How Do Birds Get Their Names?
The Origin and Meaning of Scientific and Common Bird Names
May 21, 2009
A bird’s common name is the name that most people use in everyday conversation. Often traditional or based on local lore, the common name can change from one place to the next. The scientific or Latin name, accepted by the scientific community, is the same all over the world.
For example, Uria aalge (scientific name), typically listed in North American bird guides as the Common Murre, is called the turre locally in Newfoundland, and the guillemot in Europe. It is Uria aalge everywhere, regardless of the speaker’s native language.
How Birds’ Scientific Names Work
The Latin name is part of the scientific nomenclature (naming system) for all living things. Life on Earth is divided into gradually smaller groups: the major divisions are kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Birds belong to the animal kingdom, then the phylum Chordata, and the class Aves. Within Aves, birds are divided into twenty-seven orders (order names end in –iformes: Falconiformes, Passeriformes etc.), then into 161 families (family names end in -idae: Gruidae, Tytonidae etc.). What we usually refer to as the scientific name is made up of a genus name followed by a species name.
The genus name is generic—it is usually a noun and it represents a group of birds that are closely related. The species name is specific—it is usually an adjective and it’s used to describe a specific type of bird. The scientific name is unique. No other living thing on earth is called by the same genus/species combination. Both the genus and species names are usually derived from Latin or classical Greek.
Understanding Scientific Names of Birds
Though most of us don’t speak Latin or classical Greek today, a typical scientific name does usually mean something (but not always). For example, the Latin name of the White-fronted Goose is Anser albifrons. Anser is Latin for “a goose;” albus means "white" in Latin, and frons means "forehead." The Green-winged Trumpeter of Brazil is Psophia viridis: psophos is from Greek and means “a noise”; viridis is Latin for "green."
Some species are named after people, places, or other things. For Rhea americana, the Greater Rhea, Rhea was Saturn’s wife (Zeus’s mother) in Greek myth, and americana tells us the bird lives in (South) America.
There are other things you can learn from scientific names:
- When the name is written in three parts—Numida meleagris mitrata (Helmeted Guineafowl)—the first part is the genus, the second is the species, and the third is the subspecies. Sometimes these birds are named as different species later if scientists agree they are significantly different.
- If the name is written in three parts and the second and third part are the same—Numida meleagris meleagris (Tufted Guineafowl)—this is the type subspecies, the one that is representative of the whole group. It might be the most well known, or it was described and named first.
- If the genus and species names are the same—Cygnus cygnus (Whooper Swan)—then the genus name was originally something else, but has been changed.
- Where the name is followed by a person's name and a year, this is the name of the person who first described the species, and the year of publication of the description.
Origins of Common Bird Names
Common bird names, as shown in the examples above, are often literal or partial translations of Latin names, particularly in bird guides, but this is not always true. There are no strict rules here, and people name birds based on appearance (bluebird), their call (whip-poor-will), local folklore (Lord God Bird), behavior (woodpecker), or for numerous other reasons. Many are named after people (Wilson’s Snipe).
Sources:
International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Latin Names Explained. Gotch, A. F. New York: Facts on File, 1995.
What is in a Scientific Name? Animal Diversity Web.
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