This is the 2445th most frequent Swedish word.
hette
"Hette" means "was called" or "was named" in English.
In this case, 'hette' describes the past name of a pet.
Min gamla katt hette Simba.
My old cat was named Simba.
The verb 'hette' is in the past tense and is used to indicate what someone's name was in the past.
När hon föddes, hette hon Karin.
When she was born, her name was Karin.
Here, 'hette' is again in the past tense referring to the name of a place historically.