Naming a newly discovered species is a rather
prestigious privilege.
As you can probably imagine then, many see
the act of choosing a suitable name for a
newly discovered creature as a task that requires
a great deal of consideration and thought,
though this doesn’t necessarily mean scientist
don’t occasionally have a little fun with
it, as we’ll get into shortly.
However, what is noteworthy to the topic at
hand is they must follow a rather lengthy
list of rules in doing so.
You see, to name a newly discovered creature
you have to stick within a well-worn framework
of binomial nomenclature that has existed
in some way, shape or form since the eighteenth
century.
First formalised by famed naturalist Carl
Linnaeus, there’s a Lord-of-the-Rings-thick
tome describing exactly how one should name
a creature.
Known as The International Code of Zoological
Nomenclature, this book goes into way more
detail than is necessary for the purposes
of this article, so we’ll just offer a Cliff
notes version of what it discusses.
To summarise, to appease the International
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature the
chosen name for a newly discovered creature
needs to be unique and, most pertinent to
the question posed at the beginning of this
article, the rules do state, “No author
should propose a name that, to his or her
knowledge or reasonable belief, would be likely
to give offence on any grounds.”
In addition, a less concrete, but nonetheless
commonly adhered to, rule is that when naming
a newly discovered species you shouldn’t
name it after yourself.
Why?
Well in the words of the Virginia Museum of
Natural History’s curator emeritus, Judith
Winston, “That’s tacky.”
According to Winston, it’s also considered
somewhat uncouth to combine Greek and Latin
when naming a new creature, with some taxonomy
“purists” out there who would look down
upon the person who did this, even though
it doesn’t break any specific rule.
We can only assume such people are also no
fun at parties.
Moving on, it’s noted that so long as the
rules are followed a person wishing to name
a new creature can pretty much give it whatever
name they like.
In doing so, many have targeted celebrities,
both because it’s a great way to get more
publicity towards said scientist’s work
and sometimes it’s just to honor a famous
person they admire.
For example, consider the story of Ferdinando
Boero, a jellyfish expert and fan of musician
Frank Zappa who decided to combine his two
passions purely so that he could honor and
meet his musical idol.
To do this Boero, who resided in Genoa, Italy
applied for a prestigious fellowship to study
jellyfish in Northern California.
Once there, Boero kept his eyes peeled for
any new species of the creature.
Once he’d identified a few, he wrote to
Zappa asking the singer if he’d like the
honor of being immortalised forever as the
official scientific name of a cool jellyfish.
Zappa replied, telling Boero in a letter penned
by his wife, “There is nothing I’d like
better than having a jellyfish named after
me.”
After receiving the letter, Boero gathered
up a number of samples and rushed to Zappa’s
LA mansion to ask the singer which jellyfish
he felt most connected to.
Zappa dutifully obliged, picking out his favourite
jellyfish which Boero went on to name Phialella
zappai in his honor.
In yet another case of a celebrity being honored
by such a naming, we have a snail from northern
Queensland that is the only member of the
genus Crikey, literally named Crikey steveirwini,
in honor of the late Crocodile Hunter.
The key word to note in the previous sentence
is “honor” because as far as we can tell,
virtually every case in which a celebrity
or person of scientific prominence has had
something named after them, they’ve considered
it to be a compliment.
Likewise, in virtually every case we researched
the person naming a given creature considers
the act of doing so to be a compliment, even
if the creature isn’t exactly something
you’d think a person would be happy to be
forever associated with in scientific literature.
For example, consider the curious case of,
Baracktrema obamai, the official scientific
name of a type of parasitic flatworm that
lives in the blood of Asian box turtles.
Now, when it was first reported that parasitologist
Thomas Platt had chosen this name for the
parasite, it was framed by some in the press
as a deliberate, knowing jab at the then president.
However, Platt would later clarify that he
intended for the gesture to be an honest compliment
to Obama, noting that the creature reminded
him of the president because – “It’s
long.
It’s thin.
And it’s cool as hell.”
This sentiment was echoed by other taxonomists
who explained in various interviews about
the parasite that naming anything after a
person is generally considered a huge honor
in the world of taxonomy because it is basically
enshrining that person in scientific literature
forever.
A similar example from the other side of the
political aisle is the moth Neopalpa donaldtrumpi,
a species of moth endemic to North America
named after then President-elect Donald Trump.
As with the reported discovery and naming
of Baracktrema obamai, some in the media chose
to interpret the name as a jab at Trump.
The fact that the moth is mostly unremarkable
save for the fact that the male of the species
has oddly small genitalia compared to its
moth compatriots only made for even more hyperbolic
headlines.
In truth, though, the moth’s discover, Vazrick
Nazari chose the name because the moth possesses
scales on its head reminiscent of Donald Trump’s
distinctive hairstyle, which, looking at the
picture at the top of this article.
Kinda’ does…
Nazari would also note that he hoped naming
the moth after the president would highlight
“the importance of conservation of the fragile
habitats that still contain undescribed and
threatened species”.
On that note, Nazari’s decision to name
the moth after Trump due to it resembling
him in some manner is a popular naming trend
with new species, some of our favourite examples
of which include –
A spider named after Johnny Cash discovered
near Folsom prison in California that, like
the singer, is dressed all in black- Aphonopelma
johnnycashi.
A bee named after Beyonce notable for having
a gigantic golden butt, with the namer stating
“I figured, if I’m ever going to name
a species after Beyoncé, this is it.”-
Scaptia beyonceae.
A beetle named after Arnold Schwarzenegger
due to it possessing a pair of legs that resemble
large, flexed biceps- Agra schwarzeneggeri.
A parasitic wasp named after Shakira due to
its habit of causing whatever it infects to
convulse and twist like it’s bellydancing-
Aleiodes shakirae.
There are literally so many of these that
we couldn’t possible cover them all and
we invite anyone who’s interested to explore
this giant list of creatures named for individuals
to your heart’s content.
But going back to the original posed question-
surely there must be at least one exception,
right?
One scientist who named a creature after someone
they disliked out of spite?
It turns out, there is at least one, credited
to none other than Carl Linnaeus himself.
Linnaeus apparently got so sick of a botanist
called Johann Siegesbeck criticising his work
that he named what has been described as a
“small, useless European weed” after him.
For the curious, the weed’s scientific name
is simply Siegesbeckia.
Outside of this, however, it appears that
academics almost always choose to adhere to
the rule of naming things in such a way as
to not cause anyone offense, and it’s generally
considered a great honor to have a creature
named after you, regardless of how unsavory
said creature may be.
There’s an unremarkable species of blind
cave beetle named Anophthalmus hitleri named
after Hitler.
Yes, that Hitler.
The discoverer of the species, Oscar Scheibel
named the beetle after Hitler after he’d
become chancellor of Germany, much to Hitler’s
delight who wrote Scheibel a letter of thanks.
The name of the beetle is understandably a
source of controversy in taxonomy circles,
but it’s generally agreed renaming something
should never be done.
This is rather unfortunate for the beetle
as it’s name has resulted in it becoming
popular among collectors and neo-nazis who
have now hunted it to near extinction.
