 The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758 . Because of modern phylogenetics , domestic cats are usually regarded as another subspecies of the wildcat , F. silvestris . This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms , as the domestic cat can be called by its subspecies name , Felis silvestris catus . Wildcats have also been referred to as various subspecies of F. catus , but in 2003 , the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature fixed the name for wildcats as F. silvestris . The most common name in use for the domestic cat remains F. catus , following a convention for domesticated animals of using the earliest ( the senior ) synonym proposed . Sometimes , the domestic cat has been called Felis domesticus or Felis domestica , as proposed by German naturalist J. C. P. Erxleben in 1777 but these are not valid taxonomic names and have been used only rarely in scientific literature , because Linnaeus 's binomial takes precedence . A population of Transcaucasian black feral cats was once classified as Felis daemon ( Satunin 1904 ) but now this population is considered to be a part of domestic cat . 
