Tonkinese Cat Names, Names For Tonk Kittens, Page 2

The Tonkinese has nothing to do with Vietnam. The breed was originally spelled "Tonkanese" — a private joke among 1960s breeders referencing Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, in which the song Bali Ha'i described an island where half-breeds faced no discrimination. The half-Burmese, half-Siamese cross was the punchline. In 1971 the spelling was changed to Tonkinese in reference to the Bay of Tonkin, simply because the new spelling sounded exotic and ended the confusion. The cats themselves carry no Vietnamese ancestry whatsoever.

The breed's actual lineage runs through Wong Mau, the cat brought to America in 1930 who became the foundation for both modern Burmese and modern Tonkinese. Wong Mau was herself a hybrid — closer to a Tonkinese than to a uniform Burmese — but the breeds were not separated until the 1960s, when Jane Barletta in New Jersey and Margaret Conroy in Canada independently set out to fix the midpoint between Siamese sapphire and Burmese gold. CFA registered the breed in 1982, granted mink-pattern Championship in 1984, and added pointed and solid Championships in 2002.

Three coat patterns reflect three gene combinations. The mink (Aa) carries the breed's signature aqua eyes — genuinely between Siamese blue and Burmese gold. The pointed (aa) reads more Siamese; the solid (AA) reads more Burmese. CFA notes the breed feels "surprisingly heavy when lifted," and TICA describes the voice as "softer and sweeter than the Siamese" — quieter than one parent, more talkative than the other.

The Tonkinese sits between the talkative Siamese and the heavier-voiced Burmese — our Siamese cat names and Burmese cat names hubs cover the two parental vocal traditions the breed deliberately splits.