Most Popular Cat Names 2026
Every year, millions of cat owners face the same happy problem: what to call the new cat. Rover’s Top Pet Names 2026 report, the pet-care platform’s latest annual analysis of the millions of user-submitted pet names in its database, released on October 20, 2026, shows what people actually chose. For female cats, Luna is No. 1 again. For males, Milo keeps the top spot.
Those two names also lead the other big rankings published this year: U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 list of the 100 most popular cat names in the United States (September 2026) and Chewy’s ranking, which is based on Chewy pet profiles. Three different datasets agreeing on the winners is rare, below them, the sources start to diverge, and this article shows you where. Below are the full ranked top 25 lists for female and male cats from Rover’s database, the names climbing fastest in 2026, and what the data says about how America names its cats.
Key Takeaways
- Luna is the most popular female cat name and Milo the most popular male cat name in Rover’s 2026 report, based on millions of user-submitted names on its platform.
- U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 top 100 puts Luna at No. 1 overall for the third straight year; Chewy’s pet-profile data also puts Luna and Milo on top.
- The top 25 lists change slowly: most of Rover’s top names are short, human-style names such as Oliver, Lucy and Charlie.
- 2026’s fastest climber is anything but classic, Chicken Nugget is Rover’s No. 1 trending cat name of the year.
- Pop culture drives the climbers: names from Demon Slayer, KPop Demon Hunters, Wicked and BookTok favourites all rose sharply in Rover’s 2026 data.
Luna and Milo Hold the Crown
Rover’s 2026 report (developed between August and October 2026) ranks popularity by total volume, the number of pets carrying each name in its database. Luna and Milo repeat as the No. 1 female and male cat names, the same winners Rover reported in 2025. Luna’s run is longer still in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking, where she takes the overall crown for the third year in a row, ahead of Milo at No. 2 and Bella at No. 3.
Underneath the winners, each source tells a slightly different story. Rover’s own combined database ranking runs Luna, Milo, Leo, Oliver and Lily as its top five. U.S. News puts Bella third and Leo fourth. Chewy’s profile-based top 10 has Luna and Milo first and second, but Oliver third and Bella fourth. None of this is an error: each ranking counts a different population of cats (one platform’s sitters, one retailer’s customers, one publication’s dataset), so small differences in order are expected. What matters is the overlap, the same handful of names appears at the top of every serious list, which is why the top 25 below can be read with confidence.
One honest caveat before the tables: there is no official national registry of cat names. Every ranking in this article is platform data, not a census, and each one is labelled with its source and year so you can judge it for yourself.
Top 25 Female Cat Names
Ranked by Rover, the world’s largest pet-care marketplace, from the total number of cats with each name in its database of millions of user-submitted pet names (Rover’s US cat name rankings, current with its 2026 report). Rover does not publish year-over-year movement for these volume rankings, so no up-or-down arrows are shown; the movement story is in the trending section further down. Meanings are from our own verified name database, and appear only where we hold a verified meaning for the name.
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| Rank | Name | Meaning | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luna | moon | No. 1 female cat name in Rover's 2026 report, and No. 1 overall in U.S. News' combined top 100, its third straight year on top there. | |
| 2 | Lily | , | Also No. 18 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 3 | Bella | beautiful | No. 3 in U.S. News' combined top 100; Rover also names Bella its most popular cute cat name. | |
| 4 | Kitty | , | No. 5 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 5 | Lucy | light | No. 8 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 6 | Pepper | , | Rover's most popular color-inspired cat name; No. 28 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 7 | Willow | , | No. 12 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 8 | Nala | , | No. 15 in U.S. News' combined top 100. Healthy Paws' data (via Catster) ranks Nala higher, at No. 2 for females. | |
| 9 | Cleo | glory | No. 23 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 10 | Callie | most beautiful | No. 45 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 11 | Daisy | , | No. 27 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 12 | Olive | olive tree | No. 67 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 13 | Stella | star | No. 52 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 14 | Coco | , | No. 21 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 15 | Penny | , | No. 66 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 16 | Zoe | , | , | |
| 17 | Chloe | blooming, fertility | No. 34 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 18 | Kiki | , | No. 30 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 19 | Nova | new | No. 39 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 20 | Lola | sorrows | No. 37 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 21 | Mia | , | No. 33 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 22 | Poppy | , | No. 55 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 23 | Sophie | wisdom | No. 76 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 24 | Rosie | rose | No. 60 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 25 | Millie | gentle strength | No. 73 in U.S. News' combined top 100. |
Prefer to browse by vibe rather than rank? Our full female cat names list has hundreds more ideas, including the cute, unique and classic picks that sit below the chart-toppers.
