Black cat names

One of the two names given to more black cats than any other, Shadow being the other, and still the hardest to beat. Two clean syllables, no explaining required, and it shortens to Middy or Midge inside a month.

A banded black gemstone, and the sharpest of the mineral names. It ends on a hard consonant, which carries across a garden far better than a soft name does when a cat is refusing to come in.

Jet is a real stone, a fossilised wood mined at Whitby, and it is where the phrase jet black comes from. One syllable, so a cat learns it faster than almost anything else here.

Short, modern and slightly graphic. It suits a cat with no white on it at all, and it stretches to Inky when you are being affectionate, which is a useful pair to own.

Plain and unfussy, and better on a cat with a dusty, matte coat than a glossy one. It has the same blunt charm as calling a grey cat Ash, which is to say quite a lot.

Strictly speaking an ember glows rather than being black, which is the point: this is the name for the black cat with copper or amber eyes doing all the work in a dark room.

Homely, old fashioned and completely unpretentious. It is the name a farm cat gets, and it sits well on a big solid tom who has never once been described as elegant.

Volcanic glass, and the grandest name on this list by some distance. Four syllables is a lot for daily use, so most households end up shortening it to Sid, which is its own kind of joke.

For a cat that reads dark grey in daylight rather than true black, which is most of them. Honest, quiet, and it pairs neatly with a second cat called Flint or Chalk.

From pitch black, and pitch is the tar residue the phrase originally described. It is abrupt in a good way, and it suits a cat who arrives at speed and leaves the same way.

Pencil lead, and the closest thing to an accurate colour name for a cat whose black has a silver sheen on it. It is a technical word, so it sounds deliberate rather than sweet.

Burnt wood, one syllable, and the most understated name here. It works especially well on a small cat, where a grander name would sound like a costume rather than a name.

For the cat who is very dark brown rather than black, which a surprising number of so called black cats turn out to be in strong sunlight. Also for the cat who wakes you at five.

Sweet, black and slightly divisive, exactly like the confectionery. It is a long word said quickly, and almost every household that picks it lands on Lico or Rish within a fortnight.

French for black, and it carries the whole detective film with it. Best on a cat with an air of knowing something you do not, which black cats are unfairly good at projecting.

In heraldry sable is the word for black, which is where this comes from rather than from the animal, whose fur is brown. A good pick if you want a formal name with a real history.

What is left after the fire, and softer in the mouth than Coal or Char. It also gives you Cinders, which is the version you will actually use, and a nod to the fairy tale.

Top of the cat name charts in Britain and the United States for several years running, and the pairing of a black cat with the moon is why. It is genuinely lovely and it is genuinely everywhere, so pick it knowing both.

Soft, green and completely unrelated to the colour, which is exactly why it works. A black cat with a plant name reads as a character rather than as a description of her coat.

Black olives, and a name that is quietly funny without being a joke at her expense. It is short, it has a hard consonant in the middle, and it suits a small round cat.

Bright and busy, for a black cat who behaves like a kitten well past the point she should have stopped. The double p gives it a bounce that calmer names do not have.

The dense black hardwood, the one used for the black keys of a piano, and the most direct feminine colour name in English. It is traditional rather than original, which is the whole reason to pick it.

For the cat whose coat has no shine on it at all and swallows the light instead. It is a texture name rather than a colour name, and texture is what people notice first.

The superstition worn on purpose, which is the friendliest possible answer to it. It is one syllable, it ends on a hard sound, and it fits a cat who knocks things off tables.

The box that should have stayed shut, for the cat who opens cupboards. It is grand enough to be funny and it shortens to Panda, which is a bonus nobody expects.

A bird that is genuinely black rather than a colour word dressed up, and one of the few names here that sounds equally right shouted and whispered.

From the horror hostess, and the campest name on this list by a distance. It suits a dramatic cat, and Elvie is what you will end up calling her by the second week.

The Addams matriarch, all black clothes and dry delivery. Reserve it for a long limbed, deliberate cat who walks slowly and looks at you for slightly too long.

Named for the eyes rather than the coat, which is the trick most people miss. A black cat with green gold eyes has a colour worth naming and it is not the one on the outside.

The berry is a deep blue black and the bush smells wonderful, so the name carries something beyond the colour. Juno and Junie both fall out of it naturally.

Warm, slightly old fashioned and completely unthreatening, which is a useful counterweight on a cat that strangers find spooky. It also survives being called across a garden.

Two syllables, a soft opening and a soft close, which makes it one of the easiest names in this list for a cat to actually learn to recognise and answer to.

Bright, repeated and very easy for a cat to pick out of ordinary speech. Repeated syllable names are the ones that work best on cats who normally ignore everything you say.

Uncommon, a little theatrical and ending in that satisfying flat a. It suits a confident female cat who has decided which chair is hers and does not intend to discuss it.

