Cat Names That Start With N

A Disney name—Nala was the friend who became the wife of Simba, hero of The Lion King. It debuted on the US Top 1000 in 2015.

The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. But there was also the detective Nero Wolfe, hero of many mystery stories.

Ned is a gently old-fashioned Nancy Drew-Bobbsey Twins-era short form for Edward that sounds cooler than Ed and is enjoying a small style renaissance.

Has a pure, clean aura, but is also evocative.

Projects an air of power and speed.

Nyx is the name of the Greek goddess of the night. It's used for baby boys in small numbers.

This once unique and multi-layered word name was used by R&B singer Nivea for her daughter back in 2005, and later, by country musician Jason Aldean. No longer an exclusively celebrity choice Navy is now in the US Top 500 for girls and is on the rise in the UK too. As a boys name, however, it remains an unexpected possibility.

Noam is an underused modern Hebrew name with any number of attractive attributes attached to its meaning; it doesn't have the biblical weight of Noah, but could make a more distinctive alternative to that popular choice. Noam is a Top 10 boys' name in Israel.

A name that Yanks might see as overly British, but combined with the right surname, it does have a measure of Sherlock Holmesian dash via Nigel Bruce, who played the original Dr. Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes.

An enchanting ancient Greek name belonging to the Greek goddess who was created from a cloud by Zeus and so became goddess of the clouds and mother of the centaurs. The name Nephele is not widely known but as among modern parents become used to Phoebe, Penelope, and Persephone, it may become one of the ancient Greek goddess names that's back in the mix.

This rarely used New Testament name could make an unusual route to the cool nickname Nico. Nicodemus (Noddy) Boffin is a character in the Dickens novel Our Mutual Friend.

Nikita – a masculine Russian name deriving from the Greek name Niketas, meaning "victory" – has come a long way from portly post-Stalin Soviet leader Khrushchev to the female spy/assassin in the movie and TV series La Femme Nikita.

Attractive, simple Japanese choice that, while not strictly unisex, could work even better for a girl, especially now that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West use it as the nickname for their daughter North. Nori is also the name of an edible seaweed used in wrapping sushi.

Pretty name that hit the popularity charts in England in the late 1990s.

A much more dynamic nickname than Nicky for any of the Nic-names. Nico was chosen by Thandiwe Newton for her daughter.

Australian writer Wendy Orr put this name on the map with her hit Nim's Island" series of children's books, about a smart young girl who lives on an island in the South Pacific. Abigail Breslin played Nim in a 2008 film adaptation of the book.

A wise ruler of legend--his sage advice helped the Greeks win the Trojan War--whose name is a possibility for the adventurous, though related in sound to the dated Lester-Hester family.

You may never have known a Nettie personally, but there well might be one hidden in your family history, considering that she was a Top 100 name until 1901 and stayed on the Social Security list until 1962.

A lot of attention was drawn to this name when Kim Kardashian and Kanye West announced it as the name of their baby daughter, making it instantly unisex.

One of the best known early Nemos was the captain in Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, while the more familiar modern one is the animated little orange fish in the Disney movie. Unusual name well worth considering. By the way, there is also a Shakespearean Nemo and one in Dickens's Bleak House. An enchanting early comic strip by Winsor McCay was called Little Nemo.