Breed Standard

A cat of mystery and legend, the Birman is a color pointed cat with medium long hair that rarely mats and four pure white feet. It is strongly built, elongated and stocky. The distinctive head has strong jaws, firm chin, almost round blue eyes set well apart, giving a sweet expression to the face. There should be good width between the ears, which are medium in size.

Naming Tradition

Many American breeders follow an old French tradition of naming kittens alphabetically. Most kittens born in any one year will be named with the consecutive letter for that year.

For example: 2001 was the letter "Y", 2002 - "Z". We started over with the letter "A" in 2003, the letter "B" in 2004...and so on. Kittens born in 2008 start with the letter "F". By following this tradition, it is easy to tell the age of a cat just from its name.

© Templkatz, 2004, 2008