Tuxedo Cat Names, With the Records Checked

A tuxedo cat comes pre-dressed, so most name lists stop at Oreo and Penguin and call it a day. This page does the other half of the job first: the famous black-and-white cats people actually copy, checked one by one at the source, including two household names who turn out never to have been tuxedos at all. The list, sorted by theme, comes after. (Other coats have their own pages: calico, white, tabby and black.)

One honest line before we start: nobody publishes a ranking of tuxedo cat names. Not the US pet insurers, not the UK ones, not Australia, not Canada. We looked for it directly rather than assuming, and every "most popular tuxedo names" figure online traces back to a listicle with no dataset behind it. So there is no top ten here, because there is no data to build one from.

First, the word

The pattern is named after a garment that is younger than most people think. The dinner jacket first turns up in print in 1889 and takes its name from Tuxedo Park, a country club community in New York state where, the story goes, it appeared in 1886 as a less formal alternative to the swallow-tail evening coat. The place name is older and has nothing to do with clothes: it comes from a Munsee Delaware phrase, p'tuck-sepo, meaning "crooked river." The short form "tux" is first recorded in 1922, which makes Tux, the single most common tuxedo cat name, a century old as a word.

And the pattern is not a breed. No registry uses "tuxedo" as a class or a judging term. TICA's own owner page puts it plainly: "Solid black and white cats are often referred to as Tux. That is not a breed or an official color name." The coat itself, how the white spreads and why, is on our tuxedo cat page; this one is about what to call the cat wearing it.

The famous tuxedos, checked

Here is the bench, with what each record actually says. We stopped at the cats we could source; there are sixteen of them, and we would rather give you sixteen true stories than forty borrowed ones.

• Socks, the Clinton White House cat. The Clinton Presidential Library's own page describes him as "a stray tuxedo cat adopted by President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton when they lived in Arkansas," found under the porch of Chelsea's piano teacher and named for his white paws. First Cat from 1993 to 2001.
• Sylvester, of Looney Tunes. Debuted on 24 March 1945 in Life with Feathers, created by Friz Freleng; full name Sylvester James Pussycat, catchphrase "Sufferin' succotash." Three of his shorts won Academy Awards, more than any other starring Looney Tunes character, and his own entry files him as a tuxedo cat.
• Humphrey, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office. A long-haired black and white stray who served 10 Downing Street from October 1989 to November 1997, under Thatcher, Major and Blair, then retired to suburban London.
• Palmerston, Chief Mouser to the Foreign Office. A tuxedo from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, named after the nineteenth-century Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, in post from April 2016 to August 2020. His rivalry with Larry, the Downing Street cat, produced a documented fight on 1 August 2016. He came out of retirement in Bermuda in 2025 as "feline relations consultant" to the Governor and died there in February 2026.
• Simon, of HMS Amethyst. The only cat ever awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal, the animal Victoria Cross. Smuggled aboard the frigate in Hong Kong in 1948, wounded by shellfire during the 1949 Yangtze Incident, and cited for continuing to "stalk down and destroy" the rat that was raiding the besieged crew's food. He died in quarantine in November 1949. Neither the PDSA nor the encyclopedias describe his coat; the "small black-and-white tuxedo cat" line comes from a Popular Science feature.
• Jess, Postman Pat's cat. "His black and white cat Jess" is the show's own description, on British television since September 1981, later with a spin-off of his own.
• Stan, Tuxedo Stan of Halifax. A real Nova Scotia cat who "ran" for mayor in 2012 on a mandatory spay and neuter platform, backed by a group called the Tuxedo Party. The stunt had a real outcome: the city funded a low-cost clinic and a trap-neuter-return program.
• Figaro, Geppetto's kitten in Disney's Pinocchio (1940), an original Disney creation not found in Collodi's novel. He is drawn black and white, though we could not find a reference source that states his coat pattern, so take that from the screen rather than from us.

The two famous tuxedos who were not

Felix the Cat is on every tuxedo list, and he does not belong there. His 1919 design, in the words of his animator Otto Messmer, is solid black with white facial features only: the eyes and a highlight on the muzzle, a contrast trick for silent film. A black cat with a white face is not a tuxedo, and Felix's chest was never white.

Mr Mistoffelees is the better story. T. S. Eliot wrote him solid black in 1939, in the poem's own words: "He is quiet and small, he is black / From his ears to the tip of his tail." The tuxedo look arrived in 1981 with the stage musical Cats, and for a practical reason rather than an artistic one: a pure black costume disappears under stage lighting, so the character was dressed in black and white to stay visible. The cat everyone pictures as a tuxedo was written black and became a tuxedo to solve a lighting problem.

Unsinkable Sam: where the record runs out

The viral version says one cat survived three sinkings in 1941, the Bismarck, HMS Cossack and HMS Ark Royal. The documented part is the last one: a black-and-white patched cat named Oscar was rescued from the Ark Royal on 14 November 1941, was photographed, and lived out his years in a sailors' home in Belfast until 1955. A portrait of him hangs in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The Bismarck and Cossack chapters are the legend: the encyclopedia entry itself says there is no firm evidence linking the cat to either ship, the detailed accounts of the Bismarck's sinking never mention him, and the surviving photographs said to show "Oscar" appear to show two different cats. Name a cat Sam for the story by all means, but tell it straight.

