An entity has been created with a purpose of creating common names for Canadian species. https://www.wildspecies.ca/common-names https://www.wildspecies.ca/working-group An iNat user has identified several issues with the common names this entity has created and is requesting that many of them be…

Clearly there is no simple solution here. In my opinion there are two classes of these recently fabricated common names; those that are simply mediocre, and those that are explicitly bad or misleading. The example of Pardosa distinct is not particularly offensive to me and there is an endless supply…

Languages, like species, evolve. Not always logically, from a meaning standpoint, but filtered through social, political, linguistic and technological changes. Sometimes known as history. Even in seemingly hardened scientific Latin naming we know that there are many outright descriptive errors, or …

Petition them to do what, exactly? Well, that’s obvious, no? To be more careful in their creation of common names so that you’re not unhappy with the result. And perhaps to remove (or replace) particularly egregious names like the pink orbweaver.

Now you have to define widespread. What if they’re in use by three state wildlife agencies in the U.S.? (Yes, they would have obtained them ultimately from wildspecies.ca, but that’s the only way names come to be in common usage.) And what about a future where AI propagates unwanted (or invented) na…

The whole term “common name” is dubious. It is some kind of vernacular name in some language, but it is often coined by someone who publishes a book about some group of organisms or similar. Only a small subset of organisms appear in common communication often enough to have any sort of actually “co…

I noticed long ago that Czech had an anomalous number of species names (third-most for any language, exceeded only by English and Chinese), but never looked into it until you reminded me just now. It seems almost all of them were imported all at once on 2019-11-22 by Ken-inchi Ueda from https://www…

These are really the names actually used in any contemporary literature, conservation laws and so on. The concept of “common” names simply does not apply. The old folk names are mostly forgotten, even if they survive mentioned in some books. Even laypersons are used to the fact that the names of or…

[image] vladimir_fuka: The whole term “common name” is dubious. It has two meanings, neither of which is “correct”, both of which are used currently. Widespread usage sense: A name is “common” because it’s commonly used—well-known, familiar, established in popular speech regardless of langua…

[image] pfau_tarleton: Petition them to do what, exactly? Well, that’s obvious, no? To be more careful in their creation of common names so that you’re not unhappy with the result. And perhaps to remove (or replace) particularly egregious names like the pink orbweaver. @JeremyHussell Your …

[image] JeremyHussell: The part that’s relevant to curators is that the only way (I’m aware of) for non-curators to get a name deleted is to create a flag on the species and convince a curator to do it. So, in this situation, where the same source has created many names which have been added to …

Source of common names for Canadian species

Curators

pfau_tarleton September 8, 2026, 1:05pm 29

Looks like they took it really seriously!

Topic		Replies	Views
Curator guidelines about made-up names Curators common-names	80	2517	September 24, 2024
Policy on removing common names Curators	24	987	October 24, 2023
What to do about silly common names? General common-names	53	2562	August 5, 2024
Wildspecies.ca summary for curators Curators common-names	4	396	September 19, 2026
Definition of made up common names Curators	37	1484	February 17, 2024

Source of common names for Canadian species

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