Get it? Because the kitten’s paws look like Mittens?
Most animals are born with a distinct fur pattern. Sometimes, they might have a name that is based on or inspired by this. Despite the trope’s name, this is not exclusive to fur patterns. Technically speaking, an animal’s fur color, texture, or unique markings can be considered as a singular pattern.
This trope is mostly common with felines, but it can be used for other animals as well, including non-mammals. Truth in Television; this is how many pet owners base their pets' names and how many animal breeds are named.
Sub-Trope of Meaningful Name. Compare Color Character, Captain Colorbeard, and Mister Strangenoun for similar naming conventions. Compare Named After the Injury, where a character gets a name that is based on their injury. See also Stock Animal Name, A Dog Named "Dog", A Dog Named "Perro", A Pig Named "Porkchop", A Dog Named "Woof", A Dog Named "Cat", A Mouse Named "Mozzarella", and A Lizard Named "Liz" for other types of animal naming.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Hachiware of Chiikawa is named after the "split crack" fur pattern on their head (which resembles the "八" symbol aka the number 8 in japanese).
- Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin:
- Daisuke names his newborn puppy Gin for his silver-colored striped fur (Gin means silver in Japanese).
- The Kai Ken brothers are named after their brindle fur. Akatora (red tiger), Chutora (middle tiger) and Kurotora (black tiger).
- Riki’s father is named Shiro (meaning white), who in later series is portrayed with all white fur, but the anime gives him silver fur like his grandson.
- The Big Bad of the first arc, Akakabuto got his name (which means "red helmet") for having red fur blazing past his back.
- One of Akakabuto’s underlings, Madara, is named after his spotted markings.
- Panda from Hamtaro gets his name due to his fur pattern making him look like, well, a panda.
Comic Books
Comic Strips
- Little Orphan Annie: Sandy, Annie's dog sidekick, has light brown, sandy fur.
Fan Works
- The Petriculture Cycle: Petriculture: "The pink earth pony" Pinkie Pie gets her name due to initially having Name Amnesia then taking a name from what a nurse called her, as she relates the story:
Pinkie Pie: Since one of the nurses in the hospital called me Pinkie Pie, I decided to use that as my name.
Films — Animation
- 101 Dalmatians:
- Lucky is so named because his spots form a horseshoe shape on his back (though it's also a bit of an Ironic Name since he also almost died shortly after being born).
- Patch is named as such because one of his eyes has a black spot over it, making it look like an eyepatch.
- Pepper and Freckles are named that because they have spots, being Dalmatians.
- Sgt. Tibbs nicknames another Dalmatian puppy Spotty.
- Aladdin (1992, Disney): Iago nicknames a flamingo Pinky.
- Bolt: Mittens is a cat who is almost entirely black except for her feet and a little bit of fur around her nose. Presumably that is why her former owners named her Mittens before abandoning her.
- Finding Nemo: One of the crabs calls Dory "Bluey" because she's a blue tang.
- Flushed Away: The big henchman rat is named Whitey, because being a lab rat made him albino.
- Hercules (1997): Parodied. One of the Thebians has a cat named Snowball, implying they were originally white, but their fur has been singed black in a fire.
- Lightyear: Sox, a robot cat given to Buzz as an emotional support companion, gets his name from his fur pattern: orange with white paws.
- In Little Grey Neck, a 1948 Soviet animated movie, Grey Neck is the name of a grey-necked duck. She is called the same in the fairytale on which the movie is based, however, since there is no description in the text, it's ambiguous whether she was named for a distinctive trait of hers or just given a random name for the sake of Nominal Importance, as her mother's favorite.
- The Secret Life of Pets: Snowball is a White Bunny who is likely named for his round, fluffy head resembling a snowball.
Films — Live-Action
- 101 Dalmatians (1996): Jewel has spots around her neck that looks like she’s wearing a necklace, Dipstick got his name because half of his tail looks like it’s dipped in ink, Lucky has a horseshoe pattern of spots around his eye (and he almost died at birth but was luckily revived), and Two-Tone has all her spots concentrated on one side of her body while the other half is all white.
- 102 Dalmatians: Dipstick has three puppies, and his two sons are named for their fur patterns; Domino’s ears look like dominos and Little Dipper is a miniature version of his father because he inherited a half-black tail (in merch he also has a spotted pattern that looks like his namesake’s constellation).
- Chestnut: Hero of Central Park: Sal names the puppy she and Ray found Chestnut because he’s brown and little, like a chestnut. Since he naturally grew up to become a Big Friendly Dog, Chestnut didn’t stay little for too long.
