10 most popular kitten names

Naming your new cat is a difficult and important decision — after all, he'll have to live with that moniker for the rest of his life, and so will you. But naming a kitten can also be tons of fun! We culled our records and came up with the a curent list of the 10 most popular cat names. It's no surprise that human names like Chloe and Charlie are trending right now, but we also found that old classics like Kitty and Tiger are still hanging in there. And we bet you can guess which box-office smash hit is behind the number-one name for female kittens. (Hint: It's about vampires.) Although we're holding out for a kitten named Katniss (after the heroine of The Hunger Games, of course) — but Catniss might be more appropriate.

#1 Female name: Bella

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Kitten$

It should come as no surprise that the number-one female cat name has Twilight mania to thank for its popularity. And it's not just animals who have been influenced by Bella Swan's lady vampire -- Bella is also one of the top names for human baby girls. With the final Twilight installation coming out this month, we're sure many kittens will be sporting tags engraved with this name.

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#1 Male name: Max

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Kitten on a couch$

This name may be simple to spell and say, but it's perfect for your regal and adventurous kitten. And if your tiny cat is truly a wild thing, it accurately brings to mind the title character in Maurice Sendak's classic Where the Wild Things Are.

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#2 Female name: Lucy

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Kitten$

This iconic human name -- think Charlie Brown's Lucy and the much-loved I Love Lucy -- has finally worked its way into the animal world.

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#2 Male name: Oliver

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Kittens$

Disney's 1988 animated film Oliver & Company stars a tiny orange kitten named (what else?) Oliver, who joins a gang of streetwise canines in New York City. Who knows if cat owners are still watching this movie. But if you aren't, we recommend it!

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#3 Female name: Kitty

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Cat laying down$

Just in case you forget which species of animal you share your home with, the name Kitty will be right there to remind you.

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#3 Male name: Charlie

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Cat in a box$

We'd like to think that this moniker owes its popularity to the hilarious YouTube video "Charlie Bit My Finger," but it's impossible to say for sure!

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#4 Female name: Chloe

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Cat with his mouth open$

We're warning you now: If you name your cat Chloe, she may demand holiday gifts from her namesake, the luxurious fashion line.

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#4 Male name: Tiger

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Two kittens$

This ferocious name may conjure images of a much larger animal than your tiny ball of fluff, but at least it stays true to its cat family roots!

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#5 Female name: Sophie

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Multi-color cat$

Gone are the days when we named pets Spot and Fluffy. Now we give our furry babies names traditionally reserved for human babies, like Sophie. (Or even Sophia, if Sophie is just your pet's nickname.)

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#5 Male name: Smokey

$"10 most popular kittchen names" \\ Gray kitten$

Is there a cuter name for a gray cat than the classic Smokey? We didn't think so.

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More from Vetstreet.com

We've already examined the most popular puppy names of 2012, but just finding out which names we're most likely to hear at the dog park wasn't quite enough. We wanted to look at which monikers were on the rise, so we dug a little deeper to determine the 10 trendiest names of 2012. To do so, we hit up Vetstreet's data, which includes information about 1.26 million dogs. We looked at where the names were in 2003 and 2012; those that moved up the most made the list. Of course, some names fell off the list completely in the past decade — Elvis, Ozzie and Cassie among them. Some of these were replaced by newer names like Thor and Athena that, despite a late entry to the Top 100, have become popular enough that they, too, were included.

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