Cats are recorded carrying 2,032 of the names a dictionary files under people. They average 221 registrations each — against 160 for human names generally and 140 across all cat names.
The density is the finding
Cat lists are concentrated everywhere in this data — far fewer distinct names are recorded for cats than for dogs, so what remains is the well-used core rather than a long tail. Human names are the densest part of that core.
The gender split is close, 941 female to 908 male, and 1,293 of them are two syllables. That is the shape of an ordinary given name, which is exactly what they are.
The objection, and what can be said about it
People object that a human name on a cat is twee, or that it confuses a vet's waiting room. Neither is measurable here. What is measurable is that owners do it constantly: this is the densest group of cat names in the catalogue.
The practical point nobody raises is length. 389 of these are a single syllable, and a cat that has decided not to hear you is a different calling problem from a dog at fifty metres — the name gets used at close range, repeatedly, indoors.
What this cannot tell you
Whether the name is a human name where you live. The check is English Wiktionary, so it finds what English documents as a given name and misses names ordinary elsewhere. A name not marked here is unchecked, not disqualified.
Is it strange to give a cat a human name?
Not in these registers. 2,032 names cats are recorded with are ones a dictionary lists for people, and they average 221 registrations each — the densest group of cat names here.
What are the most common human names for cats?
Princess, Penny, Cooper, Lily and Stella lead this list. It is ordered by how many animals carry each name across eleven registers.
How is a human name identified?
English Wiktionary says so in the entry — “A female given name from Latin”, and similar. Names it documents only as pet names, like Fido and Mittens, are excluded.
Every count on this site is a tally of real registrations: pet licences and shelter intakes published as open data by New York, Seattle, Austin, Montgomery County, Cambridge, Zurich, Basel and four Australian councils. Popularity here is the average share a name holds across those registers, so a name common in a small city is not buried by one common in a large one. Five of the eleven registers are North American and they supply 86% of the records, so read the ordering as naming in those places rather than worldwide. Browse the whole catalogue or read how the data is put together.