian for John. It is in fact the Slavic variation of John and may be an original way to honor an ancestral John.

Another name for Jupiter, king of the Roman gods, this jovial name is eminently ready for modern use. Feminine variations include Jovita and Jovie.

With other bird names such as Lark and Phoenix on the rise, why not chirpy Sparrow? Nicole Richie and Joel Madden named their son, born in 2009, Sparrow James Midnight.

Journey is one of the hot new spiritual names. Although Journey was given in 2015 to over 1100 baby girls and fewer than 100 baby boys, it's more visible on the celebrity baby scene as a boys' name: Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green just chose the name for their third son, who also has the unisex middle name River.

A paradox is a statement that while seeming true contradicts itself. With the less-than-pleasant "Doxy" as an obvious nickname, Paradox is perhaps a better name for a cat than a baby.

Haitian-born rap superstar and humanitarian Wyclef ("Fugees") Jean has lent this name a powerful musical beat.

Friday became famous as a name via the sidekick character in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, morphing into a generic term for an all-around professional assistant, as in "girl Friday." As a word for the day of the week, Friday is associated with the old English goddess Frigg and the Roman goddess Venus, though the character makes Friday more of a male name.

Overly trendy western place-name, as stated in the title of our book Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana.

Out-of-the-ordinary gemstone name derived from lapis lazuli, which is said to enhance awareness and intellect, impart ancient wisdom and cure many ailments, making it an interesting possibility for a blue-eyed girl. Lazuli — or Azure or Blue — are other options.

Aza is an excellent Arabic choice: elegant and simple. Too simple for you? Consider Aziza.

Randolph is a timeworn classic that had its last hurrah in the 1940s, when Randolph (born George) Scott was starring in westerns, but then was probably done in by its tricky nickname Randy (which, strangely enough, was itself a Top 50 name in the fifties and sixties).

Finola, the readily accessible version of some of the more problematic Gaelic versions of the name, would make a welcome addition to the stockpot of Irish girls' names.

Kiernan Shipka, aka Sally Draper on Mad Men, brings this Irish surname into the girls' column. And, like Kieran and Tierney and Tiernan, it's one of the perfectly unisex baby names. Only 14 girls were named Kiernan in the US in a recent year...and three times as many boys. If you want to move beyond Riley and Kennedy to one of the more unusual surname-based Irish names for girls, this may be a good choice.