by Anna Goddard
Contrary to popular belief, “tabby” is actually not a breed of cat, but rather a coat pattern. The pattern appears in different breeds of cats. This pattern comes in five different forms including stripes, spots, whorls, and more, with each variation having its own name. The Classic Tabby pattern is whorls, or spirals, that create the shape of a target on the side of the cat. It is also sometimes called a “blotched tabby.”
Classic Tabby cat looking at camera. Image Source.
Mackerel Tabby cats are the striped cats with rings around their tails and legs, reminiscent of a raccoon tail, and stripes around the rest of their body.
Mackerel Tabby with stripes. Image Source.
The Spotted Tabby has bands of spots instead of stripes.
Spotted Tabby cat sleeping. Image Source.
The Patched Tabby has the Tabby stripes of dark or grayish brown across patches of red or orange fur. These are also called Tortoiseshell (or Tortie) Tabbies.
Orange, brown, white, and black Patched Tabby. Image Source.
The last fur pattern is the Ticked Tabby. This tabby doesn’t have the obvious bands of stripes or spots as the other tabby patterns, except for possibly on the legs. Instead, if you look closely at the hairs of this cat, each strand has stripes of light and dark coloring. Also known as Abyssinian Tabby or agouti Tabby cats, these cats have the classic “M” marking on their forehead.
Ticked Tabby cat. Photo courtesy of the author.
The distinct “M” marking on a Tabby’s forehead appears across patterns. It is thought by some to stand for either “Mau,” which is the Egyptian word for “cat” (and the cute little sound they make), the Virgin Mary, or also Mohammed, who is said to have loved Tabbies.
The Tabby patterns seen today all started with the mackerel pattern, which is the natural coat pattern of the African wildcat. A large study using DNA analysis to determine the geographical spread and domestication of these cats revealed that the tabby coat appeared in the Middle Ages, but didn’t become widespread until about the 18th century. The name “Tabby” originally came from comparing the coat pattern to striped cloth and silk from the “Attabiy” district in Baghdad. “Atabis” was the 14th century Middle French term. This became “tabis,” and eventually morphed into our English word, “tabby.”
Now, the tabby coat pattern appears across many different breeds of cats. Abyssinian Tabby cats, nicknamed “Aby” cats, commonly have ticked tabby coats. The Maine Coon is the most popular purebred Tabby cat, known for being very large. Oriental Tabby cats demonstrate all the different coat patterns. The Ocicat sports the spotted tabby pattern. The American Curl, whose ears curl backward as the name suggests, comes in a variety of tabby patterns. The Domestic shorthair is the most common type of cat, and is a group of different breeds that come in all sorts of Tabby patterns and can vary in coat colorings. Because Tabby cats exist across a variety of breeds of cats, there is no real “Tabby personality.” Their personality traits are more distinct to which breed they are rather than the markings that define them as Tabbies. Whatever breed or pattern they sport, we can all agree that Tabby Cats are pretty great.
