Hello Kitty is easy to recognise and harder to know. Most people can draw the round face, the whiskers and the red bow, but fewer know she has a name (Kitty White), a twin sister, a home outside London and an apple pie her mother is famous for. Sanrio has built a quiet, domestic world around her over fifty years. It's full of family dinners, school friends and small adventures.
This page focuses on that world: Kitty herself, the White family, her friends and her pets. For the wider roster of Sanrio characters she shares shelf space with, like Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, My Melody and Pompompurin, see our full Sanrio characters guide.
- Full name
- Kitty White
- Debut
- 1974 (first product 1975)
- Original designer
- Yuko Shimizu
- Lead designer since 1980
- Yuko Yamaguchi
- Birthday
- November 1
- Home
- Suburbs of London
Hello Kitty herself
Hello Kitty
Kitty White · Sanrio's flagship character
Kitty is a cheerful, warm-hearted schoolgirl with a red bow over her left ear. She loves baking cookies, making friends and her mother's apple pie, and her official profile measures her as five apples tall and three apples heavy. She's kind more than she's clever, and her stories are low-stakes on purpose: a picnic, a birthday, helping a friend. Her lack of a mouth is the most-discussed design choice in character merchandise, and it's a big reason she works on everything from baby clothes to luxury collaborations.
The White family
Kitty's family is a picture-book British household: a steady father, a mother who bakes, grandparents in the countryside and a twin who is never far away. They give her stories their warmth.
Mimmy White
Identical twin sister
Mimmy is Kitty's identical twin, told apart by her yellow bow worn on the right ear. She's shyer and quieter than Kitty, likes sewing and dreams of being a good bride one day. The two are inseparable, and Mimmy is often the gentle voice when Kitty gets carried away.
Papa (George White)
Father
George White is a dependable, good-humoured dad who works hard and is a little goofy at home. He's the steady centre of the household, and he's the one who gave Kitty her pet Persian cat, Charmmy Kitty.
Mama (Mary White)
Mother
Mary White is warm, patient and a wonderful cook. Her apple pie is Kitty's favourite food. She's the one the twins go to when something goes wrong, and many Hello Kitty stories end at her kitchen table.
Grandpa (Anthony White)
Grandfather
Anthony White is a gentle, thoughtful grandfather who likes painting and telling stories. Visits to him are a recurring treat for the twins, and he's the family's quiet source of old tales and good advice.
Grandma (Margaret White)
Grandmother
Margaret White is a cosy, capable grandmother who's good at embroidery and loves making treats for the family. She dotes on Kitty and Mimmy and is the person they go to for crafts and baking lessons.
Dear Daniel and Kitty's friends
Kitty's friends are mostly classmates and neighbours, drawn in the same simple style as her. They're less famous than the Sanrio stars, but they're the regulars in her own books and cartoons.
Dear Daniel
Daniel Starr · Kitty's sweetheart
Daniel is Kitty's childhood friend. He spent years abroad with his photographer father and came back to London grown up and a little more worldly. He loves dancing and photography and is drawn as a natural match for Kitty, with a similar face and a blue outfit. Sanrio introduced him in 1999, and he's been her constant companion on Valentine's Day merchandise ever since.
Tippy
Bear · Classmate
Tippy is a bear cub in Kitty's class who has a soft spot for her and shows it by being helpful, sometimes too eagerly. He's kind, a bit shy, and the classic childhood admirer who'd never say anything out loud.
Cathy
Rabbit · Close friend
Cathy is a rabbit and one of Kitty's oldest friends. She's gentle, a little shy and happiest spending an afternoon playing or having tea with Kitty and Mimmy. She's one of the most frequent faces in classic Hello Kitty illustrations.
Joey
Mouse · Classmate
Joey is a small, bold mouse with plenty of confidence and ideas. He's quick to start a game or an adventure, and he's often paired with the boys of Kitty's class in group pictures.
Tracy
Raccoon · Classmate
Tracy is a playful raccoon from Kitty's circle, full of energy and fond of a joke. When the group needs livening up, Tracy is usually the one doing it.
Timmy & Tammy
Monkey twins
Timmy and Tammy are a pair of monkey twins in Kitty's class, a brother and sister. As a second set of twins in the cast, they're a natural match for Kitty and Mimmy.
Fifi
Friend
Fifi is one of Kitty's friends from her picture-book world. She's stylish and lively, and fits the cast's gentle, everyday stories about school and play. She appears mainly in group illustrations rather than stories of her own.
Jodie
Friend
Jodie is another regular in Kitty's friend group. She's cheerful and sporty, and she's often pictured in outdoor scenes with the rest of the class. Like Fifi, she's more of a background friend than a lead.
Tiny Chum
Teddy-bear friend
Tiny Chum is a small, cuddly teddy-bear character who keeps Kitty company. He's best known from merchandise, where he's often tucked under her arm or beside her on a bed.
Kitty's pets
Charmmy Kitty
Persian cat · Debut 2004
Charmmy is a white Persian cat, a present from Papa. She wears a key around her neck that opens Kitty's jewellery box. Her elegant, slightly grown-up look was designed with older fans in mind, and for a while she had her own merchandise line.
