Witchy and Familiar Cat Names: From Pyewacket to Salem, Hex to Nightshade
For as long as people have imagined witches, they have imagined a cat at the witch's side - the familiar, the dark companion who seems to know the spell before it is cast. This guide leads with the genuine famous familiars: Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Binx from Hocus Pocus, Greebo of Discworld, Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service, and Pyewacket, whose name comes from an actual seventeenth-century English witch trial. From there it walks through the real folklore of the witch's cat: why black cats became the classic familiar, what the words familiar and imp meant to the witch-hunters who recorded them, and how the same animal could be protective in one culture yet feared elsewhere. Then come the name lists: witch and sorceress names from Hecate and Circe through Bellatrix and Morgana, potion and herb names including Nightshade and Mandrake, dark celestial picks from Onyx to Lilith, coat-matching notes constructed around the archetypal black cat, ready-made pairs for two familiars, and honest, practical guidance on choosing a witchy name that wears comfortably throughout the year rather than merely on Halloween.
