A “Gib” Cat

What is the etymology of the term “Gibbe,” as applied to the male cat? I may observe that the *g* is pronounced *hard* in this locality, and not *jibbe*, as most dictionaries have it. [NARES has shown, very satisfactorily, that *Gib*, the contraction of Gilbert, was the name formerly applied to a cat, as *Tom* is now. He states that *Tibert* (the name given to the Cat in the old Reynard the Fox) was the old French for *Gilbert*; and at all events, be that as it may, Chaucer, in his *Romance of the Rose*, verse 6204., translates “Thibert le Cas” by “Gibbe our Cat.”]