Can You Change Your Rescue Cat’s Name After Adoption?
Whether or not you change your rescue cat’s name is probably one of the first decisions you will make once you’ve decided to adopt him.
Do you keep the old one or can you give him a new name for his wonderful new life?
The short answer is, it’s totally up to you!
Some cats come with pre-assigned names from the animal shelter or their previous owner, but if you don’t feel like the name fits your kitty’s personality or you just don’t like it, then go ahead and change it.
Your kitty will get the hang of his new moniker in no time.
In this article, I’ll explore why it’s helpful for cats to know their names, as well as how to teach kitty his new name and train him to come when called.
So, let’s get started!
What are the reasons for changing a cat’s name?
If they don’t already have a name when they come in, cats in shelters are often given random names by the rescue organization or shelter staff.
Having a name (as opposed to an intake number) helps make animals more appealing to potential adopters – so your new kitty may not know his allocated name in any case.
Worse yet, depending on the cat’s background, if he’s an owner surrender and does have a name when he comes in, the name may have negative associations with his previous life.
For example, he may have come from an abusive home and associate his original name with punishment – as well as the fear and pain that come along with it as inevitable side effects.
Even if your new furry friend has an existing or previous name and there are no negative experiences that you’re aware of, you may still want to give him a fresh start for his new home so he can form positive associations with his new name.
So if that’s the route you want to go down, I wouldn’t hesitate.
How long does it take for a cat to adjust to a new name?
Cats have lived alongside humans for at least 10,000 years and have developed a unique ability to communicate with us during that time.
Interestingly, our feline friends rarely use the meow sound to interact with one another, but as all cat owners know, they often use it as a way of conveying their emotions or needs to their human companions.
It is thought that cats evolved the ability to meow to communicate with humans, as we often responded favorably when hearing the sounds. This likely resulted in them receiving food or attention (Tavernier et al., 2019).
It’s a clever survival strategy when you think about it.
Why is this important? Because it shows that cats are already tuned into the idea of communicating with humans.
Learning their name is just an extension of something that has already been in place for thousands of years.
And because our cats are already communicating with us anyway, learning a new name is something they can achieve in a relatively short amount of time.
In my experience, it’s been a matter of a few days or perhaps a week or so, depending on the cat.
There are ways to speed up the learning process too. We’ll get into that in a moment.
Do cats know their names?
Studies show that cats can differentiate their own names from other nouns, even when their names are spoken by people they don’t know (Saito et al., 2019). Scientific reports also suggest that cats in a multi-cat household can learn at least one other cat’s name, as well as (possibly) a human family member’s name.
The evolutionary advantage for cats to remember their names is not entirely known, but one possibility is that one cat might get food, treats, or other coveted resources when his owner calls his name – but not when the owner calls another cat’s name (Tagaki et al., 2022).
Again, it’s a smart survival strategy.
When is it too late to change a cat’s name?
If you’re like me, you’ll have your shortlist of potential new names ready before you even bring your new kitty home. But sometimes one name sticks better than the others, or your first choice name just doesn’t work for some reason.
Finding the perfect fit for your new kitty’s personality might take some time, so if you do want to go for the name change, there’s no need to feel any pressure to come up with a new name quickly.
Your cat will have his name for the rest of his life so it’s important to get it right and find the perfect name.
When is a cat too old to change his name?
I personally don’t think an adult cat is ever too old to adapt to a new life with new owners and to change his name.
About 10 years ago, I adopted two older cats who were not otherwise going to make it out of the animal shelter.
Raven (shelter name Taylor) was a very frail, fluffy, and hard-of-hearing 16-year-old when we rescued her, and Millie (shelter name Molly) was a sweet, declawed scaredy cat, also aged 16 according to the shelter.
Senior cat or not, I changed both ladies’ names. They also had to adapt to a busy household of other cats and dogs and did so with complete aplomb. Both learned their new names within a week or so and never looked back.
Why is it important for a cat to know his name?
Knowing that your cat can reliably respond to his name is important for all sorts of situations, from calling him away from something you’d rather he wasn’t doing to teaching him to come when called.
Our cat Jeffrey, who we rescued as an orphan kitten from a Dubai parking lot, used to get himself into all sorts of situations. He was naturally a chatty cat and his meow was legendary. The whole neighborhood knew when Jeffrey was coming home from one of his daily outings.
One night Jeffrey didn’t come home as usual so we took to walking the streets for hours calling him, trying to find him.
