Small pet names

Rabbits, rats and ferrets learn their names about as readily as cats do, and guinea pigs will famously answer a fridge door before they answer you. What unites them is that most are prey animals, which changes the brief: the name has to be sayable softly and warmly, because a sharp sound delivered urgently reads as a threat rather than an invitation.

Soft openings, gentle vowels, nothing barked. The list below is tagged for small animals; the name quiz holds thousands more and filters by personality if you already know the character you're dealing with.

What makes a good small pet name

• Soft consonants and a warm, rising ending — names you can say quietly and still be heard.
• Two syllables, so the name stays distinct from the general chatter around a cage or run.
• Pair the name with food from day one. For prey species, that association does all the work.

There's a longer version of this in the guide to Naming two at once, including the tests worth running before you commit to anything.

72 names, with what they mean

A cross-section of the 3,733 names tagged for small pet, picked to span mythology, world languages, nature, food and screen. Every one of them, and 3,661 more, is filterable in the name quiz.

Keep looking

Stack filters in the name quiz — gender, personality, cultural origin, syllable count, sound — or start from a theme. Names for other animals:

• Dog names
• Cat names
• Bird names
• Fish names
• Reptile names
• Amphibian names
• Farm animal names