Himalayan vs Persian: The Merger Both Sides Voted Against

Is a Himalayan a different breed from a Persian? The honest answer: four registries give four different answers, and the story of how is better than any verdict. In 1957, CFA recognized the Himalayan as its OWN breed. Its champion, Mrs. Goforth, argued that although the standard was identical to the Persian's, the pointed cat was a new breed of longhair. For 27 years it ran as one.

Then, in 1984, CFA asked both affected breed councils whether the Himalayan should become a division of the Persian. BOTH councils, the Persian breeders and the Himalayan breeders alike, voted no. The CFA Board merged them anyway, reasoning from its own 1970 precedent of accepting Bi-Color Persians with shorthair ancestry. That board override, documented in CFA's own hosted history of the breed, is why an American Himalayan is today registered as "Persian, Himalayan Division."

The four answers, registry by registry

CFA (US): a Persian color division since 1984; cfa.org has no Himalayan breed page at all (its own 404 confirms it). TICA (US/international): its own registered breed, with its own breed page and registration row, judged under ONE standard shared with Persian and Exotic Shorthair (both pages link the identical standard PDF: we compared the URLs). GCCF (UK): a third name entirely, "Colourpoint", a pattern group inside the Persian breed whose page never uses the word Himalayan. The name survives in UK paperwork only as a carrier-status stamp.

Two dedicated clubs (the Colourpoint Cat Club and the Colourpoint Society of Great Britain) keep the pattern's own fancier community alive. CCA-AFC (Canada): the true outlier. It runs the pointed Himalayan and the Non-Pointed Himalayan as two fully separate breeds, in capital letters in its own standards, while permitting free intercrossing among Himalayan, Non-Pointed Himalayan and Persian. ACF (Australia) follows the GCCF shape: "Colourpoint Persians," a section inside the Persian standard.

What this means if you are buying or moving

The identical cat is a different administrative identity depending on which country's paperwork it carries. A kitten sold as "Persian, Himalayan Division" in Texas is its own breed on a TICA pedigree, a "Colourpoint Persian" in London, and one of two separate Himalayan breeds in Toronto. When paperwork crosses a border, the receiving registry re-files the cat under its own system. Nothing about the animal changes. This is also why marketplace shopping differs by country (the price page shows Canada can filter by "Himalayan" and the UK cannot).

The throughline: one document scores the cat

Beneath the naming argument sits a quieter fact: whatever a registry calls this cat, essentially one physical description is being judged. TICA's Himalayan and Persian pages link the same standard. CFA's Himalayan Division sits inside the Persian standard. GCCF's Colourpoint is a section of the Persian Standard of Points. Every registry position is a filing decision, and CFA's own hosted history shows exactly how human those decisions are. None of the five rests on a claim that the cats are biologically different. The one genuinely different body of paper is Canada's, and even there the standards share their origin story word for word.

Not the same question: Himalayan vs Exotic Shorthair

One line, because the confusion recurs. TICA's Persian Breed Group standard states it directly: the group "comprises the Persian (PS), Himalayan (HI) and the Exotic shorthair (ES). All have the same head and body type." The Himalayan is the long-coated pointed member; the Exotic Shorthair is the short-coated member. Coat is the visible difference, color is not.

Five registries on one card