I would rename the Magnificent Anemone Shrimp to the Huggy Anemone Shrimp, after its usual posture which looks it’s hugging itself.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/29060295
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No-one expects any of the suggestions in this thread to actually happen.
The question was what would I change if I could. My change would be a blanket change across the board so that no species of any sort is named after a person, no matter who that person is.
Obviously that’s never going to happen though.
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The Jewfish is now a Goliath Grouper for a similar reason.
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Since I can’t identify most Empidonax anyway, I don’t care what you call them.
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Not even Lady Bird’s Centaury, Zeltnera texensis? Named after Lady Bird Johnson, the patron saint of wildflowers?
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/519633-Zeltnera-texensis
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That’s named after several different people. The common name is after Lady Bird Johnson, but the genus name is for the Swiss couple Dr. Louis Zeltner and his wife Nicole Zeltner.
I assume that ‘texensis’ is from Texas, which is apparently from the Caddo word for “friend” táyshaʼ.
That would make the binomial something along the lines of ‘Zeltner’s Friend’ (or ‘Zeltner’s Friendly Flower’).
That’s a nice name, either in the common name or the Linnean name, but I’d prefer no personal names at all across the board. Once you make an exception…
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I don’t understand this antipathy towards naming a species after a person, either scientific name or common name. It’s just a name. Given that in some groups of organisms it’s difficult to come up with distinctive names for every species that won’t be confused with another similar name, throwing in some names based on people just adds to the diversity in nomenclature.
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Neither do I, species are described for humans and exist for humans, nothing wrong in naming them the way you want.
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I am generally indifferent in regards to naming species for humans, but I personally would have supported the recent proposal to “Discontinue use of the possessive (“apostrophe–s”) in patronymic bird names” (for English language names). I think the author makes a good argument, but for me it is mostly aesthetic. To my ear the possessive S almost always sounds awkward, so if I were dictator of English vernacular names I would get rid of it not just for birds but across the board.
The proposal can be found in this document:
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2019-A.pdf
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Part of the issue may be that some names serve as an unintentional reminder of colonial legacies.
In abstract terms: Country A colonizes Country B; researchers (from Country A or elsewhere) name local wildlife from Country B after individuals from Country A. Decolonization may return agency to the residents of Country B but the names of their wildlife have already been assigned to individuals from the colonizing power or other faraway locations and are unlikely to ever change.
The Korean Forestry Service released a publication, “English Names for Korean Native Plants”, in order to provide English common names to local species. (4,173 species of native plant were reviewed and 2,500 new names were created.) Somewhat illustrating the point above, this is from the forward and introduction:
The names of our plants reflect the painful history of Korean peninsula. The plants of Korean peninsula were known more than 100 years later than those of Japanese and Chinese, but through the Japanese Colonial Period, plants were researched and reported by Japanese scientists, unintendedly, the names were given in Japanese style. We have tried to modify the names, but it is not easy because of the peculiarity of the scientific names. But the names we call out, the common names, they are different.
[…]
The pine tree that have shared the fate with Korean people is called a Japanese red pine in English. It means ‘Japanese pine tree with red trunk’. Internationally, it is known that the Korean peninsula is the center of pine tree habitat, but the Japanese pine tree was reported to the world before. Now is the time to inform the world that the pine trees are the main tree of Korean peninsula.
Perhaps a little dramatic, but it does show the concern some have when a colonizing power is the one to create names for local species.
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Well, it would cause a ton of confusion since a skua and a duck are two very separate birds.
A joke in of itself
What should we rename the Cuban Red-shouldered Blackbird, Ageliaus assilmilis?
The name that has bothered me for close to 70 years of birding is the Purple Finch. It is not by any stretch Purple. What was the person who named it thinking. Any name would be an improvement.
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Please think of poor wretches like me who know not of lepidoptera (or any other taxa in which you could make similar changes)! When I see mixed-kingdom species lists including a lot of names like this, if I’m lucky I might assume that a looper is a moth, but is a long dash a dragonfly? A bird? Many common names are descriptive but contain no hint of the type of organism described. Looking at a wall of names like that- when looking for members of a particular unfamiliar group I’ve occasionally had to google every single name.
Long Dash Skipper, Slimspike Threeawn Grass, Greater Black-Backed Gull- that last word only seems superfluous if you’re already familiar with that group. Otherwise, I’d first wonder if the Greater Black-Back was some sort of ungulate.
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Zion National Park has an endemic snail species (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/882362-Physella-zionis). All of the signs in the park call it either the Zion snail or Zion Narrows rock snail. Those are both pretty sweet common names in my opinion, and tell you a lot about the snail (lives in Zion, is a snail, lives on rocks).
Last time I was at the park I was able to find and photograph a few of the snails, only to find out that their “official” common name (both here and in literature) is Wet-rock physa, which is such an incredibly boring name compared to the alternatives…
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I actually have a document on my computer where I rename birds with a name I feel fits them better. Often those that are named after someone, for example, I call the Gambel’s Quail the “Southern Valley Quail” and the California Quail the “Northern Valley Quail”. Originally it was Arizona and California, but I didn’t want to denote them to a certain location.
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I love this! It’s perfect for the Barn Owl.
I have something like this as well, but instead of better names, I just try to work a translation of their scientific name into a common name. Sometimes it works pretty well and comes up with something interesting, like the Resounding Bullhead for Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula), or Carolina and Canada Nuthatch for White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, respectively (Sitta carolinensis and C. canadensis). Other times it just results in the bird’s common name again, as with the American Coot (Fulica americana).
It’s probably not 100% accurate, but oh well. It’s fun regardless.
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