What's In A Name?

          First things first. If you have been following this blog from the beginning (although there probably aren't very many of you out there) you may have noticed that this blog has undergone a name change. It's rather appropriate. I'm less than 24 hours away from bringing my kitten home (see the next post for more on my preparations), and names are certainly on my mind.

          I still have no idea what my kitten's "official" name will be. Ok, that's not entirely true. I do have some ideas. I just haven't been able to commit to any of them (By commit, I mean tell the receptionist at the vet's office so that she will be listed by that name in their files. Right now she's still "Kitten 1" in their office, as she has been since going for her first vaccines with her brother and sisters.)

         Right now, her "birth family" is calling her Kaida. Kaida is the Chinese word for adorable according to Google Translator; since the kittens were Siamese, they decided they should have Asian names. I actually am not 100% sure on the spelling, since they never wrote any of the kittens' names down. (Hence the "Kitten 1" moniker at the vet). Through research, I also discovered that Kaida (with that spelling) is a Japanese name meaning "little dragon".

         There are two reasons why I am not 100% committed to sticking with Kaida. It's an adorable name (no pun intended) and the Japanese translation is appropriate as well seeing as my birth year was a year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac; however, that name has some not-so-nice connotations. At least half of the people I've said the name to reply "As in Al?" I don't want people thinking my cat's a terrorist. And obviously, I want to choose my kitten's name. Kaida, as cute as it is, was chosen for me.

        However, if when I bring her home she responds to me calling her Kaida, then game over. It's her name. If anything, I'll drop the "D" and call her Kyah. But if she doesn't respond to Kaida yet, I have some other ideas as well.

Amethyst: My birthstone, and also because she appears to be a lilac point Siamese


Meadow:  Suggested by a co-worker at my other job. Upon discovering my love of Twilight, she gave me a few suggestions. Meadow comes from the famous dream that Stephenie Meyer had that inspired the books. I did entertain the idea of naming the cat Bella or even naming it Twilight, but that seems a little too much like a crazy fan-girl thing to do. Meadow would be a way to give her a Twilight-inspired name that wasn't so obvious.

Also along those lines was Esme. Esme is the name of a relatively minor character in the Twilight saga (Edward's adopted vampire mother). I've always liked that name, and it's not all that common as a human name anymore.


Diamond because of her coat color


Jasmine after the character from Aladdin


Icy or Frost based on her coat color


Latte The last pet we had (who died about five years ago) was a guinea pig named Espresso. I kind of
want to continue our coffee theme.


Starbucks for the same reason

Again, all this brainstorming might be in vain. For all I know, I might walk into her birth family's house tomorrow afternoon and say "Kaida", and she might respond to me as well as to her familiar people. But either way, I hope to have an answer soon. I don't want her to be known as "Kitten 1" by the vet much longer.