the.com/calico cat

means A domestic cat with a tri-color coat — white, black, and orange patches — a pattern driven by genetics rather than breed, seen almost exclusively in females.

from The cat itself didn't travel far to earn its name — the fabric did. 'Calico' comes from Calicut (now Kozhikode), a port city on India's Malabar coast that was a major hub for cotton textile trade with Europe starting around the 1500s-1600s. The cloth exported from there — colorful, patterned cotton — became known in English simply as 'calico.' Centuries later, when people needed a word for a cat's splotchy, multi-colored coat, they borrowed the fabric's name rather than coining something new. So the cat is named after cloth, which is named after a city.