The story behind our names

My cats names are Ronja and Victor. But did you know that their names actually have the same meaning? Well kind of. Read here how they got their names.

Victor the white

Victor was born with his brother and two sisters, the only deaf one of the litter. His personality was very similar to his mother who was called Victor. Obviously she got that name before they realized she was a girl. So Victor junior got his name from his mother who sadly passed when Victor was about 5 months old. We liked the name and decided to keep it, even though a deaf cat probably wouldn't have minded much if we changed his name.

 

 

Ronja

Six months after we got Victor we decided to adopt another cat. It wasn't our intent to get more than one cat, but Victor was full of energy and we decided to get him a playmate. We found Ronja who was living in a shelter and went by the name Ida at the time. While Ida is a nice name I did not feel like it was fitting for her. To me Ida is a very feminine name and was better suited for a more careful lady than this one. So I started looking for a new name for her.

 

No Swedish children's story

In Scandinavia the name Ronja is mostly known as a famous character from the Swedish fantasy story of "Ronja (or Ronia in English) the Robber's Daughter" by Astrid Lindgren. The girl in the story is quite brave and wilful which is suitable for Ronja the deaf tabby as well. But that's not who she is really named after. In fact I kinda named her after Victor. You see Victor means "conqueror" and Ronja is used as a pet form of Veronica which means "she who brings victory". I liked that her name means the same as his, without it being an obvious reference like Victoria. 

 

Winners

So I got two "victors" ruling the house at home. They win most battles and in spite of their deafness they won themselves a home and a companion. And they've also conquered a lot of hearts through the Internet.

 

Little Poul

We've got a trap-neuter-return cat that goes by the name Little Poul. There has been some confusion about her gender because she is a female feline but we call her Poul. We had no idea if she was a boy or a girl when we started to feed her and I got tired of calling her outdoor kitty. So I asked my husband what we should call her and he immediately said "Poul". I added the Little as Poul wasn't very big. When we managed to trap her and get her to the vet, we weren't too surprised to learn that Little Poul was in fact female. There was a lot of good suggestions to a new name. Such as Paula or Paulina. But that did ring right in our ears. So we stuck to Little Poul. I had used the name Little Poul to call on her for a long time, so it's easier for her this way as well. Sorry about the confusion this is causing. But Little Poul is a girl. Get the full story on Little Poul here.

What's the story behind your cat's name?