Sanrio and Hello Kitty Cat Names: Sweet, Pastel Names for a Kawaii Cat

Since 1974, the Japanese company Sanrio has built an empire out of being adorable. Its characters — a parade of round, pastel, big-headed creatures — have decorated everything from lunchboxes to commercial aircraft, and the brand’s whole aesthetic, soft and sweet and faintly melancholy, happens to map almost perfectly onto the way people feel about their cats. If you want a name that is unapologetically cute, gentle on the ear, and quietly beloved by millions, the Sanrio universe is hard to beat.

There is one thing to get straight first, because it surprises people: not every famous Sanrio character is a cat. Several of the most popular ones are dogs, rabbits, penguins, and in one case a perpetually exhausted egg. So this guide separates the genuine Sanrio cats from the Sanrio names that merely suit a cat — both are worth your time, but it helps to know which is which.

The kawaii idea, and why it suits a cat

It is worth pausing on the word kawaii itself, because it explains why Sanrio names sit so naturally on a cat. Kawaii does not translate cleanly as “cute”; it carries a tenderness toward small, soft, slightly helpless things, and an affection that is protective rather than merely amused. That is, more or less, the exact feeling a cat provokes — the urge to look after a creature that is perfectly capable of looking after itself but chooses, graciously, to let you. Sanrio built a fifty-year empire on that feeling, which is why its characters are nearly all round, pastel, and faintly babyish, and why their names lean toward the edible and the harmless. A Sanrio name, then, is not just decoration. It is a small daily declaration that this animal is precious and a little absurd and entirely yours to dote on.

The real Sanrio cats

Start here if you want a name that is, properly, a Sanrio feline.

• Hello Kitty — the one everyone knows, created in 1974 and first sold on a small vinyl coin purse in 1975. Her full name within Sanrio’s lore is Kitty White, she is drawn living in the suburbs of London, and the official profile says she weighs as much as three apples and stands as tall as five. Sanrio once caused a stir by describing her as a cheerful little girl rather than a cat, then softened the claim; either way, Kitty is the timeless, can’t-go-wrong name for a sweet-natured cat, especially a white one with a fondness for a bow.
• Mimmy — Hello Kitty’s twin sister, the shy, homebody half of the pair. The easiest way to tell them apart is the bow: Kitty wears hers on the left ear, Mimmy on the right, and Mimmy’s is yellow. The name is not in our names directory yet, but it is a gentle choice for the quieter of two sister cats, paired with Kitty.
• Charmmy Kitty — this one matters, because Charmmy is the actual pet cat of Hello Kitty: a fluffy white Persian that Kitty’s father gave her, who in turn keeps her own pet hamster named Sugar. Charmmy arrived in 2004, three decades after Kitty herself, the rare case of a famous cat being given a cat of her own. So if you have a white Persian or a long-haired fluffball, Charmmy is the deep-cut Sanrio name that fits exactly, and Sugar is waiting if a second small pet ever joins the house.
• Chococat — a black cat introduced in 1996, named for his chocolate-coloured nose, whose antenna-like whiskers are said to pick up news and gossip before anyone else. He is the ideal Sanrio match for a black cat; use the full Chococat for the reference, or the everyday short form Coco for daily life.
• Diana — from Jewelpet, the Sanrio and Sega line of jewel-eyed animal characters, where Diana is a glamorous Persian cat. The whole line is a quiet source of gem names that suit a bright-eyed cat: Diana, Garnet, Ruby, Sapphire, Opal, and Jade all carry the same precious, polished glamour.

Names from Hello Kitty’s world

Hello Kitty comes with a fully worked-out family and social circle, and several of those names transplant beautifully onto a cat even though their original owners are other species. Her parents are George and Mary White, which gives you two warm, faintly comic options for a dignified cat: George for a portly, unbothered tom, and Mary for a prim, tidy female. From the wider Sanrio cast, Melody — for My Melody, the white rabbit in her red hood — is one of the prettiest of all, soft and musical and entirely at home on a cat. Cinnamon, borrowed from Cinnamoroll the cloud-born puppy, is ideal for a warm-toned brown or ginger. And the Little Twin Stars, Kiki and Lala, give you a ready-made pair of sweet, twinkling names for two kittens at once.

Pastel and dessert-soft names in the Sanrio spirit

Half the appeal of Sanrio is not any single character but the overall mood: round, sugary, pastel, kind. If that feeling is what you want rather than a specific reference, a whole shelf of food-and-softness names captures it, and every one of these reads as a genuine cat name first:

• Mochi — the soft, round Japanese rice cake; the quintessential kawaii cat name for a squishy, cuddly cat.
• Peach — sweet, pink, and round, for a cream or apricot cat with a soft face.
• Sugar — plainly adorable, and a real Sanrio name to boot, as Charmmy Kitty’s hamster.
• Bow and Ribbon — the two signature Sanrio accessories, perfect for a cat who actually tolerates a collar bow.
• Strawberry — bright and cheerful, with the easy short form “Berry,” for a reddish or pink-toned cat.
• Marshmallow — soft, white, and squashy, the obvious pick for a fluffy white kitten.
• Biscuit and Custard — warm, golden, pale-yellow names for a buttery cream or fawn cat.
• Blossom and Cherry — springtime, sakura-soft names with a pink-and-white prettiness.
• Momo — “peach” in Japanese, a doubly sweet, doubly round option that keeps the kawaii mood properly Japanese.
• Dumpling — round, soft, and irresistibly huggable, the affectionate choice for a chubby cat with no visible neck.
• Pumpkin — warm, round, and golden-orange, a cosy autumn name that suits a ginger or marmalade cat down to the ground.

