Maine Coons can understand their name and the names of four other cats when spoken by humans

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I have stated in the title that Maine Coons can understand their name and the names of four other cats if they live in a group, for example, in a multi-cat home. But I've been a bit cheeky because the statement that I have made applies to any domestic cat. I just wanted to write an article about Maine Coons and this study which has been reported on the Internet recently presented itself to me at an opportune moment. 😎 I stated in the title "when spoken by humans". That might look a bit odd but it is just possible that cats refer to each other by name! No one's discussed that.

However, the point that I would like to make early on in this article is that I knew about this well before the Japanese scientists confirmed it in their study. And I'm not boasting because any decent cat caregiver understands that their cat responds to their name. If they live in a multi-cat home then they will also understand that each of those cats can understand their name. I'm not saying this happens universally all the time but, in general, it will. 

The response, however, is dependent upon a good human-to-cat relationship and a consistent use of the cat's name when calling them and talking to them.

William (man) and Wallace.
William and Wallace. Photo: Katrina Stewart.

This shouldn't really surprise people. However, we are used to reading reports and studies about dogs and we know how good dogs are at understanding their name and coming on demand.

People don't really consider cats to be as good at it. They are not as good at it but they are pretty good nonetheless.

Another point which is worth making - in fact it is essential to make this point - is that cats don't understand their name as a name but as a sound.

I will quote the scientists verbatim: "We conclude that cats can discriminate the content of human utterances based upon phonemic differences".

The word phoneme means "any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another".

In this Japanese study they used domestic cats in homes and cat café cats. Café cats live in larger groups than domestic cats in a home and they are normally rescue cats.

They found that domestic cats in a home were able to discriminate their own names from other cohabiting cats' names whereas the cat café cats were unable to discriminate their own names from the names of other cats. Therefore, cat café cats were simply responding to a call which could apply to any of the cats.

In the study, the domestic cats in homes had a more refined sensitivity towards the call of a name because they were able to discriminate "their own names from general nouns even when unfamiliar persons out of them".

RELATED: Fancy Names For Maine Coon Cats.

As cats recognise their names through the sound of the name, the name itself is unimportant to them. We name our cat for ourselves; for our pleasure and enjoyment. To a cat the name could simply be any utterance without any meaning as long as it is stated consistently in the same way when calling.

Gloria Stephens in her book Legacy of the Cat tells us about her experiences of living with a Maine Coon. She says that some Maine Coons "develop such a strong attachment to their female owners that they become recalcitrant when the female owner is away".

A strong attachment to a cat owner is going to benefit both cat and owner in terms of calling them by their name. I suspect, however, that the Maine Coon is particularly good at understanding their name and perhaps the names of four other cats in the household.

I also suspect, by the way, that the number four is the upper limit for a cat to remember different names. Domestic cats, however, do have decent memories especially long-term memories. We know this because there are many stories on the Internet of cats lost for many years who recognise their owners when they rejoin them.

The study is titled: Domestic cats (Felis catus) discriminate their names from other words and it can be accessed by clicking on this link. The observed 48 cats and the scientists operate out of Kyoto University.

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