Eventually, I heard this irritated – and very slightly anxious – meow sound from the neighbor’s shed. Our bold and curious little guy had got himself locked in.
Because Jeffrey knew his name, he responded immediately when he heard us calling him so at least we knew he was safe.
We deliberated for a while and eventually decided to wake up our (luckily) fairly amenable neighbor to release him from his involuntary imprisonment. No harm, no foul.
Around this time, we also used to feed some of the feral cats who lived around our building. We gave them all names and they very quickly learned to respond to them because they knew that, when they did, there would be food at the end of it.
Every night, no matter where they were, as soon as they heard their names, they’d come running for their reward.
As I said, learning their names and responding to them is a smart survival strategy for our domestic house cats.
“I think there is great value in making a cat’s name a relevant and positive cue, so as to invite the cat’s attention, create predictable and welcomed human-cat interactions and signal the start of something fun and worthwhile for the cat,” adds International Cat Care Feline Wellbeing Panel member, Linda Ryan.
“We should teach it positively, by pairing saying the cat’s name with something they love, like food, affection, or play (and never using it for anything negative, of course!).”
How do you teach a cat a new name?
The question is then, can cats be trained to respond to their names?
They certainly can. Just like dogs – and any other animal – cats can be trained by positive reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement is a form of training that rewards desired behaviors or actions to increase the likelihood of them being repeated. It’s an incredibly effective way to encourage wanted behaviors, while also building confidence and strengthening the bond between an animal and his owner.
When you use positive reinforcement to teach your rescue cat his new name, he will soon learn that responding earns him a reward. The reward can be anything the cat really loves and is willing to work for, like tasty treats or a chin rub.
Training process
Whenever I have a new cat in the house, I start by saying his new name in a friendly, upbeat tone of voice and rewarding him with a tasty treat if he looks in my direction.
This is how he learns that this different name is a predictor of good things. I move to another spot a few steps away and do the same thing. We do a few repetitions and then take a break.
We do that over the course of a few days, in the home where there are no other distractions.
Once kitty is reliably looking interested and making eye contact when I call his name, I make it harder by moving just a couple of steps further away and waiting for him to approach me before he gets the treat.
If he needs a bit more motivation, I tap the ground to arouse his curiosity and encourage him to move forward. Once he gets to me, he gets his reward. Think of it as a salary for a job well done, if you will.
Once he’s got responding to his new name down pat, we gradually increase the distance a few steps at a time. Eventually, I’ll be in the kitchen and he’ll be somewhere else in the house and come running when I call his name.
He’s already learned that when I open the food cupboard, dinner is being prepared – so it’s not difficult to get him to come running!
By this time, he’s already doing the behavior I want. All I have to do is add in the verbal cue by calling his name.
Once you and your kitty have perfected the skill indoors, you can venture outdoors (if he’s going to be an indoor-outdoor cat) and take this training to a whole new level.
This video from International Cat Care shows how it works:
You can also pair your cat’s new name with his old name then gradually drop the old one.
Going back to Raven, I could have called her Taylor-Raven and then just gradually dropped the Taylor. But because it was so quick and easy to teach her to respond to her new name by using positive reinforcement, I didn’t do this. It can be a handy little trick though, if you want to try it.
Here’s a great video from Cat School Clicker Training demonstrating how to teach a cat his name and to come when called. I’d recommend giving it a try, you never know when you might need it!
Final thoughts
Over the years I’ve adopted 18 rescue cats, as well as several fosters, and have always changed their names.
The good news is that none of the cats ever had a problem learning their new name or suffered any kind of identity crisis.
This is a testament to the adaptability of cats, their ability to communicate with humans, and the effectiveness of positive reinforcement. By creating a positive association with his new name, you can help your new family member embrace it as his own in no time.
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Resources
- Cats learn the names of their friend cats in their daily lives – S. Takagi, A. Saito, M. Arahori, H. Chijiiwa, H. Koyasu, M. Nagasawa, T. Kikusui, K. Fujita, & H. Kuroshima
- Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words – Atsuko Saito, Kazutaka Shinozuka, Yuki Ito, & Toshikazu Hasegawa
- Feline vocal communication – Chloé Tavernier, Sohail Ahmed, Katherine Albro Houpt, & Seong Chan Yeon
- Spotlight on Science: Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words – International Cat Care
- Teach Your Cat Their Name And To Come [Video] – Cat School Clicker Training
- Training a cat to come when called [Video] – International Cat Care
