Why Lupita Nyong'o Refused to Change Her Rescue Cat's Name (Even If 'I Would Never Have Named Him' That)

Lupita Nyong'o was adamant about not changing her rescue cat's name when she adopted him.

Last year, the A Quiet Place: Day One actress added a pet cat to her family when she adopted Yoyo from the Best Friends Adoption Center.

What was the inspiration for the moniker? "The name Yoyo was the name that I got him with," Nyong'o, 41, tells PEOPLE. "It was the name that the adoption center gave him, and they asked me whether I wanted to change it. I was like, 'Absolutely not.' "

"I would never have named him Yoyo," she admits, adding, "and it's such a perfect name."

Before making A Quiet Place: Day One, the Black Panther actress didn't consider herself a cat person. However, she was forced to share the screen with a feline costar in the horror-thriller and grew to appreciate cats through the project.

"I had been afraid of cats," Nyong'o explains. "I just hadn't spent much time with them. This film forced me to learn about cats, and I had to look like I owned a cat, and look like I cared, and look like I loved the cat. In the process of playing that pretend, I actually fell in love with the cats, Nico and Schnitzel. They're so sweet and cute."

She says, "There's something that melts your heart when they hold onto you. It was a bond that I had with them."

The star adds that when she returned to her "real life" and was "going through a hard time, I just had a little voice saying, 'Get a cat,' and I got a cat. I have not regretted it."

"I'm way less lonely with my cat, and he pried my heart open," says Nyong'o.

When she introduced her "new companion" to the world on Instagram in October, the Oscar winner said, "It may look like I saved Yoyo, but really, Yoyo is saving me."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Nyong'o tells PEOPLE one trait she loves about cats is their independence: "They take care of themselves. ... And they're also very opinionated, and they just have their personality, and you have to take them or leave them. I love that about them. They remind me of me."

Plus, if an alien invasion disaster were to happen in real life like it does in her Quiet Place film, cats would outlive noisy dogs, she says.

"Having a dog would be a definite liability [in that apocalyptic scenario]. They would never remain silent. The truth is cats are just way stealthier and way better at staying alive. For that reason, I would say get a cat."

A Quiet Place: Day One is in theaters on June 28.