American Shorthair Cat Names

When the first North American cat show opened at Madison Square Garden in 1895, more than fifty American Shorthair-type cats were on the bench. They were still officially called Domestic Shorthairs at the time. The rename to American Shorthair did not happen until 1965 — by which point the breed had already been one of CFA's founding five at the organisation's 1906 establishment.

Nothing about the breed rewards a fussy name. CFA's profile uses the words "working cat" — independent, supervisory, hunting instinct retained on household insects, and known for a polite silent meow of greeting where the mouth opens but no sound emerges. Names that suit that register run short, plain, and slightly utilitarian: Scout, Sentry, Pilot, Ranger, Bosun. The ship-cat ancestry — these were the cats kept below decks on settler vessels for rodent control — gives the breed a nautical naming line as legitimate as the Maine Coon's, just less marketed.

CFA recognises over 100 colour and pattern combinations on the American Shorthair, but the silver classic tabby — silvery body with sharp black bull's-eye markings — is the breed's signature show colour. Silver, Sterling, Argent, and Pewter are working-class metal names for a working-class cat.

A breed shaped by colonial-era ship transport pairs naturally with names from the settler ports that received those ships: Boston, Salem, Plymouth, Hudson.