Majority of tabbies have the "M" marking on their foreheads....you're correct. Most show standards, e.g. American Shorthair and Manx as well as Maine Coon, stipulate an M marking on the forehead for the tabby pattern with swirls on the cheeks, but it's true not all tabbies may have it perfectly. My Devon boy is a seal-silver lynx-point & white. He has an incomplete M, his are more vertical without the V-shape in the middle.

 

My Bengals have Ms in the middle of their foreheads. Leo (first pic) has a clearer one than Teddy (second pic). It's a tabby trait.

 

So, what to the M's mean? My tabbies had Ms and my part maine coon does too. I remember my grandma saying, when I was younger, that an "M" meant they were happy.

 

No the M is not restricted to Maine Coons rather it seems to be tied to the tabby markings. My coonies are tabby mackerels and have it but I've seen other coonies that are not tabbies that do not have the marking. 2 of my other boys - Sasquatch and PuddyWow have tabby markings and have the M. PuddyWow is an orange tabby and his is faint but it can be seen.

 

I think the M means "MINE!"

 

M = Meow!

 

I grew up in a Catholic household and was always told that the M was a blessing from Mary for saving baby Jesus from a snake.

I think there's a similar story in Islam for Mohammed too.

//Edit - there's also tales of Mary bestowing the blessing after a tabby cat was the only creature small enough to crawl into the manger to help keep Jesus warm//

 

This reminded me of my cat Ginger (long gone-died in 92) I always thought she was part Maine Coon. & I realized I didn't have any electorinic images of her. I'll have to look around for the slides my husband took. Here's a scan of a picture & of course color has gotten funny & the scan is pretty crappy...but anyway I never noticed but she did hve sort of a M