I think requiring a source would help a ton, here’s a related feature request: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/allow-us-to-add-sources-to-taxon-names/5654 It looks like it is planned?
I say “requiring” because every common name should have source given the requirements and the discussion above. However, even if it was optional it would be helpful.
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I believe such names can be added for limitated places, e.g. state, if they’re used by most of people.
I just tried that, thank you. 
The only issue I see is it doesn’t display the place under names, so without an indication that it’s a region-specific name, it’s still as likely to be removed by someone outside that place as it would be if no place had been designated.
I believe moderators who can delete names do see places, it would be logical, so I hope it won’t be deleted.
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Cicadas do have some so-called “mistaken” common names–“locust” is common where I’m from. I wouldn’t be so quick to call katydid a mistake if people who have never talked to each other all use it!
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Seems like a colloquial name for one organism that is already in more common (and “standardized”) use for another organism could cause confusion if it’s listed alongside these other names, e.g., “katydid” under cicadas. If those other colloquial names are added, maybe they should be clearly identified somehow as colloquial.
I’m thinking of locally-used names for some animals in the U.S. South, such as “salamander” (used for pocket gophers) and “spring lizard” (used for many salamanders).
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I guess the issue is: when does a common misunderstanding become entrenched enough to be considered a common name? Katydid vs locust vs cicada are all pretty broad taxonomies…maybe common names are more of a genus & species thing?
This is only true if you don’t consider plants to be a major taxonomic group!
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I don’t know about English, but in Russian plants have the strictest rules for common names of all taxonomic groups and constantly reviewed.
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How does that work, especially for regional names? Do they travel to a region to confirm if it is in common usage by laymen?
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There’s a list of common names for each species, regional names included, and some are chosen as scientific, others stay as trivial, like here: https://www.plantarium.ru/page/view/item/39033.html
Some names have problems, like таволга, that can mean different plants in different regions, but those names are not official, scientific names.
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I thought only the Latin name was scientific, and every other name would be a common name?
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Our botanists are hardcore, but actually it’s just a word to separate those accepted by scientific society names and those that can be used parallel but not in papers, for example.
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I found the (a?) source of the common name!
Currently, the only place on the Internet which contains both “Oncometopia alpha” and “Mardi Gras Sharpshooter” other than this page is this blog post from 2019: https://bugtalk.home.blog/2019/03/12/from-4000-to-6000/
Clearly the author of the blog post got the name from somewhere else, so this seems like a legitimate common name.
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Here’s another usage of the name outside iNat:
https://flickr.com/photos/i_am_jacques_strappe/49724948733/in/album-72157688563101190/
But did they get the name from iNat? That picture is in an iNat observation!
EDIT: ok, I don’t see the second one on iNat
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How can you tell it’s in an iNat observation?
The blog post is from 2019, and the name “Mardi Gras Sharpshooter” and this thread was started in May of 2020, so the name may have not been around yet.
Regardless, this is “elsewhere” so I would inclined to keep the name.
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I just looked through observations - there aren’t many (wasn’t sure about linking). True about the dates, though the thread would have begun when the name was removed - not when it was added.
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FWIW, I reached out to the author of that blog post (they are an iNat user), and they say they got the name from iNat. I would be surprised if the photographer of the above Flickr photo didn’t also get the name from iNat.
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