The names we give our cats say more about us than we realize. More often than not, they reflect our passions, interests, and things that matter most to us—not to mention what’s happening in the world around us. A lot of cats were given new names in 2021, in no small part due to soaring pet adoption rates and additional time spent at home due to the pandemic.

To better understand the stories these names have to tell us about the people, places, and stories that defined the past year, we dug into our database of over a million pet parents on Rover. We scratched past the surface to uncover the cat names we loved most, which names topped the charts, and some incredibly creative names we honestly can’t stop thinking about. Ready to dig in?