# Silly names that are actually in use for animals

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/silly-names-that-are-actually-in-use-for-animals/10883>\
**Category:** Nature Talk\
**Tags:** common-names, silliness\
**Created:** [March 20, 2020, 7:32am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/silly-names-that-are-actually-in-use-for-animals/10883 "2020-03-20T07:32:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 33

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robotpie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/robotpie/32/630_2.png) [@robotpie](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/robotpie)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/silly-names-that-are-actually-in-use-for-animals/10883/33 "2020-03-20T22:38:41Z")

</div>

Thinking about other animal names in chinese:

Panda is 熊猫 which translates to “bear-cat”  
Hippo is 河马 which translates to “river horse”  
Giraffe is 长颈鹿 which translates to “long-neck deer”  
Salticidae are known as 跳蛛 which literally means “jumping spider” but is also known as蝇虎 which means “fly tiger”

the list goes on…

---

_[View the full topic](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/silly-names-that-are-actually-in-use-for-animals/10883)._
