
Besides giving male cats their common name, it’s suggested that the book also introduced the phrase “tomcatting” to describe promiscuous male behavior.

Apparently, Tom spent a lof the book courting females which isn’t unlike a real-life male cat. But reports on the internet suggest that the book followed the main character, our friend Tom the Cat, and his rather promiscuous adventures. There’s not much information out there on this book and I wasn’t able to track down a copy anywhere. It’s probably safe to say that Tom’s name came from the popular slang! What Was The Life and Adventures of a Cat About? But Tom the Cat first appeared in 1760 which is 180 years before the first Tom and Jerry episode! So while Tom and Jerry might have helped solidify and further popularize the name it existed long before this cartoon duo. You might have guessed that the term tomcat came from the famous cartoon duo Tom and Jerry. Let’s dive a little deeper and learn more about the mystery behind the tomcat. Tom the Cat was a promiscuous male cat and eventually, the name caught on and tom or tomcat has been used ever since.īut that’s not the only theory.

So why are male cats called toms? It goes all the way back to a 1760 book called The Life and Adventures of a Cat which featured a feline protagonist named Tom. I mean, why couldn’t a male cat be called a Jerry? Or a Frank? But when someone asked me why male cats are called toms I realized how silly that name must sound. may earn a small commission when you use one of the links on this page to purchase.Īfter working in the animal welfare field for more than a decade I had heard male cats referred to as toms thousands (and thousands) of times.
