Girl Cat Names, With the Stories Behind Them

Every list of girl cat names starts with Luna. What almost none of them tells you is why, or for how long, or that the answer changes depending on which insurer is counting. This page starts where the data starts: seven rankings from four countries, opened at the source, with their dataset sizes and their years. Then it does what the rankings cannot, which is explain where the names come from. (Naming a boy? Boy cat names has the same treatment, and the name generator on our hub filters the whole pool by gender and style.)

Two things you will not find here: a meaning nobody can source, and a "top ten" without a dataset behind it. Where a claim is thin, the page says so. Where two insurers disagree, both get quoted, because the disagreement is the interesting part.

What the rankings actually say, market by market

Each table row is one dataset, named, with what it measured. A ranking without a dataset is a guess with a number on it.

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

Canada

For years this site said Canada published no cat-name ranking at all. That is no longer true: Spot publishes an overall top ten and Rover splits Canada by gender. What Canada still lacks is a published female top ten and any "years running" claim, so the page makes neither.

Luna's reign: one queen, four different counts

Luna is the top girl cat name in every ranking above. Ask how long she has held it and you get four answers, all of them honest.

These are not contradictions. They are different companies counting different customers over different windows. What every one of them agrees on is the present tense: Luna is number one, and has been for years.

The name itself is Latin for "the moon," and behind that, per the Online Etymology Dictionary, an older root meaning light or brightness. Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon, shown driving a chariot across the night sky. U.S. News credits the name's rise to the black cat Luna in Sailor Moon, one of the two talking cat mentors of the 1990s series; that attribution is theirs, and it is a plausible one.

The flower wave is British, and a little Australian

The second pattern in the data is the garden. In Scratch & Patch's UK female top ten, Poppy is third, Daisy fourth, Willow fifth and Lily eighth: four of the top eight are flowers or trees, and the same insurer names Olive as a rising name. Australia follows partway, with Daisy third and Willow fourth in Pet Insurance Australia's list.

The United States does not. In the U.S. News top twenty, the only flower is Lily, tied for seventeenth. No Poppy, no Willow, no Ivy, no Olive. If you are naming a cat in Ohio, a flower name is a quiet choice; in Surrey, it is the majority.

The origins, per Behind the Name, are all Old English or Latin plant words. Daisy is Old English dægeseage, "day eye," because the flower closes at night and opens at dawn; it became a given name in the nineteenth century. Poppy is Old English popæg, the red flower. Willow is Old English welig, the tree. Ivy is Old English ifig, the climbing plant. Olive is Latin oliva. Lily is Latin lilium, and the same source calls the flower a symbol of purity. That is the only symbolism the reference dictionary confirms; the "Ivy means fidelity" and "Olive means peace" lines that circulate on name lists are not in it, so they are not here.

Name stories: the top ten, traced

• Bella: a short form of Isabella and of every name ending in -bella, and also the Italian word for "beautiful." Bella Swan of Twilight (the novel in 2005, the films from 2008) gave it a second wind. Top three for female cats in every market opened.
• Lucy: the English form of Lucia, in use since the Middle Ages, from the Latin root lux, "light." Second in Australia's 2025 female ranking.
• Kitty: a diminutive of Katherine before it was a word for a cat. Fifth in the U.S. News top twenty, up from ninth the year before: the biggest climber on that list.
• Nala: from The Lion King (1994), where Nala is a lioness. You will read that it means "gift" or "beloved" in Swahili; Behind the Name states plainly that it does not appear to have a meaning in that language. It is a Disney name, and a good one.
• Coco: sixth in Australia, seventh in the UK mixed list, twelfth in the US; the one name that tracks across all three without a fuss.
• Cleo: a short form of Cleopatra, from Ancient Greek, and ninth in the UK female top ten.
• Chloe: Ancient Greek for "green shoot," the new growth of spring, and an epithet of Demeter, goddess of the harvest. It also appears in the New Testament, in a letter of Paul.
• Molly: a medieval pet form of Mary, by way of Malle and Molle, later a name in its own right; Molly Bloom closes James Joyce's Ulysses. Tied ninth in Australia.
• Millie: sixth in the UK female ten and tied ninth in Australia, a name that lives almost entirely in those two markets.
• Freya: Old Norse Freyja, "lady," goddess of love, beauty, war and death. Britannica confirms the detail that makes her a cat name: a chariot drawn by cats was one of her vehicles. Seventh in Australia's female ranking.

Name stories: the near-misses and the risers

• Nova: Latin novus, "new," first used as a given name in the nineteenth century. The exploding-star sense is a later association, not the etymology; the name means new, not star.
• Mia: a diminutive of Maria that happens to be the Italian for "mine." Big in Sweden and Denmark in the 1970s, in the US top ten for girls from 2009.
• Willow: fifth in the UK female ten, fourth in Australia, sixth even in Go.Compare's mixed list, and absent from the US top twenty.
• Rosie: seventh in the UK female ten, a diminutive of Rose that the UK keeps and the US mostly does not.
• Mochi and Olive: the two names Scratch & Patch flags as "rising stars" in the UK, "thanks to social media fame." Mochi is a Japanese rice cake; it is nineteenth in the US top twenty already.
• Honey, Angel, Annie: Australia's tail end of the top ten, three names the other markets do not rank.