A dark red brown stone, and one of the most used male cat names there is. It has a soft opening and a hard finish, which is the shape a cat responds to fastest.

For the tom with a white chest flash that looks like he is wearing something he stole. It is a habit name as much as a colour name, and the habit is usually accurate.

Dry, British and faintly exasperated, which is a very specific kind of cat and you will know at once whether yours is one. It suits an indignant animal.

Space, but casually. It nods at the night sky without going all the way to Nebula, and the o ending gives it a friendliness that harder names on this list lack.

Latin for right handed, and a name that sounds like a cat who is up to something. Dex is the everyday version and it comes out of your mouth faster in an emergency.

One syllable, all warmth, no pretension. It is the name for a big soft tom who sleeps in the way of everything and has no plans to change that arrangement.

Round, easy and impossible to dislike, which is why it has been in the top ten cat names for years. It sits especially well on a black kitten who is still mostly ears.

Slightly retro, slightly soulful, and rare enough that you will not meet three at the vet. The hard t in the middle is what makes a cat notice it being said.

Two hard consonants and a bounce at the end, which suits a heavily built tom. It is Italian, and it has the swagger the name implies without tipping into a joke.

Plain, friendly and about as safe a choice as exists. That is the argument for it: not every cat needs a name that comments on his colour or his personality.

Rural, gentle and a little clumsy sounding, which is perfect for the black tom who is enormous and completely soft. It shortens to Wil or to Bur, both of which work.

Spanish for fox, and the masked hero dressed head to foot in black. It is one of the few pop culture names on this list that a Spanish speaker will also read correctly.

Solid, continental and old fashioned in a good way. It means brown in the Germanic root it comes from, which is close enough for a very dark cat and far enough to be interesting.

One of the steadiest male cat names in Britain, and it carries no baggage at all. Use it when you want a name people will not comment on, which is a real thing to want.

For the Prince of Darkness, and about as light hearted as a dark name gets. It is two syllables with a buzz in the middle, so a cat picks it out of a noisy room easily.

The other name at the top of every black cat list, and it earns the place: a black cat really does follow you from room to room and really does vanish in a dim hallway.

The most obvious dark name in film, and funnier the smaller the cat. It has one great practical advantage, which is that the first syllable carries a very long way outdoors.

The Egyptian goddess shown as a cat or a cat headed woman, worshipped as a protector of the home and of children. If you want one mythological cat name, this is the one with the strongest claim.

The Greek goddess of the night herself, born of Chaos and old enough that even Zeus was said to be wary of her. Three letters, one syllable, and the meaning could not be more exact.

The Greek personification of deep darkness, the shadow that fills the space between the earth and the underworld. It is a heavy name, so it wants a large, unhurried cat.

The jackal headed Egyptian god who guided the dead and oversaw embalming. Dark, formal and ancient, and it shortens to Nubi, which takes most of the solemnity back out of it.

The Greek goddess of witchcraft, the moon and crossroads, honoured with offerings left where three roads met. Said HEK a tee, and it suits a cat who patrols her boundaries.

The Hindu goddess of time and change, depicted with skin so dark it is painted blue black. Treat the name with the seriousness it carries, and it is a beautiful two syllables.

The Irish goddess of war and fate, who appears on the battlefield in the form of a crow. The crow connection is what makes it a black animal name rather than only a dark one.

The Norse goddess whose chariot is drawn by two cats, which is as direct a cat credential as Norse myth offers. It is also a soft, easy name that a kitten grows into.

The Greek lord of the underworld, and worth knowing that he was not the god of death but its landlord. Say HAY deez, and expect the cat to live up to the ownership implied.

The Greek moon goddess who drove the moon across the sky each night. Softer than Luna and much less common, which is the whole reason to reach for it instead.

The lioness headed Egyptian goddess of war and healing, and Bastet's fiercer counterpart. Pick it for the small black cat who has decided she is much larger than she is.

The three headed hound guarding the gate of the Greek underworld. It is a dog, which is the joke, and Cerb is what it collapses into after the first week of saying it.

The Norse trickster who shape shifted his way through most of the stories he appears in. It has become a very common cat name, and any cat who opens doors has earned it.

From southern French and Occitan folklore: a black cat that brings wealth to a household that feeds it the first bite of every meal. A genuinely lucky black cat, and almost unknown as a name.

The Scottish and Irish fairy cat, described as large, black, and marked with a single white spot on its chest. Said cat SHEE, and unbeatable if your cat has that exact spot.

The Japanese yokai: an ordinary cat that gains supernatural powers once it lives long enough. It is four syllables, so most households use Bake or Neko day to day.

For the Jolakotturinn, the Icelandic Yule Cat who prowls the countryside at Christmas looking for anyone who did not get new clothes. A short name with an alarming story behind it.

