Check out T.S. Eliot's book Ole Possum's Book of Practical Cats, especially the poem on The Naming of Cats. I usually begin by making a long list of names and trying to match it to the cat. One rescue adopted from the county animal shelter I named Linwood (from the long list) right in the check-out area. The cat took to it immediately. The crowd in the lobby took notice. When I went out the door with him in the carrier, the entire group, in unison, said, "Goodbye Linwood!" He looked like a cougar, and wouldn't get in a carrier to go to the vet, so I shouldered him and the carrier dangled in my hand, and a tattooed motorcyclist hauled up into the parking lot and gave me a rigorous thumbs up. One of my current male siblings I named Garland, but he just wouldn't answer to it. Eventually, we figured out he liked "t" sounds, like pretty kitty, and we also noticed he was dominant left pawed, so we called him Lefty, and that satisfied him. These guys are brothers, but like all cats, are hugely individual. The plump gray one, "a well-rounded cat," is an engineer, loves to jimmy doors and tinker with hardware. Fred, who came with his name, is a poet, distracted, preoccupied, dreamy, over-sensitive, and a total sumptuary.