Do pets really know their own names?

I think they do. I have two cats Pussington and Bandit. Bandit will come if I call Bandit or Bandit Cat but Pussington will not come. Pussington will come if I call Pussington or Pusspuss, Bandit will not come. Maybe it is just in the tone I use for each name, but I really do believe they know their names, and at the very least they know the difference between Bandit and Pussington.

@ scotty,

It could simply be a response to a certain tone. The cats must have got used to it. When you say Bandit you mean to call the Bandit cat to come over. Likewise, Pussington knows it (you want him to come over) when you say Pussington or Pusspuss. They are just responding to what they think you want them to do. Then again, I am not 100% sure. It is just an educated opinion.

What happens when you call "Pussington, Bandit"? Do they both come over?

I have to call both names if I want both cats. The only time Bandit will come if I call Pussington is if I am in the kitchen. When I am cooking with raw meat I always give Pussington my scraps. Bandit can't get them because he has IBD and can get really sick if he eats the wrong thing. But he seems to have worked out that if I always call Pussington before I give her the meat. He think's he can out smart me.

I think it might just be more to do with tone and the sounds because Bandit and Pussington sound like totally different words when you say them out loud, different lengths and with different sounds, so maybe they don't know or comprehend their name totally, but they know what sounds are theirs and they know when to come when I call.

I feel that our pets know their own names without a doubt. The first example would be that they respond to when we call them which means they remembered that the sound we call corresponds to themselves. I love how fast my cat realized this which just shows the intelligence level that our loved pets have. I feel that if someone doesn't agree with what I have posted it means their pet may be called by different names during the day which makes it hard for them to understand that they only have one main name.

Yes I do think that pets do learn that sounds that come out of our mouths, that they associate with their names. Same thing that with asking them to go to the Dog Park, or want to eat. Also they do learn our routines. Ours have learned that when the TV goes off at night (it makes a certain noise) they know it is time to eat and they go crazy!

I'm pretty sure dogs learn their names fairly quickly, I'm not so sure about cats, they may recognise their names but the nature of cats is that they will respond to calls or not depending on their inclination at the time. A dog will usually respond immediately when called, they may not come to you but they pay attention and show that they are aware you called them. One our dogs, a young chihuahua named Dickie looks at you and then usually carries on doing whatever he was doing before you so rudely interupted him lol. Maybe he is half cat