Formalwear names

The theme writes itself: the cat already wears the suit. Tux is the word's own 1922 short form. Bond is the character's signature black tie across the novels and the films. Jeeves, P. G. Wodehouse's valet, and Alfred, the Wayne family butler, are the two great fictional men in evening dress. Oreo, Domino, Penguin and Bowtie are pattern names with no history to report, which is fine; not every name needs a footnote. The list below adds the rest of the wardrobe and the staff: Spats, Cuff, Lapel, Butler, Valet, Concierge, Usher, Groom.

Jazz and the black-and-white screen

Black and white is also an era. Chaplin: Charlie Chaplin, "widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen," whose Tramp was himself dressed for contrast, bowler hat and cane against baggy trousers. Keaton: Buster Keaton, the deadpan "Great Stone Face" of silent film. Ella: Ella Fitzgerald, "known for the wide range and rare sweetness of her voice," the First Lady of Song. Louis: Louis Armstrong, "the leading trumpeter and one of the most influential artists in jazz history." From there the list runs through Duke, Basie, Miles, Nina, Billie and Etta, and the Marx Brothers for the funny end.

The list, by theme

Names marked with a note carry a checked origin; the rest are pattern, sound and mood. Our tuxedo cat page has the photos if you want to match a name to a face.

Evening dress and the people who wear it

• Tux
• Tuxie
• Tuxy
• Bond
• Jeeves
• Wooster
• Alfred
• Butler
• Valet
• Steward
• Chauffeur
• Concierge
• Usher
• Groom
• Bestman
• Prom
• Formal
• Spats
• Cuff
• Cufflink
• Collar
• Lapel
• Tails
• Boots
• Bowtie
• Dapper
• Debonair
• Suave
• Regal
• Royale

Jazz, swing and the ballroom

• Ella, for Ella Fitzgerald
• Louis, for Louis Armstrong
• Duke
• Basie
• Miles
• Nina
• Billie
• Etta
• Cab
• Dizzy
• Monk
• Bebop
• Scat
• Swing
• Croon
• Crooner
• Charleston
• Harlem
• Waltz
• Tango
• Rumba
• Mambo
• Foxtrot
• Ballroom
• Encore
• Maestro
• Diva
• Aria
• Opera
• Sonata
• Puccini
• Verdi
• Piano
• Keys
• Ivory
• Ebony
• Treble
• Clef
• Melody
• Harmony

The black-and-white screen

• Chaplin, for Charlie Chaplin
• Keaton, for Buster Keaton
• Cary, as in Cary Grant
• Fred, as in Fred Astaire, top hat and tails
• Ginger, as in Ginger Rogers
• Bogie, as in Humphrey Bogart
• Bacall
• Garbo
• Marlene
• Hepburn
• Groucho
• Harpo
• Chico
• Zeppo
• Laurel
• Hardy
• Casablanca
• Rick
• Ilsa
• Metropolis
• Nosferatu
• Reel
• Marquee
• Newsprint
• Inkwell
• Quill

Famous cats and characters

• Socks, the Clinton White House cat
• Sylvester, of Looney Tunes
• Simon, the Dickin Medal cat of HMS Amethyst
• Humphrey and Palmerston, the Whitehall mousers
• Jess, Postman Pat's cat
• Stan, Tuxedo Stan of Halifax
• Figaro, from Pinocchio
• Mistoffelees, black in the poem, tuxedo on stage
• Stevens, for Cat Stevens
• Choupette
• Cheshire
• Sylvie
• Puss
• Zorro
• Batman
• Sherlock
• Watson
• Moriarty
• Poirot
• Marple
• Gatsby
• Nick
• Nora

Penguins, orcas and other things in black and white

• Penguin
• Pingu
• Waddles
• Chilly
• Flipper
• Rookery
• Emperor
• Gentoo
• Orca
• Shamu
• Skunk
• Badger
• Zebra
• Panda Bear
• Magpie
• Puffin
• Yin
• Yang
• Domino
• Checkers
• Chess
• Rook
• Knight
• Pawn
• Contrast
• Blackout

Sweet and savory

• Oreo
• Cookie
• Biscotti
• Espresso
• Mocha
• Vanilla
• Fudge
• Choco
• Reese
• Salt
• Salt-n-Pepper
• Cotton
• Marble
• Diamond
• Jet

Cards, titles and the classics

• Ace
• King
• Queenie
• Joker
• Deuce
• Spade
• Diamonds
• Club
• Poker
• Vegas
• Casino
• Roulette
• Blackjack
• Sir
• Lord
• Baron
• Baroness
• Duchess
• Countess
• Earl
• Viscount
• Marquis
• Crown
• Scepter
• Newton
• Darwin
• Poe
• Dickens
• Austen
• Bronte
• Shakespeare
• Hamlet
• Othello
• Yorick
• Whiskers
• Mustache

What to take away

• "Tuxedo" is a pattern, not a breed: TICA's own page calls it "a great nickname," and no registry judges by it.
• The word is younger than the cats: the jacket is first recorded in 1889, named after Tuxedo Park in New York, and "tux" dates from 1922.
• Felix the Cat (solid black, white face) and Mr Mistoffelees (written black by Eliot in 1939, dressed in black and white for stage lighting in 1981) are the two famous "tuxedos" who were never tuxedos.
• Unsinkable Sam's Ark Royal rescue in November 1941 is documented; his Bismarck and Cossack service is legend, by the encyclopedia's own account.
• Simon of HMS Amethyst is the only cat ever awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal, in 1949.
• No insurer or registry in the US, UK, Canada or Australia publishes a ranking of tuxedo cat names; every "most popular" figure online comes from a listicle.