Top 25 Male Cat Names
The male ranking comes from the same Rover database and the same method as the female list above, and it confirms Milo as the No. 1 male cat name of Rover’s 2026 report. Meanings, where shown, are from our verified name database.
Tap Copy next to any name to save it.
| Rank | Name | Meaning | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milo | , | No. 1 male cat name in Rover's 2026 report, and No. 2 overall in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 2 | Leo | lion | Rover's most popular classic cat name; No. 4 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 3 | Oliver | olive tree | Rover's most popular human name given to cats; No. 7 in U.S. News' combined top 100 and No. 3 in Chewy's combined top 10. | |
| 4 | Charlie | free man | No. 13 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 5 | Loki | , | Rover's most popular pop-culture cat name; No. 11 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 6 | Max | greatest | No. 14 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 7 | Simba | lion | No. 10 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 8 | Shadow | , | No. 9 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 9 | Binx | , | No. 24 in U.S. News' combined top 100; also No. 10 in Healthy Paws' male top 10 (via Catster). | |
| 10 | Ollie | olive tree | No. 50 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 11 | Jack | , | No. 41 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 12 | Smokey | , | No. 16 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 13 | Salem | complete, safe, peaceful | No. 26 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 14 | Jasper | possibly 'treasurer' | No. 38 in U.S. News' combined top 100; No. 8 in Healthy Paws' male top 10 (via Catster). | |
| 15 | George | farmer, earth-worker | No. 84 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 16 | Bean | , | No. 86 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 17 | Finn | white, fair | No. 94 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 18 | Buddy | , | No. 22 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 19 | Tiger | , | No. 31 in U.S. News' combined top 100. Rover notes Tiger also works as a unisex name. | |
| 20 | Gus | venerable, majestic | , | |
| 21 | Oscar | possibly 'deer friend' | No. 56 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 22 | Louie | famous warrior | , | |
| 23 | Theo | gift of God | No. 90 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 24 | Toby | God is good | No. 54 in U.S. News' combined top 100. | |
| 25 | Winston | joyful stone | No. 93 in U.S. News' combined top 100. |
For a much bigger pool of boy-cat inspiration, see our complete male cat names list.
What the Top Names Mean
Read down the two tables and a pattern jumps out: many of the most-chosen names are celestial or big-cat references. Luna means “moon” (Latin), Stella means “star”, and Nova means “new”, as in a newly bright star. Leo and Simba both mean “lion”, one from Latin and one from Swahili, which says a lot about how owners see their small house cats. The rest are mostly gentle human classics: Bella (“beautiful”), Lucy (“light”), Oliver and Ollie (“olive tree”), Charlie (“free man”) and Max (“greatest”). You can look up any of these names, and thousands more, in our cat name meanings hub.
Trending in 2026: The Names Climbing Fastest
Popularity and trending are different measurements. The tables above move slowly because they count every cat in the database; Rover’s trending list instead measures year-over-year growth, which is where culture shows up. Rover’s top 10 trending cat names in the US for 2026 are: Chicken Nugget (No. 1, boosted by the viral talking chicken nugget meme; People, covering the report, puts it up 87% year over year), Miracle, Badger, Sundae, Hector, Umi, Tiggy, Coffee, Laila and Dani.
The screen effect. The single biggest climbers in Rover’s category data come from film and TV. Giyu (up 619%) and Shinobu (up 219%) rode the release of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle; Jinu (up 174%) and Derpy (up 104%) came from KPop Demon Hunters; and Nessa (up 59%) from Wicked: For Good. Chewy’s separate dataset shows the same Wicked effect from a different angle, its fastest risers include Elphie (up 231%) and Glinda (up 175%). When two rival platforms both credit the same film, the trend is real.
Books, music and food. BookTok is now a naming force: Ilya, from Heated Rivalry, is up 394% for cats in Rover’s data, Elain (A Court of Thorns and Roses) is up 219%, and Haymitch (Sunrise on the Reaping) is up 99%. In music, Messy is up 819% and Abracadabra up 319%. Food names keep climbing too, from the meme-driven Chicken Nugget to Sambal (up 319%) and Tajín (up 285%).