- Dances with Wolves: Dunbar names the wolf he befriends "Two Socks" because the bottom halves of the animal's front legs are white.
Literature
- In the novel The89th Kitten, one of the Crazy Cat Lady's cats is named Blackberry because he is black. When the characters are Debating Names for him, the names Blackie, Sooty, and Coal are also suggested.
- Alfie: “Alfie and the Birthday Surprise” features a grey cat named Smoky.
- The Alliance Saga: Clouded Moon: Several cats are named after their appearances — Goldenpelt, Whitebelly, Blackpelt (AKA Missingfoot), etc. Spottedshadow is a special case: her original name was Shadow, but she gained the prefix "spotted" when she developed vitiligo.
- Animal Ark: Subverted in "The Midnight Mouse", when someone suggests Snowy as a name for Amy's white mouse, but she turns it down.
- Animal Farm: One of the initial leaders of the revolution is a white pig named Snowball.
- In Baker Cat, the main character is an orange cat named Tiger.
- In the third Anne of Green Gables book, Anne of the Island, Anne's housekeeper has a cat whose fur is a patchwork of different colors. Hence the name Joseph, after his coat of many colors.
- The titular horse in Black Beauty is black.
- Bunny Girl Evolution: When Elise becomes a pet, her new name means Snowberry, referencing her white fur like snow and her berry-like red eyes, and the name's pronunciation in her new language is "Elise".
- In Callies Kitten, Callie is named that because she is a calico cat.
- Clarice Bean: The Tuesdays' cat is named Fuzzy because of its fuzzy fur.
- The Hundred and One Dalmatians:
- Lucky is named for a horseshoe-shaped pattern of spots on his back.
- Patch is named for a large black patch over one side of his face, including his ear.
- In Holy Socks, the eponymous cat is so named because he was found in a church and his markings make it look like he's wearing socks.
- Milly, Molly:
- Milly's orange tabby cat is named Marmalade.
- One of Marmalade and Tom Cat's kittens is named Mandarin because she's orange.
- Farmer Hegarty's two horses are named Salt and Pepper because they are white and grey respectively.
- Subverted in "Sooty", where the girls name a black cat they found Sooty, only to find that she's already named Gertrude.
- Mog: "Mog's Family of Cats" reveals that Mog has a brother named Blackie, who is black.
- In The Mouse Butcher by Dick King-Smith, the doctor's cat has dark markings around his eyes and is named Giglamps, after a Victorian slang term for glasses.
- The Name of the Wind: Happens either by accident or by subconscious Naming magic when Kvothe buys a horse. He names the all-black steed Keth-Selhan, thinking it means "First Night", and gets an unusually good bargain. Later, however, he learns both that the name actually means "One Sock" and that the horse really does have a white sock that the dealer had dyed to increase its value — he reduced the price because he thought Kvothe was calling him out.
- In The Orphan Train Adventures book "In the Face of Danger", Meg names a newborn litter of puppies; one of them she names Patches because of his fur pattern.
- In one of Robert Fulghum's books he tells the story of a friend who got a guinea pig for his daughter. Because the pet is white she names it Snowball.
- The Secret Garden: Dickon's pet crow is named Soot.
- Seekers: In an instance of Colourful Theme Naming, Lusa's zookeepers named her (an American black bear) after the Choctaw word for "black" because she has all-black fur.
- Set Ablaze:
- Copperhead has copper-coloured feathers.
- Bloodthroat is named after the red patch on his chest.
- Sherlock Holmes: "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" has the titular horse named after the white blaze on his forehead, with Holmes removing the dye concealing it in The Reveal.
- Snowy The Little White Kitten involves three kittens Snowy, who is white, Smoky, who is grey, and Sooty, who is black.
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Two of the direwolf pups get their names due to their respective personalities or traits, but their fur colors play a role in it.
- Robb Stark names his pup Grey Wind because the latter has grey fur and runs really fast.
- Jon Snow names his pup Ghost not only due to his quiet demeanor and quick stealth, but also because he’s the only albino pup in the litter. Ghost is even referred to either as "The White Wolf" or "The White Who Has No Voice".
Jon: He's not like the others. He never makes a sound. That's why I named him Ghost. That, and because he's white. The others are all dark, grey, or black.
- Spot is a series of kids' books about a yellow dog with a brown spot on him, named Spot.
- Stone Fox: Willy's beloved Canine Companion Searchlight is pure black except for one white spot on her forehead.
- Stray (1987):
- Pufftail's first owner named him "Fluffie" for his thick, fluffy coat.
