Where did the male tom turkey get its name?

The use of "tom" to describe a male animal is unclear. It dates back at least as far as a mid-18th century story that featured a character called Tom the Cat. The usage eventually became the more generic "tom cat", then "tomcat", and was gradually extended to males of other species.

Historians have debunked the recent claim that Benjamin Franklin named it after Thomas Jefferson when he would not allow it to be the national bird.