possiblyzebra.net

A Brunei Survey of House Cat Names

  • Year: 2016 - 2017
  • Tags: names, pets, cats

Survey Results

Presentation

The results were presented in a humourous presentation (i.e. people laughed) at Songket Alliance's Ramshackle show on 25th Mar 2017.

Database

I've also released the cat names in a database, which you can see here:

  • All Cat Names - Names, Interesting/Boring tags (as chosen by cat owners), categories of names, when were the cats named, and stories behind the names.
  • Cat Name Stories - Stories behind the cat names - honestly my favourite part of reading the responses! Best viewed on desktop/tablet; if you're on mobile, try the first link instead.

About this survey

The survey was originally run in Oct 2016, and re-opened on 12th to 20th Mar 2017 in anticipation of sharing my results at Ramshackle.

I can't remember the initial inspiration for the survey, but it was likely to do with Mamius, my family's cat. Scroll down a bit more to see Mamius.

Data usage

  • Results may be shared online, including stories about cats.
  • A copy of the Mar 2017 presentation will be shared online.
  • I do not collect any sensitive information.
  • Your original photos will not be kept longer than 3 months.

Also, why am I doing this? For fun! :)
(I have a longer answer to this which you can read below, if interested)

Want to contribute?

Survey & Photo Submission is CLOSED! Thanks so much to everyone who participated and shared the survey :)

There's two parts to this:

  1. Submit survey:
    Survey questions: http://archive.is/yP0Ai (Archive of survey page; original link is https://goo.gl/forms/7oQcH53bYs9VI26h1)
    Description: Answer a 5-minute survey where I ask you to give me the names of your cats, and the stories behind them.
  2. Submit photos (optional!) of the cats separately. (Google Forms doesn't allow file uploads, sad.)
  3. (Very optional) If you liked this survey, please share this page or my Twitter/Facebook post to your friends & family with cats. More data is nice! Thank you <3

That's it!

Initial October 2016 Tweet

Mamius, my siblings' cat (and one of their anak kesayangan), accompanying my tweet:

 

Why collect cat names?

Okay, look, I'm a believer in data (and information generally). I even wrote an article called Brunei Online: Better Data I, and believe that there should be more Brunei data. More data collected, analysed, and shared. Data keeps us informed about how our country is running, and can help us decide how to keep it running, whether socially or economically.

But I also believe data can help us find some fun things about our country! Data can be an indicator of how we live our lives - what influences us, what we like, what we hate - create a snapshot of contemporary Bruneians. Even if it's something as non-consequential as what you name your cats. And I'm not sure that JPKE will ever do a survey about pets, so this is the closest I can manage on an informal basis.

I sometimes record interesting Brunei-related surveys (casual/academic) over at Brunei Things. Please let me know if you are running any!

 

Written with StackEdit.