Black Cat Names

Black cats have one of the strongest naming traditions of any coat color, partly because their look practically writes the brief for you. The all-black coat reads as either glamorous or spooky depending on the cat, so you have two distinct directions: lean into the elegance (Onyx, Ebony, Sable, Noir) or lean into the supernatural (Salem, Shadow, Raven, Bastet).

Mythology is especially rich here. Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, was depicted as a black cat or a woman with a cat head, and was associated with home, fertility, and protection. Anubis, also Egyptian, was the jackal-headed god of the afterlife and works for any black cat with a serious disposition. From Greek myth, Persephone (queen of the underworld) and Hecate (goddess of witchcraft) both fit a black female cat. From Norse mythology, Loki, the trickster god, suits a black cat that gets into things.

Pop culture has given us a steady supply too. Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch is the most-borrowed black cat name of the last 30 years. Binx from Hocus Pocus is another. Lucifer from Cinderella works for a black-and-white tuxedo as much as a pure black. From the literary side, Behemoth, the giant black cat from Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, is one of the most memorable cats in 20th-century fiction.

If you want something less obvious, look at black gemstones and minerals (Onyx, Jet, Coal), shades and shadows (Inky, Soot, Smudge, Shadow), or French and Italian color words (Noir, Nero) for a touch of elegance. For a black cat with a cute disposition, Boo, Poppy, or Olive all work without leaning into the spooky angle.

One naming convention worth knowing: in many Western cultures, black cats were historically associated with witches and bad luck, but in Japan and the UK, black cats are considered good luck. The Japanese tradition is reflected in names like Kuro (literally "black"), which is one of the most common cat names in Japan.