Name stories: the famous girls

• Choupette: Karl Lagerfeld's blue-cream Birman, born 15 August 2011, a Christmas gift from the model Baptiste Giabiconi, and by 2012 a V Magazine model with a couture collection built around her. Lagerfeld told Le Figaro she had "her own little fortune. She is an heiress." She outlived him; he died in February 2019.
• Tardar Sauce, better known as Grumpy Cat: born 4 April 2012 in Morristown, Arizona. The scowl came from feline dwarfism and an underbite, and her owner said she was "99 percent of the time just a regular cat." A Reddit post on 22 September 2012 made her famous; a trademark suit against a beverage company won $710,000 in 2018; she died on 14 May 2019, aged seven.
• Duchess: the white Turkish Angora who leads The Aristocats (1970), voiced by Eva Gabor, mother of Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse.
• Marie: Duchess's only daughter, the pink-bowed kitten, and the reason this name is on so many lists. She is named after Marie Antoinette.

The list

Two hundred names beyond the rankings, grouped by theme. A note appears only where the origin is sourced; the rest are here because they work out loud, which is the test that matters at the vet's front desk.

Goddesses, muses and legends

• Athena
• Artemis
• Titania
• Hecate
• Circe
• Morgana
• Eurydice
• Clio
• Medusa
• Daphne
• Pandora
• Astra
• Amara
• Freya, whose chariot was pulled by cats
• Selkie
• Siren
• Nymph
• Sprite
• Faerie
• Wisp
• Sylph
• Oracle
• Sybil
• Priestess
• Muse

Sweet and small

• Button
• Pudding
• Snickers
• Marshmallow
• Mocha
• Brandy
• Chai
• Cocoa
• Brownie
• Oreo
• Piper
• Baby
• Bean
• Kiwi
• Frankie
• Peanut
• Blu
• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Toast
• Waffle
• Latte
• Pretzel
• Bagel
• Marbles
• Domino
• Checkers
• Sprinkle
• Confetti
• Glimmer
• Sparkle

From the garden

• Petunia
• Tulip
• Camellia
• Begonia
• Hyacinth
• Foxglove
• Snapdragon
• Amaryllis
• Anemone
• Bluebell
• Larkspur
• Snowdrop
• Verbena
• Basil
• Rosemary
• Mint
• Rowan
• Hawthorn
• Bramble
• Bracken
• Heather
• Chamomile
• Sunflower
• Honeysuckle
• Wisteria
• Jonquil
• Gardenia
• Mimosa
• Daisy, Old English "day eye," the flower that opens at dawn
• Poppy, Old English for the red flower
• Lily, Latin lilium, a symbol of purity

From the bakery and the fruit bowl

• Brioche
• Praline
• Truffle
• Meringue
• Souffle
• Eclair
• Macaron
• Baguette
• Pistachio
• Hazelnut
• Marzipan
• Nougat
• Butterscotch
• Custard
• Sorbet
• Gelato
• Cannoli
• Tiramisu
• Espresso
• Cappuccino
• Nectarine
• Tangerine
• Satsuma
• Kumquat
• Persimmon
• Papaya
• Mango
• Guava
• Lychee
• Cherie

Sky, weather and birds

• Autumn
• Frost
• Star
• Comet
• Dewdrop
• Raindrop
• Snowflake
• Sunny
• Sunshine
• Skylar
• Robin
• Sparrow
• Finch
• Swallow
• Dove
• Swan
• Heron
• Crane
• Peacock
• Feather
• Stardust
• Starlight
• Moonbeam
• Luna, Latin for the moon, the name at the top of every ranking on this page
• Nova, Latin for "new," not "star"

Stone and song

• Moonstone
• Sunstone
• Garnet
• Amethyst
• Topaz
• Sapphire
• Jasper
• Citrine
• Coral
• Ivory
• Cinder
• Ash
• Shadow
• Melody
• Harmony
• Symphony
• Sonata
• Lyric
• Cadence
• Rhapsody
• Serenade
• Bijoux
• Elegance
• Vogue
• Couture
• Diva
• Starlet

Classic and elegant

• Juliet
• Ophelia
• Guinevere
• Charlotte
• Olivia
• Rosalie
• Vivienne
• Genevieve
• Colette
• Yvette
• Simone
• Camille
• Adeline
• Margot
• Renata
• Regina
• Estelle
• Coraline
• Celestine
• Seraphine
• Angelique
• Countess
• Contessa
• Chardonnay
• Merlot
• Bella, Italian for "beautiful"
• Lucy, from the Latin for "light"
• Chloe, Ancient Greek for "green shoot"
• Molly, a medieval pet form of Mary
• Mia, a diminutive of Maria, and the Italian for "mine"

What to take away

• Luna is the number one girl cat name in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia in every 2025 ranking opened at the source, from U.S. News (1.26 million data points) to Pet Insurance Australia.
• How long Luna has reigned depends on who counts: 2 years by U.S. News, 3 by Scratch & Patch, 5 by Go.Compare and Embrace, 7 by PetSure for pets overall; no single figure exists.
• The flower-name wave is British: Poppy, Daisy, Willow and Lily fill four of the top eight UK female names, Australia follows with Daisy and Willow, and the US top twenty holds only Lily.
• Canada does publish rankings now (Spot Pet Insurance Canada 2025, Rover 2025), and Luna leads both; a female top ten for Canada still does not exist.
• Nala is a Lion King name, not a Swahili word for "gift": the reference dictionary says the meaning does not exist in that language.
• Freya belongs on a cat's collar for a documented reason: Britannica records a chariot drawn by cats among the goddess's vehicles.