# What does a "tabby" cat mean to you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099 "2009-03-20T00:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/21 "2009-03-20T03:55:18Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Whereas calico(e)s are always female, yes? Almost always. You can get XXY male calicos, though they are usually sterile. I’ve met a couple over the years, but they certainly aren’t common. > [@](#): > > Are the genes for coat color coded onto the sex chromosomes in some weird way? They’re on the X chromosome, so males get one copy and are either O ( orange ) or o ( non-orange ). But a female will only be all orange if she is OO. She’ll be non-orange if she is oo. But Oo, impossible for most males, will get you a mix, a la a calico or tortoiseshell. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/22 "2009-03-20T04:36:26Z")
All I know is that when we adopted [this cat](http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b86/kkobayashi1/DSC_0003-3.jpg), the description (at the shleter) said “Classic Tabby.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/23 "2009-03-20T05:05:54Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > This kind of kitty. > > [Tabby Cat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CAT2007_05_16.jpg) Exactly that one for me, too. That’s what I picture if somebody mentions a tabby. Factually, however, I know that besides the obvious example of orange tabbies, many other breeds or colors can be tabby under the fir, even cats that appear solid black. Does anyone know if tabbies are striped on their skin, the way tigers are supposed to be? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/24 "2009-03-20T05:42:21Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > This kind of kitty. > > [Tabby Cat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CAT2007_05_16.jpg) Precisely. I understand that ‘tabby’ refers to the pattern of stripes, not the colour, and comes from the Turkish ‘Atabiyah’, where the cats originated. I could easily be misremembering that. :: checks Wikipedia :: Oh yes, that was a little garbled: > [@](#): > > The word, adapted from the name of a kind of textile, comes from French _tabis_, which was earlier _atabis_, and in medieval Latin _attabi_. The distant origin of the word seems to be from the Attabiyah section of Baghdad where a type of striped silk was made that was later used to describe cats. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/25 "2009-03-20T05:57:10Z")
Huh. I’ve lived with two female marmalades, at the same time. One had black freckles on her lips, but I don’t think that makes her a calico. The other one isn’t very small. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/26 "2009-03-20T06:47:27Z")
My tabby has spots, like a leopard, on her sides. No stripes, and a big bushy tail. I’ll try to come up with a photo. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/27 "2009-03-20T06:57:50Z")
Okay time for the story. My “internet name” all over is (as you may have guessed) Tabby\_Cat. One day, I signed off on an email as “sad tabby”. The next day, a colleague came up to me and went “ha ha ha tabby ha ha”. “Mwa?” goes I. “Why did you sign off as tabby? Don’t you know that a tabby is a female cat?” \Oh and btw, I’ve got the dangly bits.\ “No it does NOT! It means a striped cat! Where on earth did you get the idea that it meant a female cat?” “Because it does!” “Yeah right. Hey cow-orker B, what does ‘tabby’ mean?” “Means a female cat. Why?” My perplexion got more perplexed. “Gah no it doesn’t! Cow-orker B! What does ‘tabby’ mean?” “A female cat, of course.” “NOoooooooooo it does not!” This went on for a while until I ran out of cow-orkers. Finally, I turned to google. And lo and behold, what do I [find](http://www.answers.com/tabby)? > [@](#): > > 3b. A domestic cat, especially a female. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/28 "2009-03-20T07:10:41Z")
These are my three tabbies: [My classic tabby Genevieve](http://brookenelson.com/viva2.jpg) [My orange boy Ulysses](http://brookenelson.com/ulysses2.jpg) [My tabby girl Felicity with white paws and belly and splotches of orange](http://brookenelson.com/flizz.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/29 "2009-03-20T10:44:17Z")
**Tabby** , that’s… very strange. As far as I know tabbies are either gender. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/30 "2009-03-20T10:59:19Z")
I have owned several tabby cats, and at least half of them were male…to me “tabby” means “striped.” Doesn’t matter if they are of the orange/white or gray/white or black/white variety. The OP’s friends are perhaps confusing tabby cats with the human nickname “Tabby,” whose origin is in the female name “Tabitha.” I haven’t (and won’t) research it, but AFAIK, the two have nothing in common. I do note a distinction between “calico” and “tortoiseshell” cats…the former being three colors in generally splotchy patterns…the latter being a cat with just two colors in either splotchy or evenly distributed colors. (My first cat was a gray and orange tortoiseshell female; she was such an organized young feline that her four kittens were two solid gray males, and two solid orange females. Yes, solid orange cats do occur.) Tabby cats are just striped cats. Of either sex. Period. The stripe can vary into spots at certain points, but really we’re talking about a mainly two-toned cat. I’ve never once heard anyone assume that a tabby cat is of the female variety. Calico cats are the only cats that are almost always female, as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/31 "2009-03-20T11:07:14Z")