- Pufftail's brother was a black-and-white cat with white "stockings", so he was named "Bootsie".
- In the classic reading primer Tip And Mitten, the eponymous kitten is named for its singular white left paw. Its dog companion may be named because its tail has a white tip.
- Treehouse: Jill's flying cat is named Silky.
- Warrior Cats:
- The naming scheme for Clan cats generally involves their prefix being based on their appearance in some way, whether it's their fur color (Gray, Blue, Red, etc), something their coloring reminds someone of (Fire, Snow, Ash, Raven, etc), their coat's pattern (Spotted, Speckle, Dapple, etc), or another stand-out feature (like Squirrelflight being named for her fluffy tail and Thistleclaw for his spiky fur). Sometimes this will go further with their full warrior names, which can double down on the appearance theming with suffixes like -stripe, -fleck, -spot, -whisker, -face, -scar, and -eye.
- A housecat-specific example: One of Scourge's littermates is a black and white tom named "Socks", presumably named that because his paws resemble socks. In-universe, this is justified by Socks being a kittypet, and thus named by his human owner.
- Wings of Fire:
- Silver the sloth has silvery fur.
- Indigo is a SeaWing with unusually purplish scales.
- Blue has blue (and purple) scales and blue wings.
- Bumblebee is named after her scale pattern, which is mostly yellow with black stripes.
- The Worst Witch:
- Maud's cat is named Midnight because she is black.
- Mildred's cat is named Tabby because he is a tabby cat. He got his name because she said, "He's tabby!", surprised he wasn't black like the other familiars, and Miss Hardbroom thought she was naming him.
Live-Action TV
- The Lone Ranger: The Lone Ranger has a silver horse who's aptly named "Silver."
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Daniel Tiger's middle name is Striped.
- ''Monk: Katherine from episode "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion" previously had a dog named Tangerine who actually was that color. Monk's first clue that there's something wrong is that Kyle and Katherine have a black lab by that name.
Music
- Songdrops: In "Striper the Kitty", the singer mistakes a skunk for a tabby cat and names him Striper.
Mythology & Religion
- Irish a.k.a. Celtic Mythology: One tale from The Fenian Cycle features Fionn Mac Cumhaill (pr:Finn Mac Cool) facing off against a huge, fire breathing dog named Cú Glas. The word "glas" usually means green, but in certain circumstances can also mean grey. As it does in this case, referring to the giant dog's grey fur, meaning that the dog's name is literally "Grey Dog". The dog is initially hostile to Fionn (who had been thrown to the beast by some Vikings) but as soon as the dog recognizes the scent of Fionn's dog Bran, who had been Cú Glas' playmate as a puppy, it becomes friendly and Fionn adopts it.
Puppet Shows
- Blue's Room: While the puppies in the Storybook world are named after colors, the puppies in Puppyville are named after the patterns on their fur, though they are somewhat less mundane patterns such as letters, numbers, or shapes. Interestingly, the only one of these puppies to be a main character in this town, Sprinkles, is an inversion, having been named before receiving the sprinkles pattern in a Rite of Passage.
Theatre
- Annie: Invoked; when Annie is asked about the stray dog she rescued by a suspicious officer, she lies and says he's hers. When asked to tell the officer the dog's name, having to come up with one on the spot, she looks at his fur and names him "Sandy [...] because of his nice, sandy color". Thankfully, the dog responds to the name, convincing the officer he's really Annie’s.
Toys
- Various Beanie Babies and Beanie Boos have names that are based on the colors, patterns, textures, or markings of their fur.
Video Games
- A lot of Animal Crossing villagers are named after their colours or patterns. For example, Bluebear is a blue bear, and Camofrog is a camouflage-patterned frog.
- In Love, Ghostie, Noir is a black sheep, and her name is French for "black".
- In the original Japanese version, the cats in Neko Atsume are all named after their fur colors and patterns, such as "white cat," "black cat," "black and white", "tricolor," and so on. In the English localization, some of the cats still keep names that evoke their fur colors, such as the white cat named Snowball, the tabby named Tabitha, the mackerel tabby named Mack, the calico named Callie, the spotted cats named Spots, Speckles, and Patches, and the black cat with white legs named Socks.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Shadow the Hedgehog’s fur has a charcoal black appearance, making him look like a shadow.
- Silver is a hedgehog and has silver-tinted fur.
Webcomics
- The Cyantian Chronicles: Silvia, or "Silver" is the last known silver fox on Cyantia.
