Tan Cat Names, Names For Light Brown Kittens

Tan is folk-naming, not cat-fancy. No registry treats tan as an official color — what owners describe as tan a pedigree certificate would call one of three things, depending on which pigment locus is doing the work. Cinnamon (sorrel in Abyssinian context) is the warm reddish-brown of the chocolate-locus bl allele. Fawn is its dilute version: bl plus homozygous dilute (dd), reading as caramel or coffee-and-cream. Sable is the Burmese-specific term for the breed's foundational warm dark-brown coat.

The cinnamon gene traces back to a single breed. The earliest record of the cinnamon allele in cats is within the Abyssinian, and the gene is believed to have originated there before spreading via outcrossing. Fawn was introduced into the Abyssinian gene pool through outcrossing as well, and remains the rarest of the breed's four standard colors, behind ruddy, sorrel, and blue.

The sable thread runs through a different lineage. The modern Burmese descends from a single cat, Wong Mau, brought from Burma to San Francisco in 1930 by Dr. Joseph Thompson. Her offspring established sable as the breed's founding color; champagne, blue, and platinum followed.

The English word tan comes from Old English tannian — to cure hide with tannin. The leather-craft register is one of three honest naming lanes. Names that work: Cinnamon, Sorrel, Cassia, Saffron. Fawn, Bambi, Caramel, Honey, Toffee. Sable, Mocha, Espresso, Cocoa. Tanner, Suede, Buckskin. Wong, for the founding Burmese.