This Woman Gave a Stray Cat the Most Gen X Name Imaginable
Every generation has its trademarks. Millennials ditched chain restaurants, Boomers snapped up the real estate, and Gen Z keeps picking fights with skinny jeans. Gen X, though, left behind grunge, the dawn of Google, and a single word that captured their whole outlook: whatever. So when a stray cat was pulled from a grocery store parking lot, the name that stuck couldn’t have been more perfect.
The Grocery Store Cat Showdown
Image via Pexels/Helena Lopes
Our story starts outside a grocery store, where a Reddit user with the very Gen X username SpecialEggSalad spotted a skinny little cat clearly down on his luck. Naturally, she scooped him up, but she wasn’t alone. Her friend immediately jumped in like she was auditioning for a speed round of “Name That Cat.” Ross, Beck, Tucker, Zorro: the suggestions kept flying faster than you could hum the “Friends” theme song.
However, none of them hit the mark. After about 20 minutes of rejected names, the friend grew more frustrated than a Gen Xer trying to explain dial-up internet to their kids. She finally snapped, “Fine, call him whatever you want.” Big mistake. Huge.
The Name Reveal
The cat didn’t end up with something cozy like Whiskers or Mittens. She was christened Whatever. One word, flat and dismissive, the kind of name loaded with the same eye-roll Gen X perfected decades ago. For anyone who grew up in the late ‘80s or ‘90s, it was more than just slang. It’s a cultural artifact.
“Whatever” began as Valley Girl filler, slipped into the grunge era through the soundtrack of Smells Like Teen Spirit, and got its pop-culture stamp of approval when Cher Horowitz flashed a two-handed W in Clueless. Gen X didn’t invent apathy, but they made it fashionable. Naming a cat after their trademark shrug feels exactly right.
The Internet Was Not Impressed
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Of course, the internet had thoughts. Reddit commenters pointed out that calling a cat Whatever kind of makes it sound like you don’t care about him at all. One person joked that every time the owner explained the name, she’d have to relive the awkward friend fight. Others flat out said, “Please rename that cat.”
And honestly, they weren’t wrong. After soaking in the feedback, SpecialEggSalad decided a rebrand was in order. The cat officially became Peekaboo, a much more fitting name since he loved to hide and pop out. Still, the legend of Whatever lives on, because let’s be real: no one’s forgetting that name anytime soon.
Gen X vs. Time
In the end, Peekaboo might be his forever name, but for a brief, glorious moment, he carried the banner for Gen X. He was the living, purring definition of a word that shaped an entire generation’s attitude. And honestly? That feels right. Because when you’ve reached the stage of life where your favorite bands are “oldies” and your kids roast you for using Facebook, sometimes the only thing left to say is… whatever.