Maine Coon names tend to come from three places: owners’ picks for a big cat (kings, gods, lions), the breed’s own show history (Cosey, King Max, Captain Jenks), and Maine itself. Sorting them by source gives each name a reason behind it, not just a list position.
Examples come from real naming threads on Reddit and from the Cat Fanciers’ Association’s history of the breed. Names marked as suggestions are not from either source.
Which Maine Coon names suit a big cat?
Across the Reddit naming threads checked, suggestions ran to kings, lions, Norse gods and fantasy beasts, which suit a large, long-coated cat. Early show winners and Maine place names are quieter options. The table groups examples by source, so you can see which are tested and which are ideas.
| Theme | Names | Where they come from |
|---|---|---|
| Kings, lions and fantasy beasts | Aslan, Kimba, Falkor | Replies to an r/NameMyCat thread for a Maine Coon boy |
| Girl names | Honey, Lily, Pearl, Twinkle, Ariel | Replies in r/Catnames and r/NameMyCat threads for female Maine Coon kittens |
| Norse and thunder gods | Ragnar, Thor | Replies in r/NameMyCat and r/Catnames Maine Coon threads |
| Early show cats | Cosey, King Max, Captain Jenks, Molly Bond, Donald | The CFA’s history article on the breed |
| Maine places | Skowhegan, Wiscasset, Bangor | Places that appear in the CFA’s history article |
| Size and fluff jokes | Tank, Moose, Biscuit | Suggestions, not from a thread or a record |
What Maine Coon names do owners suggest on Reddit?
The same few ideas come up again and again in those threads: lions, Vikings and thunder gods. Choosing is harder than finding options. One owner wrote that a previous post had drawn about a thousand replies “and none of them fit”.
“I am asking once again for names for my little man. I got like 1k responses on my last post and none of them fit”
– r/NameMyCat (982 upvotes)
Another owner, with the biggest kitten of his litter, wanted something regal that avoids the obvious picks and wrote that it was “hard to find something not stereotypical (Zeus, Loki, etc)”. Some replies did land. A one-word reply, “Ragnar”, drew 81 upvotes in the thread for a black smoke kitten, and a reply in the “anything goes” thread above read:
“ASLAN….. The king of Narnia…. From C.S Lewis’s The Lion , The witch, and The wardrobe.”
– r/NameMyCat (86 upvotes)
Most suggestions in the replies came with a character or a story attached. The black smoke Maine Coon guide describes the coat of the kitten in the Ragnar thread.
What Maine Coon girl names do owners suggest?
In r/Catnames and r/NameMyCat threads for female Maine Coon kittens, suggestions often pick up on a physical detail or a backstory: white toes, a white patch, a rescue’s old name. Honey, Lily, Pearl, Twinkle and Ariel all appeared in those replies.
A kitten rescued from a parking lot had been named Ham by the rescue, and her new owner wanted to change it. A reply drew 29 upvotes:
“Honey is a better name than Ham, silly rescue! Lol. How about Lily, or Pearl for her white patch.”
– r/Catnames (29 upvotes)
Elsewhere, an owner posted a bottle-fed runt with a “manicure” of white toe tips (604 upvotes), and one-word replies included “Twinkle” and “Ariel”. Several of the replies tie the name to something visible or to the kitten’s story.
What were the Maine Coon’s famous early cats called?
The CFA’s history article names the breed’s early winners. Cosey, a brown tabby owned by Mrs. E. N. Barker, won the May 1895 Madison Square Garden show. King Max, a brown tabby, dominated the Boston show circuit in 1897, 1898 and 1899 until his son Donald beat him in 1900.
The same article lists a black and white cat called Captain Jenks of the Horse Marines, and the CFA’s registration number 5, a tortoiseshell female named Molly Bond. Most of these names are short and plain, apart from Captain Jenks. Modern winners carry long registered names, and the article gives them short everyday ones: GC, NW Tufpaws Rosette is “Rosie”, and GC, NW Kanab’s Luanne’s Mahogany Rush is “Rusty”. The records behind these early cats are told in the Maine Coon origin and history guide.
What have the CFA’s national-winning Maine Coons been called?
The CFA history article lists dozens of national and regional winners, and the ones it names with a coat colour make a useful set of examples. Registered names run long, with the cattery name first, and the everyday names that the article gives are short.
| Everyday name | Registered name in the CFA article | Coat given |
|---|---|---|
| Rosie | GC, NW Tufpaws Rosette | Not stated; a female |
| Pepe | GP, NW Tufpaws Pepe Le Peu of Cheyenne | Bi-color |
| Gambit | GC, NW Terrificats P.C. Gambit, DM | Not stated |
| Rusty | GC, NW Kanab’s Luanne’s Mahogany Rush, DM | Red tabby with white |
| Alexander | GC, NW Groovycats Alexander The Great | Brown tabby with white |
| E.P. | GC, NW Bangor’s Eskimo Pie | Black and white bi-color |
| Dancer | GC, NW Buctales Dirty Dancer | Brown mackerel tabby with white |
| Vincent | GC, NW Kanab’s Luanne’s Vincent | Black and white bi-color |
Some registered names read like plays on the coat: Mahogany Rush is a red tabby with white, and Eskimo Pie is black and white, though the article does not say why either was chosen. The first Maine Coon grand champion, in 1977-78, was a copper-eyed white male called Purrbred’s Silent Stranger. The famous cats in history guide tells more stories of named cats.
How do you pick a name for a cat that keeps growing?
Pick a name for the adult, not the kitten. The CFA calls the Maine Coon slow maturing, taking up to three years to reach full size, and describes it as the largest of all pedigreed cats. A name that says “tiny” may read as a joke once the cat is full size.
Say the name out loud, in the voice you will use across a room. Test it with a short nickname too. A two-part setup works for both: a formal name for the paperwork and a short one for the cat, as in the CFA article’s “Rosie” and “Rusty”. The tabby Maine Coon guide and the full-grown black Maine Coon guide describe the coats an adult can carry, if the name should match the colour.
FAQ
What are good Maine Coon girl names?
Reddit owners suggested Honey, Lily, Pearl, Twinkle and Ariel for female kittens, as covered above. The CFA’s history names several early and modern females too: Molly Bond, Rosana Dana and Rosette.
What are unique Maine Coon names?
Names from the breed’s own records are the likeliest to be uncommon. Skowhegan, Wiscasset, Cosey and Captain Jenks all appear in the CFA’s history. Whether a name is unusual depends on what you compare it against, and no source ranks names by how often owners use them.
Do Maine Coon names have to mean something?
No rule does. In those threads, most suggestions had a character or story behind them, which is an observation about those threads and not a rule.