Bombay Cat Names, Names For Bombay Kittens

The Bombay was built for the owner who wanted a black panther in the living room and could not legally own one. Nikki Horner, a Kentucky breeder, started the programme in 1953 with that explicit goal — TICA's profile says it directly: she wanted a domestic cat "resembling the black leopard of India." The cross was a black American Shorthair to a sable Burmese, refined through the early-to-mid 1960s. The breed entered the CFA registry in 1970 and reached Championship status by 1976. TICA's Championship followed in June 1979.

The breed standard is unusually specific. Coat: jet black to the roots, not just at the surface. Eyes: gold to deep copper. Build: medium-sized, muscular, heavy for size, rounded head with no sharp angles. The whole cat is engineered for the visual effect — TICA calls it "the patent-leather kid with the new-penny eyes." CFA notes the temperament "sometimes described as part cat, part dog, and part clown," inheriting Burmese affection (door-greeting, head-butting, lap-attachment) crossed with American Shorthair adaptability.

This is a breed where naming logic flows entirely from the colour. Bagheera — the black panther in The Jungle Book — is the most lineage-honest choice available; the character is set in India, and the breed name references Bombay (Mumbai). Onyx, Obsidian, Jet, Soot, Kohl, Pitch, Inky, Ebony, and Coal cover the full vocabulary of black-coat naming. For a cat with copper-penny eyes specifically, Penny and Copper become eye-colour names rather than coat names.

Indian heritage extends the lineage further: Mumbai, Raj, Rani, Maharaja. The breed's monochromatic design routes naturally toward our black cat name collection, where the panther tradition lives alongside Halloween, mythological, and minimalist black-coat naming lines.

For a reviewed shortlist by breed and coat, see Black Bombay names.