Old is new. Running against the pop-culture wave, Rover reports a vintage revival, Lorraine is up 219%, Pauline up 135% and Nell up 64%, and a cottagecore current, with Alder up 369%, Sorrel up 119% and even Snail up 94%. Hector, a vintage name sitting at No. 5 on the overall trending list, is where the two stories meet. Rover, which has tracked pet names since 2012, notes a consistent pattern across 15 years of data: within months of a major cultural moment, names linked to it begin to rise.
Why These Names Win
Three forces keep the same names at the top. First, human names: Rover points out that Oliver is its most popular human name given to cats, and most of both top 25 lists, Lucy, Charlie, Sophie, George, Winston, would work just as well on a birth certificate as on a collar tag. Second, personality: in Rover’s accompanying survey work (a 2025 survey of 1,500 US pet parents), owners said they deliberately choose names that represent their pet’s personality, treating the cat as a full family member whose name should fit who they are. Third, pop-culture anchors that never leave: Loki (Rover’s most popular pop-culture cat name), Simba and Nala have held top-10 and top-15 places for years, long after their films left cinemas.
Want Popular, but Not Overused?
A top-25 name is a proven, easy-to-say choice, but it does mean every vet’s waiting room may hold two Lunas. If you like the sound of the charts without the crowd, start with our unique cat names list, check what a name means in the meanings hub before you commit, or let our cat name generator filter our whole database of 8,066 names by gender, style and origin until something feels like your cat and nobody else’s.
How This Ranking Was Compiled: Sources and Method
Every ranked list in this article comes from a published source, named here with its year and method as reported by the source itself:
- Rover, Top Pet Names 2026 report (released October 20, 2026; developed August to October 2026). Analysis of millions of user-submitted pet names on Rover.com; most popular names are ranked by total volume, trending names by year-over-year growth. Source of the No. 1 female (Luna) and male (Milo) results and the 2026 trending lists.
- Rover, Most Popular Cat Names in the USA (Rover.com cat name rankings, database current with the 2026 report cycle). Rover’s ranked top 50 female and top 50 male lists, ordered by the number of cats registered with each name, the top 25 of each are reproduced in the tables above.
- U.S. News & World Report, 100 most popular cat names in the US (published September 2026; reported by Gray News, September 25, 2026). A combined (not sex-split) top 100, used here for the cross-checks in the table notes.
- Chewy, The Most Popular Cat Names for 2026 (Chewy.com; based on Chewy pet profiles). Combined top 10 and fastest-rising names, used for cross-checks.
- Healthy Paws Pet Insurance top 10 female and male lists, as compiled by Catster. A smaller insurer dataset, used only where its order notably differs from Rover’s.
- People and USA Today (October 20, 2026), news coverage of Rover’s 2026 report, used for release details and reported growth figures.
Rankings from different platforms will never match exactly, because each counts its own customers’ cats. Where sources disagree, this article says so rather than smoothing it over.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most popular cat name in 2026?
Luna, for female cats, and Milo, for male cats, according to Rover’s Top Pet Names 2026 report, which analyses millions of user-submitted names on its platform. Luna also tops U.S. News & World Report’s combined 2026 top 100 and Chewy’s profile-based ranking.
What is the most popular female cat name?
Luna. She is No. 1 on Rover’s female ranking, No. 1 overall on U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 list, for the third year in a row, and No. 1 in Chewy’s data as well.
What is the most popular male cat name?
Milo, per Rover’s 2026 report. In combined rankings he sits at No. 2 overall (U.S. News and Chewy both place only Luna ahead of him).
What cat names are trending in 2026?
Rover’s fastest climbers are led by Chicken Nugget, followed by Miracle, Badger, Sundae and Hector. The biggest percentage gains in Rover’s category data include Messy (up 819%), Giyu (up 619%), Specter (up 619%) and Ilya (up 394%).
Should I choose a popular name for my cat?
It depends on what you value. Popular names are popular because they are short, easy to call across a house and widely liked, but your cat may share a name with others at the vet, groomer or cattery. If that bothers you, the trending and unique lists offer names with the same current feel and far fewer duplicates.
Where does this data come from?
Primarily Rover’s 2026 Top Pet Names report and its US cat-name rankings, cross-checked against U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 top 100, Chewy’s pet-profile ranking and Healthy Paws Pet Insurance’s top 10 lists (via Catster). Full source details are in the method section above. There is no official national registry of cat names, so all rankings are platform data.
If you like popular names, browse cat names starting with S for S names with meanings.