Sugar
Hamster
Sugar is Kitty's small pet hamster, usually pictured alongside Charmmy Kitty and easily the tiniest member of the household.
Hello Kitty and Friends: the Sanrio stars
When people search for "Hello Kitty and friends" they often mean the line-up Sanrio markets under that name: the main Sanrio characters appearing together. They aren't Kitty's classmates in her own stories, but they share her cartoons, games and shop shelves. The core group is:
- My Melody — a gentle rabbit from Mariland in a pink hood.
- Kuromi — My Melody's punk rival in a black jester hood.
- Cinnamoroll — the flying white puppy from Café Cinnamon.
- Pompompurin — a sleepy golden retriever in a brown beret.
- Keroppi — a cheerful frog from Donut Pond.
- Badtz-Maru — the spiky-haired penguin with an attitude.
- Pochacco — a sporty white pup with black ears.
- Little Twin Stars and Tuxedosam — 1970s classics who often join group collections.
Each of these has a full entry, with debut year, on the Sanrio characters page.
A short history of Hello Kitty
- 1974 Sanrio designer Yuko Shimizu creates the character. The first product, a small vinyl coin purse, goes on sale in Japan in 1975.
- 1980 Yuko Yamaguchi becomes Kitty's lead designer and shapes the look and world of the character for decades.
- 1987 Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater, an American cartoon, puts Kitty and friends into fairy-tale parodies.
- 1990 Sanrio Puroland opens near Tokyo, with Kitty as its star.
- 1999 Dear Daniel is introduced as Kitty's sweetheart.
- 2004 Charmmy Kitty arrives as Kitty's pet cat.
- 2014 Kitty's 40th anniversary, and the viral "she's not a cat" debate.
- 2020 Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures begins on YouTube.
- 2023 Hello Kitty Island Adventure launches on Apple Arcade.
- 2024 Hello Kitty celebrates 50 years.
Why Hello Kitty has lasted fifty years
Most long-running characters survive by changing. Hello Kitty survives by hardly changing at all. Her face is so simple that it can be dressed as anything (a nurse, a rock star, a sushi roll, a luxury-brand mascot) without stopping being her. Her world is so gentle that nothing in it ever goes out of date. Her famous blankness does a lot of work too: she isn't telling you how to feel, so you bring your own feelings to her.
That's the opposite of story-first casts like My Little Pony, whose characters are defined by their arcs. It's closer to the greeting-card worlds of the Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake, which were also designed as art before they were stories. For more on how simple shapes carry a character, see our guide to character design.
Where to start
- Supercute Adventures — short, free episodes on Sanrio's YouTube channel. They're the easiest way to see Kitty with her Sanrio friends.
- Hello Kitty Island Adventure — a cosy game for older kids and adults, built around friendship and exploring.
- Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater — for a nostalgic, very 1980s take on the character.
All Hello Kitty character names A–Z
A–C
- Anthony White — Grandpa
- Badtz-Maru — Sanrio friend
- Cathy — rabbit friend
- Charmmy Kitty — pet Persian cat
- Cinnamoroll — Sanrio friend
D–J
- Dear Daniel (Daniel Starr) — sweetheart
- Fifi — friend
- George White — Papa
- Hello Kitty (Kitty White) — lead
- Jodie — friend
- Joey — mouse classmate
K–M
- Keroppi — Sanrio friend
- Kuromi — Sanrio friend
- Little Twin Stars — Sanrio friends
- Margaret White — Grandma
- Mary White — Mama
- Mimmy White — twin sister
- My Melody — Sanrio friend
P–S
- Pochacco — Sanrio friend
- Pompompurin — Sanrio friend
- Sugar — pet hamster
T
- Timmy & Tammy — monkey twins
- Tiny Chum — teddy-bear friend
- Tippy — bear classmate
- Tracy — raccoon classmate
- Tuxedosam — Sanrio friend
Frequently asked questions
What are Hello Kitty's family members' names?
Hello Kitty's full name is Kitty White. Her family are her twin sister Mimmy, her father George, her mother Mary, and her grandparents Anthony and Margaret White. They live in the suburbs of London.
Does Hello Kitty have a sister?
Yes, an identical twin called Mimmy. The quickest way to tell them apart is the bow: Kitty wears a red bow on her left ear, and Mimmy wears a yellow bow on her right. Mimmy is the shyer of the two.
Who is Hello Kitty's boyfriend?
Dear Daniel, whose full name is Daniel Starr. He's her childhood friend, who came back to London after years of travelling with his photographer father. Sanrio introduced him in 1999.
Is Hello Kitty a cat?
Sanrio's answer is that she's a little girl who is a personification of a cat, not a cat in the pet sense. She walks on two legs, goes to school and has a pet cat of her own, Charmmy Kitty. The question went viral in 2014 after a comment from an academic, and it still comes up every few years.
Why doesn't Hello Kitty have a mouth?
Sanrio has said that Kitty speaks from her heart, and that her missing mouth lets people project their own feelings onto her. She looks happy when you're happy and sympathetic when you're sad. In animation she's sometimes given a mouth so she can talk.
How old is Hello Kitty?
The character first appeared in 1974, so the brand passed fifty in 2024. In her story she's a young schoolgirl who never ages, with her birthday on November 1.