- Sabrina Online: Sabrina works as webmaster for ZZ Studios, which is owned and operated by Zig Zag, a tiger + skunk hybrid with a striking black-and-white fur pattern. Though her creator, Max Black Rabbit, has never confirmed her birth name, Zig Zag has made this her de facto and Doing Business As name.
Web Videos
- In Multiverse Tales, Tayrun Jaanavar rides a wolf-dragon of a species called the Violet Portal-Leaper, which has violet and blue fur/scales. Appropriately enough, he calls her Violet. Later, she gives birth to a son who is called Indigo (no prizes for guessing why).
- Stampy's Lovely World: Stampy's first pet cat is a tuxedo cat, and is named 'Mittens' for having white paws.
Western Animation
- Blue's Clues:
- Blue, Magenta, and Green Puppy are all aptly named after the colors of their fur.
- Periwinkle is a light blue cat with darker blue stripes on his back. Likewise, Orange Kitten is an orange tabby kitten who has a similar fur pattern to Periwinkle’s.
- Bluey: Many characters have names based on their fur pattern:
- Bluey is a Blue Heeler, and her fur pattern is various shades of blue.
- Bingo’s name is presumingly based on the large orange spot on her back that looks like a bingo chip.
- Bandit has a black hood marking, making it look like he’s wearing a bandit mask.
- Stripe is presumingly named after the horizontal light blue stripe across his stomach.
- Socks’ paws are a lighter shade of blue with stripes above them, making it look like she’s wearing socks.
- Bluey and Bingo have a brown bear puppet named Browny Bear.
- Honey has honey-coloured fur.
- Similarly, Rusty has rust-coloured fur.
- Pretzel is brown with lighter brown spots like a pretzel.
- Snickers is long and brown like the candy bar.
- Cherry has cherry-red fur.
- Famous Fred: One ginger cat is named Ginger.
- Handy Manny: Mr. Lopart's cat is named Fluffy because she is a longhaired cat.
- Littlest Pet Shop (2012) has a grey skunk named “Pepper”.
- Molly of Denali: Trini named her husky puppy Four Spots for the four white patches on his back.
- Several characters in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic have names based on the color of their fur and/or manes/tails:
- Pinkamina "Pinkie" Pie is a pink pony.
- Rainbow Dash has a rainbow-colored mane and tail.
- Phineas and Ferb: In the episode “Spa Day”, Dr. Doofenshmirtz takes in a lost kitten he decides to call "Mr. Fluffypants" because he's fluffy and his half-white/half-black coloration makes it look like he's wearing pants... and he reminds Doof of his Uncle Fluffy Pants.
- Rick and Morty: In the episode "Lawnmower Dog", the family has a white long-haired dog whose name is originally Snuffles, but after he becomes an Uplifted Animal, he renames himself to Snowball because "[his] fur is pretty and white.”
- Rugrats: Angelica's cat is named Fluffy because she is a Persian.
- The Simpsons: Played with — Snowball II is actually a dark grey cat, but she was named after a previous, dead cat who was white.
- Talking Tom and Friends has a ginger tabby cat who’s aptly named “Ginger”.
- Sheriff Callie's Wild West: The titular character is named the way she is because she's a calico cat.
- Slacker Cats: One of the main characters is a cat named Mrs. Boots due to how her paws have brown fur.
- Wild Kratts: Martin will use an animal's individual markings to name some of the animals he meets, including a litter of African painted puppies.
Real Life
- The American Paint Horse
is a breed of horse named after its coat pattern.
- African wild dogs are also known as painted dogs or painted wolves for their distinctive tricolor fur patterns which make them look like they have been splashed with three colors of paint.
- Chipmunks, or ground squirrels, are often colloquially termed "racer-backs" after the black-and-white stripes that run parallel to their spines, similar to racing stripes.
- The diamondback rattlesnake is so-named because of the diamond patterns on its skin.
- The dumbo octopus is called that because of the large ear-like fins near the top of its head that remind people of Dumbo.
- English Spots are so named for their distinctive black markings around the eyes and body.
- Lionheads are named after their furry manes being akin to a lion’s mane.
- Raccoons are nicknamed “trash pandas”, coming from a combination of their habit of going through people's trash cans and the mask-like markings on their faces that resemble those of red pandas (to the point where red pandas were once in the same family as raccoons).
- Snowshoe cats have white paws that look as if they’re wearing snow shoes.
- Tortoiseshell cats’ fur pattern resembles a tortoise’s shell.
- The bald eagle gets its name as an archaic form of the word meaning white-headed rather than hairless.
- In Ukrainian, there's a dialect term for white stork, чорногуз. It translates to "black-ass" for the bird's black tail.