when my monsta was a kitten, he was 1 of 3. the first was a bit of a runt, he was enormous and the third was stillborn. he used to climb up me and sit on my chest with these huge white paws im my face, and i said "hes gonna be a monster of a cat when he grows up" and the name stuck.
My border collie bitch is Jasmine - because her predecessor was Jasper and we got so used to calling 'Jazz! Jazz!' when we wanted him we thought we'd never get used to anything new, so we got as near to Jasper as a female name can be!!! It worked, we call her 'Jazz' all the time!