552 cat names classify playful-sounding, and 499 of them end in -y or -ie. That is very nearly the whole tag. So an admission before the list: the playful classifier is largely reading one ending, and you should use it as a shortcut to that ending rather than as a verdict on the name.
The most heavily used slice on this site
These average 272 registrations each against 140 across all cat names. Nothing else measured here carries that much weight per name. Whatever the tag is picking up, owners are picking it far more often than chance would give.
Two beats, by construction
500 of the slice has two syllables, which follows from the ending rather than adding to it. The short ones are where it gets interesting: 125 are four letters or fewer and they average 379 registrations, the densest corner of the densest slice.
The sexes split evenly, which is unusual
219 female to 205 male. Most tags with this much use lean one way or the other; a diminutive ending apparently reads as fond rather than as feminine, and that is worth knowing if you have been avoiding it for a male cat.
What makes a cat name sound playful?
On this site, the ending: 499 of the 552 names with the tag end in -y or -ie. The classifier is reading a lifting final syllable more than anything else.
Are playful cat names common?
The most used of anything measured here: 272 registrations per name against 140 across all cat names.
Do playful names suit male cats?
The registers say they are used almost equally — 205 male to 219 female.
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.