Tabby Colors and Patterns

The word comes from French tabis, which was earlier atabis, and in medieval Latin attabi. The initial 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.

There are three tabby patterns that have been shown to be genetically distinct, classic, mackerel and ticked, and a fourth variation, spotted, that is still undergoing debate as to its cause. The color most recognizable as a tabby is called brown tabby in the US (or black in UK).

Tabby means dark markings (stripes, swirls, spots) on a paler background. The stripe color is solid (goes right to the hair root), but the background color is agouti (each hair is banded with color). Different breeds may use different names for the same color.

The tabby colors are:

Blue Tabby: cream/ivory-blue base, slate blue markings

Brown (Black, Ebony) Tabby: coppery-brown base, black markings

Chocolate (Chestnut) Tabby: cream base, milk-chocolate brown markings

Cameo Tabby: cream base, pale red markings (aka Red-Silver Tabby)

Caramel Tabby: cream base, biscuit-color markings

Chestnut Tabby: ivory base, medium-dark brown markings

Chocolate Tabby: ivory base, medium-dark brown markings (= Chestnut Tabby)

Cinnamon Tabby: pale brown base, cinnamon markings

Cream Tabby: pale cream base, fawn/buff markings

Fawn Tabby: pale pink-beige base, lilac markings

Golden Tabby: tabby on golden undercoat (see chinchilla/shaded section) e.g. Chocolate Golden Tabby

Lavender (Lilac) Tabby: milky cream base, frosty gray markings

Red Tabby: pale red base, deep red markings

Silver Tabby: silver base, black markings, aka Black Silver Tabby. Other Silver Tabbies occur with colored markings on a silvery background e.g.: Blue Silver, Red Silver (aka Cameo Tabby) etc. Other Golden Tabbies with markings on a golden background are possible, but the genetics are not fully understood.

As well as the various permutations of tabby/silver tabby/golden tabby, spotted/silver spotted/golden spotted there are some terms specific to the modified tabby markings and specific colourways of certain breeds.

TABBY PATTERNS

The usual tabby patterns are Classic (Blotched) Tabby, Mackeral (Striped) Tabby, Spotted Tabby, Ticked Tabby (with some striping) and Ticked/Agouti (with no striping). In addition there are several modified versions of these patterns which are seen in certain breeds.

Braided (Candle Flame) Tabby	Tiger-like vertical stripes with hollow centres, may break up into individual "candle-flame" patterns.
Classic Tabby	Familiar "blotched" tabby pattern with dark stripes down length of back and dark swirls (bullseye) on sides of the body.
Clouded Leopard	(Highland Lynx) derived from interaction of wild genes and domestic classic tabby pattern; marble pattern, horizontally aligned with as little bull's eye pattern as possible. Equivalent to Bengal "marble" pattern.
Leopard	Modified version of Spotted Tabby. Round spots, coloured to root of hair, ideally the spots are randomly placed, not vertically aligned. Found in hybrid cats (e.g. Bengal, Highland Lynx) where the spotted pattern differs from the spotted tabby.
Mackerel Tabby	Vertical unbroken thin lines instead of swirls. Narrow spine lines and "necklaces". The stripes should not break up into spots.
Marble	Modified classic tabby with swirled, clouding effect as the vertical orientation of the tabby pattern is affected by the horizontal oriented clouded pattern of the wild ancestor. Described as Ocelot-like. Found in Bengal breed (hybrid) and naturally occurring in the Marbled Australian Mist.
Oceloid	Described 1960s, vertically elongated rosettes (candle-flames)
Oyster Tabby	Classic tabby i.e. refers to the distinctive bulls-eye on the side.
Patched Tabbies/Tortie-tabby/Torbie	Tabby pattern overlaid on a tortie background e.g. deep red markings on red patched areas and black markings on brown patched areas.
Rosette	Clusters of spots; the centre of each cluster should be deeper version of background colour. Found in hybrid breeds such as Bengal and Safari where it is confusingly called tricolour (not the same as calico!).
Sokoke Tabby	Modified Classic tabby pattern with agouti (background colour) hairs appearing in the solid areas of the coat giving a slightly clouded/marbled effect. Specific to the naturally occurring Sokoke breed from Kenya.
Spotted	The pattern of round spots, preferably not vertically aligned, in hybrid breeds.
Spotted Tabby	Vertical bars of colour are broken up into spots on the body. Stripes on leg, tail and face. Spots should be as round as possible, rather than elongated. It is often possible to see the vertical alignment of spots. Spine lines should be broken into spots. Possibly a gene for spotted pattern (rather than broken-up stripes) exists.
Ticked Tabby	Agouti pattern with ticked body, tabby barring on face, legs and tail, at least one necklace, darker dorsal region, pale lower parts. The pattern of the Wild Abyssinian and of poorly marked agouti patterned cats; intermediate between Agouti and Tabby.
Ticked/Agouti	Agouti pattern all over, barring to be absent, as far as possible, from any part of the body. The ticked colour range parallels the tabby colour range.