You are right, though technically it derived from tiếng Hán Việt (Chinese/sino vietnamese) and or tiếng Nôm (old vietnamese) of the word “miêu” in which also came from the sound that cats make. Also if you know about the vietnamese horoscope (tí, sửu, dần etc...) there’s “Mẹo” is also one of the old vietnamese word of the word “mèo” too!