Matching a Sanrio name to your cat’s coat

Because the Sanrio palette is so colour-coded, it is easy to match a name to a coat. A white cat is spoiled for choice: Kitty, Marshmallow, and Pearl all suit a snowy coat, and a white Persian is, of course, a Charmmy. A black cat belongs to Chococat or its short form Coco. A cream, ginger, or golden cat carries Cinnamon, Biscuit, Custard, or Peach beautifully. A pink-nosed or pale calico suits the floral Blossom or Cherry. And a cat with bright, jewel-coloured eyes can carry any of the Jewelpet gems — Ruby, Sapphire, Jade — like it was born to.

Sanrio pairs and twins

Sanrio is built on pairs, which makes it a fine source for naming two cats together. The first and most obvious is Kitty and Mimmy, the twin sisters — ideal for two cats from the same litter, one outgoing and one shy. The Little Twin Stars give you Kiki and Lala, a starry, balanced pair. From Jewelpet, Diana and Garnet make a glamorous duo, or pick any two gems — Ruby and Sapphire — for matched jewel-bright cats. And for a sweet, edible pair, Mochi and Peach or Biscuit and Custard sound as though they were always meant to share a basket.

The Sanrio friends who are not cats (but should be)

This is the honest section, because a great many people assume their favourite Sanrio face is a cat when it is not — and the names are far too good to skip just because the original is a puppy or a penguin. My Melody and Cinnamoroll, as noted, are a rabbit and a dog. Pompompurin is a golden retriever puppy in a beret; his nickname Purin — Japanese for the custard pudding he resembles — is a wonderful name for a round, golden cat. Kuromi, My Melody’s mischievous rival in a black jester’s hood, is a little white imp, but the name is pure punk-cute and ideal for a feisty black-and-white cat. Best of all is Tuxedo Sam, the chubby penguin in a bow tie: split him up and you get Tuxedo and Sam, two of the most natural names imaginable for a black-and-white tuxedo cat. Mell, from the character Wish Me Mell, adds a soft single-syllable option. None of these creatures has whiskers, strictly speaking — but a cat does not read the source material, and these names carry the exact Sanrio sweetness whether or not the original wore fur.

If none of those quite fits, the deeper Sanrio bench is full of names worth lifting:

• Keroppi — the cheerful green frog with the V-shaped eyes, for a bright-eyed, leggy cat who likes water more than most cats should.
• Pochacco — the sporty white-and-black puppy, a peppy, bouncy name for a busy, athletic cat.
• Badtz-Maru — the mischievous penguin with the spiked tuft of hair, for a black-and-white cat carrying a small chip on its shoulder.
• Gudetama — the famously lazy, perpetually exhausted egg, the perfect ironic name for a cat that treats getting up as a personal tragedy.
• Retsuko — the mild office red panda of Aggretsuko who screams death metal after hours, for the sweet-faced cat with a secret wild streak.
• Pekkle — the gentle white duck, soft and unassuming, for a quiet, easygoing cat who asks for very little.

Boy cats in a pastel world

Sanrio skews feminine, and most of its headline cuteness lands on female characters, which can leave the owner of a tomcat feeling underserved. There are still solid, masculine-leaning picks, though, and several of the best come from the cats and their circle rather than the rabbits and ducks. George, Hello Kitty’s father, is a sturdy, slightly comic name for a big unbothered tom. Sam, lifted from Tuxedo Sam, suits any friendly black-and-white boy. Coco, the everyday short form of Chococat, works for a black male cat without tipping into sugar. And Garnet or Jade, from the gem set, read handsomely on a male cat with striking eyes. A pastel world still has room for a tom with presence.

Choosing one, and keeping it sweet

Sanrio names sort themselves by how much reference you want on display. The headline names — Kitty, Charmmy, Chococat, Kuromi — wear the fandom proudly and start conversations. The mood names — Mochi, Peach, Pearl — simply sound like the cutest possible cat, with the Sanrio spirit kept quietly underneath. There is no wrong answer; there is only how openly you want to fly the flag.

If there is a single thing Sanrio has always understood, it is that small, soft, slightly silly things deserve names that make people smile — which is, when you think about it, the entire job description of a cat. The longer picks tuck into easy nicknames if you want them to: Marshmallow becomes “Mallow,” Strawberry becomes “Berry,” Charmmy stays Charmmy because it was already small and sweet, and Pompompurin happily shrinks to Purin. For more in this gentle register, our cute cat names collection is full of the same softness, the white cat names list suits a Kitty or a Charmmy, and the Japanese cat names page rounds out the kawaii mood. Whatever you land on, you will be choosing in the truest Sanrio spirit: picking the name that makes you smile first, and explaining it later.