The talking cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and the first name most people think of. It also carries the witch trials, so it is a heavier reference than it sounds at first.

Thackery Binx from Hocus Pocus, a boy cursed into the body of a black cat for three centuries. Short, odd and much less used than Salem, which is its main advantage.

The black panther who teaches Mowgli in The Jungle Book, and the most dignified name on this list. Four syllables, so it becomes Baggy in practice, which is less dignified.

Kiki's black cat and sardonic companion in Kiki's Delivery Service. It is two identical syllables, which cats hear well, and it belongs to a genuinely warm film.

The little black kitten in The Aristocats, named after the French composer. It is pronounced BAIR lee oz and it suits a kitten with more confidence than size.

The enormous, vodka drinking, pistol carrying black cat in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. If your cat is large and appears to be plotting, the name is already taken.

The conjuring cat of T S Eliot's poems and the musical Cats, described as black from his ears to the tip of his tail. Everyone shortens it to Misto, including the poem.

The black cat in Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat, and a grim story to name a pet after. Set the source aside and it is still a good short name with a planet behind it.

The silent film cartoon cat, black with a white face, and one of the oldest animated characters there is. The name means happy or lucky in Latin, which suits this page twice over.

The Looney Tunes cat, who is a tuxedo rather than solid black. Worth it for the name alone, which is three syllables of pure pomposity and lands perfectly on a clumsy cat.

Geppetto's kitten in Pinocchio, black and white, and named after the barber in the Beaumarchais plays. It is bouncy, Italian and much rarer than the film's fame suggests.

Lady Tremaine's cat in Cinderella, and the villain of every scene he is in. The name simply means light bearer, so it is less diabolical than it looks written down.

The black cat kept by Gary Seven in the original Star Trek, who turns out not to be entirely a cat. It is also an Egyptian goddess, so the name works on two levels at once.

The Simpsons named their black cat Snowball II, and the joke is the whole appeal. Giving a jet black cat the whitest possible name is a reliably funny thing to do.

The hero of Ursula Moray Williams' Gobbolino the Witch's Cat, a black kitten who wants to be an ordinary house cat instead. A gentle, very British reference.

Gobbolino's sister in the same book, who takes to witchcraft happily while he does not. Use it for the second cat if the first one is already called Gobbolino.

The black cat who suffers endlessly at the hands of Itchy in The Simpsons cartoon within the cartoon. It is a good name for a cat with an unusually thick skin.

The plainest possible answer to the superstition, and none the worse for it. Shelters use it deliberately on black cats, because a name is the cheapest way to argue with a prejudice.

The Roman goddess of luck, who turned a wheel and did not much care where it stopped. It is a full, rolling three syllables and it shortens comfortably to Tuna, cat food joke included.

From maneki neko, the Japanese beckoning cat figure, of which the black version is specifically the one believed to keep illness and bad spirits out of a house.

Japanese for black, and in Japan a black cat is a lucky animal rather than an unlucky one, with a particular reputation for bringing good fortune to single women.

From the lucky penny picked up off the pavement. It is small, bright, everyday luck rather than the grand kind, which suits a cat who is mostly interested in the food cupboard.

For the four leaf one, and a soft green name against a black coat is a pleasing mismatch. It is also a real plant name, so it ages better than an abstract word would.

The lucky coin tucked into a British bride's shoe and baked into Christmas puddings. It is long, so Sixpy or Pence is what you will actually say, and both are charming.

An object charged with keeping harm away, which is precisely what a lucky black cat is supposed to be. Three syllables of ceremony, best on a cat who takes herself seriously.

Bigger and vaguer than Lucky, and it can be read as either kind of fortune, the money or the fate. That ambiguity is the reason to choose it over the more obvious options.

One syllable, and it means both the lucky object and the quality the cat will use on you. Very few names on any list manage to be a pun and completely sincere at the same time.

A worn charm rather than a carried one, which is a nice fit for a cat who is physically attached to you most evenings. It has a soft middle and a clean stop at the end.

From the Latin felicitas, meaning good fortune and happiness, and the same root that gives us Felix. Long and old fashioned, and it reduces to Flick, which is not old fashioned at all.

Loud, modern and entirely unserious, which is the point. It is the name for the black cat who was the last one left in the shelter and turned out to be the best cat anybody had.

The bone you pull for a wish, and a good name for a lanky cat. It also has the two hard consonants that carry over distance, which matters more than people expect.

Crickets are kept as luck bringers in Chinese tradition and were welcomed into houses across southern Europe for the same reason. It suits a small, noisy, nocturnal cat exactly.

The blue glass eye hung against the evil eye across Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean. Two syllables, an unusual sound in English, and a protective meaning behind it.

The most sincere option here, and the one shelters reach for when a hard case finally goes home. It is a long word, so Bless is the version that gets used in the kitchen.