Tabby Cat Names, and the Word That Came Before the Cat

Most cats on Earth are tabbies, which is exactly why naming one feels hard: the coat is the default, not the distinguishing feature. So this page starts somewhere the lists never go, with the word itself. "Tabby" was a fabric before it was a cat, the stripes come in four registry-defined patterns that each carry their own vocabulary, and the M on the forehead has three legends attached to it that nobody can source. The names follow from all of that. (Ginger and marmalade names have their own page, orange cat names; this one is about the pattern, whatever the base color.)

A striped silk from a Baghdad neighborhood

Open the Online Etymology Dictionary at "tabby" and the first sense listed is not an animal. It is a cloth: "silken stuff, striped silk taffeta," recorded in English in the 1630s, borrowed from the French tabis, a rich watered silk, which came from the Arabic 'attabi, after 'Attabiyah, the quarter of Baghdad where the fabric was first made. The neighborhood is "said to be" named after a prince 'Attab of the Umayyad dynasty, and Etymonline keeps that hedge, so we keep it too.

The cat arrived late. By the 1660s "tabby" described anything with a wavy or watered look; "tabby cat" for a striped cat is attested from the 1690s, and the bare "tabby" for the animal only by 1774. Merriam-Webster's own history of the word tells the same chain. Which means the stripes were named after the silk, not the other way around, and a whole family of names below (Taffeta, Silk, Damask, Brocade) is not a stretch but the word's own biography.

The four patterns, in the registry's words

The Cat Fanciers' Association defines four tabby patterns, and its wording is better than anything a name list has ever offered. Mackerel is "the pattern where the stripes are narrow and run parallel to one another like the bones of a fish." Classic, also called blotched, is "a pattern where there are elaborate swirls on the sides and butterflies over the shoulders." Spotted is what happens when "the stripes or swirls appear to be broken into spots of color." Ticked "appears as multiple bands of color on each hair on the body and head with barring on the legs and tail."

Each pattern is a naming theme of its own. A mackerel gives you fish and line words: Herringbone, Fishbone, Pinstripe. A classic gives you the whorl vocabulary: Whorl, Spiral, Bullseye, and Oyster, an older synonym for the blotched pattern that the cat-fancy historian Sarah Hartwell records and CFA does not use. A spotted tabby is a Rosette or a Polka. A ticked one wears the banding itself: Tick, Ticking, Agouti, the name of the banded hair type under every tabby coat. If you are not sure which one is sitting on your lap, our tabby cat guide walks through the four with photographs.

The M on the forehead: three legends, no history

Every tabby pattern shares one mark, and CFA's coat descriptions name it plainly: "an 'M' on the forehead." The Egyptian Mau standard calls it the "characteristic M and frown marks." That much is registry fact. Everything about why is folklore, and it should be enjoyed as such.

A popular Islamic legend says the Prophet Muhammad's cat Muezza killed a snake that threatened him, and that he stroked her forehead in thanks, leaving the mark. A Christian legend says a cat warmed the infant Jesus in the manger and Mary stroked it, with the same result. A third, retold on fewer pages, says the Ancient Egyptians called their cats mau and that the M marked their high status. None of the three traces to a dated text; the two vet-reviewed sources we read present them exactly as retellings. The sourced explanation is duller and truer: the M is produced by the same pattern genetics as every other tabby marking, and no separate gene for its shape has been identified.

The legends still make excellent names. Muezza, Mau, Mary and Manger are on the list, with the caveat attached.

Famous tabbies, only the verified ones

Name lists love a famous cat and rarely check one. These four check out.

Garfield is an orange tabby, not a Persian as one competitor page claims; he debuted in newspapers on 19 June 1978, drawn by Jim Davis. His color belongs on the orange page; his stripes belong here. Larry, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, has lived at 10 Downing Street since February 2011 after arriving from Battersea, and every outlet that describes him says brown-and-white or tabby-and-white. Nobody calls him ginger, which makes him the perfect proof that tabby is a pattern, not a color.

Think Think and Ah Tsai were the cats of Tsai Ing-wen, president of Taiwan from 2016 to 2024: a grey tabby female found injured after Typhoon Saola in 2012 and named after the Thinking Taiwan foundation, and a ginger tabby male who had been a farm cat near a pineapple field in Taitung. Both appeared in campaign videos. And Bob, of A Street Cat Named Bob, was the stray James Bowen found in a Tottenham hallway in 2007; the books and the 2016 film followed, and he died in June 2020 after being hit by a car. CNN and every other source call him a ginger cat. None says "tabby" of him by name, so we do not either, even though a ginger cat almost always shows the pattern.

Where the popular names come from

There is no tabby-specific name ranking in any of our four markets. The pet-insurance datasets that rank cat names (U.S. News with Fletch in the US, Go.Compare in the UK, Pet Insurance Australia, and now Spot Pet Insurance and Rover in Canada) rank every cat together, never by coat or pattern. We looked for the orange page three days ago and again for this one, and the answer is the same. So this page does not carry a "most popular tabby names" table, because one does not exist; the all-coat rankings live on our cat names hub, and Luna, Milo and Leo lead them whatever the stripes.