I will ask (brief hijack!) if anyone else besides me has a certain affinity/fondness for certain coat varieties in cats… I have a weakness for tuxedo cats…mainly black with white paws/chest/mustache…and by the same token I’m just not “attracted” to solid-colored cats regardless of what color it is. (Gray, white, black, orange, etc.) Should a true cat-lover not care? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/32 "2009-03-20T11:43:25Z")
I’ve always imagined them dark - even though I have had a silver Tabby. I would have not considered orange tabby. I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/33 "2009-03-20T13:31:07Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Oh, and I have an [orange female](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/Guinastasia/Kitties/buffychair.jpg). (1 in 400, I was told.) Buffy is Gypsy’s sister. Wow, 1 in 400? I didn’t know one of my new kittens was so rare …what kind of black market are we looking at here? 😃 [Here](http://www.image4u.org/interface2x/kittens3.jpg) is me with the kittens the night I got them. The one of the bottom is the girl, the one on the top is the boy. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/34 "2009-03-20T13:35:00Z")
I’m not surprised that someone, somewhere, sometime used tabby to mean “domestic” rather than striped. And I guess it’s not that suprising that there might be an assumption somewhere, sometime that a housecat would be a female cat. But while I was a little surprised the first time that I read a post in which **Tabby\_Cat** had boy bits, it was more mild surprise that someone whose on-line persona was as a mild house cat was male. Not something worthy of much laughter at said male person’s expense. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/35 "2009-03-20T13:38:50Z")
I thought **Tabby\_Cat** was female, too, and I guess I never really thought why…but I just thought of tabbies as girl kitties. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/36 "2009-03-20T13:47:58Z")
That’s very weird. One of my tabbies is a big old friendly MALE. As previously mentioned, almost all orange tabbies are MALE. I’ve never heard the term tabby used to refer to anything but the cat’s coat color. I think those people must have heard about how calico cats are mostly female and in their memory “tabby” and “calico” were confused. OR someone in your office decided to pull a prank on you by getting everyone to say that. 😛 The only reason I tend to think that people with cat-themed nicknames online are female is because the stereotype of the “Cat Lady” is so popular. Guys who like cats are cool too. I think it’s totally adorable that my boyfriend seems to love my tabby boy-cat almost as much as he loves me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![D.Fenestrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@D.Fenestrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.Fenestrator)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/37 "2009-03-20T14:02:27Z")
Many years ago we had to take our male striped cat to the vet. I said to the assistant, “he’s a brown tabby!” 🙂 The assistant, horrified :eek:, said, “No he isn’t - he’s a TIGER cat!” So, she must have also thought that “tabby cat” meant a female cat. Every book I’ve read on cats and cat breeds refers to the striped pattern as a “tabby” pattern, for what that’s worth. As others have mentioned, there are different types, such as the classic tabby and the mackerel tabby. I don’t know where the “tabby = female” thing came from. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/38 "2009-03-20T14:03:34Z")
> [@D.Fenestrator](#): > > Many years ago we had to take our male striped cat to the vet. I said to the assistant, “he’s a brown tabby!” 🙂 > > The assistant, horrified :eek:, said, “No he isn’t - he’s a TIGER cat!” And these aren’t dolls, they’re ACTION FIGURES! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![percypercy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/39 "2009-03-20T14:04:09Z")
There’s orange tabbies and gray tabbies. My cat, Wesley, is gray with a white belly and some white on his feet. ---
**Author:** ![troub](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troub/32/14802_2.png) [@troub](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troub)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099/40 "2009-03-20T15:41:11Z")
What’s with all the dopers with cuddling pairs of gray and orange tabbies? Here’s mine: [![](https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2177/1846958800_55eacdcf5e_b.jpg) ](https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2177/1846958800_55eacdcf5e_b.jpg) This was a few years ago (they still cuddle like that, though–they are not related, though only days apart in age). The orange one is considerably bigger now, they gray one is not. Both boys. When someone says “tabby cat,” the first thing that comes to mind for me is the “big ol’ orange tabby” archetype–the BIG, male, striped orange cat that is bullheadedly cuddly. I _never_ think of female tabbies, for some reason. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-a-tabby-cat-mean-to-you/490099.md?page=3)