‘Hawaiian Goose’ just sounds like a goose from Hawaii, not a specific and very special species. I agree that Nene makes more sense. It would be like calling the 'I’iwi bird just a “Hawaiian Honeycreeper”. Sure, I suppose it fits, but why not call it a name that has more meaning to that species and the culture and language the species is named for?
1 Like
I feel like naming them after the person who discovered or described them makes more sense than naming them after another famous naturalist unless they were heavily involved in the research of the species in particular.
So many American sparrows just need a one-word nickname, because that is easier to remember when too many of them are drab and have very little to actually describe them with.
You said it better than I did… :)
1 Like
Audubon? Wilson? Nuttall? Pretty well-known names in the natural sciences I think.
1 Like
I would rename everything.
Why? Two reasons:
- a lot of names are not as cool as they could be.
- I would love to to annoy everyone on earth, all at once. It’s just too much temptation.
- I have the personality of a cat. Which is and isn’t a third reason.
But seriously, it would also annoy me, so no. I wouldn’t rename everything. Just a few strategic creatures and any with lame names.
Just because I want to selectively abuse power, I might do something like changing giraffe to leopard-stretch-goat, all bats would be lethurblooku.
lethurblooku-Chihuahua for flying fox, mosquito-lethurblooku for vampire-bat etc. Although, lethurblooku is better than bat. So win-win.
2 Likes
Giraffes where actually once called Camelopard and I love it. They only turned into “giraffes” when an egyptian leader wanted to impress a french leader by gifting a baby camelopard named “Zaraffa” to Paris 
1 Like
If I could rename any existing species I’d rename apatosaurus meaning “deceptive lizard” to Hesperocanthus meaning “Western Spine”. Still has cool latin origin while also changing the negative/villain-like nature of “deceptive” in the name 
1 Like
SNEEZEWEED. Who the heck came up with such an awful name for such a beautiful native flower? I’ve seen some called it “Helen’s Flower” after the genus name Helenium, and I kind of like that.
1 Like
Are we free to discuss both common names and binomials?
I can think of a few specific names and a broader group of names -
To change the names that do them a disservice. The skaapteker, Psammophylax rhombeatus, does not kill sheep and is pretty well harmless to all but lizards, amphibians, and tiny mammals. Equally I’d be happy to leave the name in place to highlight the ignorance of some people who named things.
The group of names that I’d perhaps change are some type species. Vanellus vanellus, lovely as it is doesn’t seem that representative of Vanellus species in general, though the eggs and chicks look very similar. I assume it’s a case of it being European and so being the first to be Vanellus species described.