Names by theme, with the stories that earned them

The word's own story. Attab, the Baghdad prince the silk quarter is said to be named for. Attabi, the fabric's Arabic name. Baghdad, where the quarter stood. Taffeta, the exact fabric "tabby" first meant in English. Silk, the family the French tabis belonged to. Tabatha and Tabina, the human names the cat word keeps drifting toward; Tabitha is already in our pool.

The legends. Muezza, the cat of the Islamic M legend. Mau, the Egyptian word for cat, which is real Egyptology even if its link to the M is not. Manger and Mary, for the Christian version, offered as the legend they are.

The patterns. Mackerel, CFA's own name for the wild-type stripes. Whorl, CFA's word for the classic swirl. Oyster, the older name for the same pattern. Rosette, Bullseye, Herringbone, Fishbone: the fish-bone and target vocabulary the registry descriptions invite. Tick, Ticking and Agouti, for the fourth pattern and the hair type beneath all of them.

The real cats. Cabinet, after Larry's title. Think, after Think Think. Tsai, after Ah Tsai. Garfield is already in the pool, and Larry's own name is too common to need a note.

Tigers and their country. Tigris, a river near the silk trade and a name that sounds like what it is. Amur, the largest tiger. Rajah, the Hindi word for king that Disney gave Jasmine's tiger. Sundarban, the Bengal tiger's mangrove forest. Shere and Khan, for Kipling's tiger, with Mowgli and Tabaqui from the same book.

The big list: 180 tabby names

Stripes and patterns. Stripes, Zebra, Swirl, Mackerel, Pinstripe, Chevron, Dapple, Dappled, Mottle, Mottled, Speckle, Speckled, Fleck, Flecked, Whorl, Vortex, Spiral, Ripple, Rippled, Zigzag, Herringbone, Fishbone, Blotch, Blotchy, Rosette, Bullseye, Oyster, Barcode, Dots, Polka, Patchwork, Etching, Marbled, Streak, Streaky, Bars, Tick, Ticking, Agouti.

Tigers and wild cats. Tigra, Tigre, Tigress, Shere, Khan, Sherekhan, Rajah, Jaguar, Leopard, Cheetah, Bobcat, Cougar, Ocelot, Margay, Serval, Caracal, Wildcat, Sabertooth, Tigris, Amur, Kimba, Tygra, Panthera, Catamount, Lynxie, Harimau, Rimau, Sundarban, Tabaqui, Mowgli.

Fabrics, for a word that started as cloth. Tweedy, Tartan, Plaid, Flannel, Denim, Corduroy, Damask, Houndstooth, Chintz, Silk, Silky, Taffeta, Velvet, Brocade, Gingham, Seersucker, Cambric, Muslin, Weave, Woven, Loom, Textile, Fabric, Yarn, Thread.

Wood grain, because a classic tabby's swirls look like cut timber. Oak, Birch, Walnut, Mahogany, Teak, Hickory, Pine, Grain, Timber, Burl, Knothole, Driftwood, Bark, Woody, Sequoia, Elm, Redwood, Sandalwood, Rosewood, Beech, Alder, Plank, Sawdust, Whittle, Woodgrain, Cedarwood.

Nature and camouflage, the coat's original job. Thicket, Underbrush, Heather, Reed, Sedge, Hedge, Nettle, Khaki, Sepia, Umber, Ochre, Bronze, Fawn, Dusk, Twilight, Rust, Marsh, Moor, Wold, Copse, Bush, Savanna, Savannah, Steppe, Prairie, Jungle, Canopy, Undergrowth, Loam, Camo, Camouflage, Stealth, Ghillie, Hideaway.

Brown, grey and silver forms of the pattern. Charcoal, Graphite, Granite, Argent, Platinum, Steel, Iron, Anthracite, Hazelnut, Tarnish, Tarnished, Dovegrey, Stonewash, Fogbank. (Orange forms are on the orange page; the silver and blue tabbies overlap with grey cat names.)

The word and the legends. Attab, Attabi, Baghdad, Taffy, Tabina, Tabatha, Muezza, Mau, Think, Tsai, Cabinet.

Already in our pool and just as good for a tabby: Tiger, Tigger, Stripe, Hobbes, Chai, Toast, Cheddar, Maple, Willow, Bracken, Tabitha, Puma, Sandy, Freckles, Bramble, Marble, Brindle, Paisley, Quilt, Nutmeg, Cheshire, Bandit, Zorro. The name generator filters them by gender and style.

What to take away

• "Tabby" entered English in the 1630s as the name of a striped silk from the 'Attabiyah quarter of Baghdad; "tabby cat" is only attested from the 1690s, so the cloth names (Taffeta, Silk, Damask) are the word's real ancestry.
• The Cat Fanciers' Association recognizes four tabby patterns, mackerel, classic (blotched), spotted and ticked, and each pattern's registry wording gives a naming theme of its own.
• The M on every tabby forehead is registry fact; the Muhammad, Mary and Egyptian legends explaining it are retellings with no dated source, and no separate gene for the M's shape has been identified.
• Larry of Downing Street is a tabby who is not orange, and Bob of A Street Cat Named Bob is a ginger cat no source calls a tabby by name: tabby is a pattern, and color is a separate question.
• No pet-insurance dataset in the US, UK, Canada or Australia ranks names by coat, so there is no "most popular tabby name" figure; the all-coat rankings are on our cat names hub.