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the etyfish project fish name etymology database christopher scharpf skip to content the etyfish project fish name etymology database christopher scharpf menu introduction table of contents revision history name of the week 2026 search limited dedication fish centric guide to zoological nomenclature changing scientific names on ethical grounds also by c scharpf introduction the means for ascertaining or confirming the etymologies of many scientific names are perhaps not available for all who might desire to ascertain them and they are often wrongly analyzed theodore gill fishes living and fossil science n s 3 78 909 917 naturalists started naming animals with latin or latinized epithets long before linnaeus who formalized zoological nomenclature with his systema naturae 10th ed in 1758 following linnaeus binomial genus and species system over 11 000 genus group names and over 65 000 species group names have been proposed for recent fishes with over 5 600 and 38 000 of these names respectively regarded as taxonomically valid today but as smithsonian zoologist theodore gill remarked back in 1896 the precise meanings of many scientific names are poorly known and a re ference for looking them up at least among fishes has long been unavailable the etyfish project fills these voids what does that name mean my objectives are twofold 1 to provide an english translation of a fish s generic and specific names and 2 to explain how the name applies to the fish in question many references accomplish the first objective but fall short with the second a case in point trinectes is a genus of coastal north and south american flatfishes whose name was coined by rafinesque in 1832 numerous books and websites will tell you that trinectes is a combination of tri meaning three and nektes meaning swimmer what most references fail to explain is what three swimmer actually means does the fish swim in groups of three the answer lies in rafinesque s one sentence description it has only three fins dorsal anal and caudal clearly rafinesque referred to the fact that the specimen he e xamined now known as t maculatus lacked pectoral fins although present but rudimentary on some specimens and hence had only three fins with which to swim it s this kind of analysis i hope makes the etyfish project a unique and useful reference for anyone who studies or writes about fishes or is curious about the combination of biology and language that zoological nomenclature represents in some cases available etymological explanations are incorrect here is one example from among many for over 130 years the specific name of the yellow bullhead ameiurus natalis a catfish from north america was believed to mean having large nates or buttocks unfortunately this explanation is based on the incorrect assumption that natalis is the adjectival form of natis a latin noun for rump or buttocks a careful examination of lesueur s original description however reveals that natalis is a latin adjective meaning of or belonging to birth often used in association with the christian holiday of christmas noel in french by naming this catfish natalis lesueur was in fact honoring his fellow frenchman and colleague fisheries inspector simon barthélemy joseph noël de la morinière 1765 1822 see scharpf 2020 for the full story misinterpretations such as this are common in the scientific and popular literature and are often perpetuated in subsequent publications and databases e g fishbase a celebration of names in addition to explaining the derivations and meanings of fish names the etyfish project serves another purpose celebrating the strictly human activity of naming things when a biologist describes a new taxon the work is supposed to be clinical and objective what does it look like how is it structured where does it live how is it different from related taxa where does it fit on the phylogenetic tree descriptive taxonomy is based on measurement analysis and observation it s empirical and dispassionate the way science is supposed to be but when a biologist coins and assigns a name to a taxon the name by which they hope the taxon will forever be known this is a rare opportunity for the scientist to be creative personal poetic whimsical even enigmatic or mysterious sometimes the biologist stays objective the spotted fish is named punctatus the tiny fish minimus the fish from the nile niloticus but sometimes the biologist reveals a little bit of themselves in their selection of a name a person they love a colleague they admire an allusion to a favorite book or movie a nod to a bit of local or mythical lore over the course of 43 700 plus entries the etyfish project surveys and celebrates the intersection of science and creative expression that biological nomenclature often represents taxonomic coverage and classification the etyfish project includes the names of every valid genus subgenus species and subspecies of fish and fish like craniate excluding fossils this paraphyletic assemblage includes myxini hagfishes petromyzontida lampreys chondrichthyes sharks rays and chimaeras actinopterygii ray finned fishes and sarcopterygii coelacanths and lungfishes classification of higher level taxa subfamily and above reflects a combination of the 5th edition of nelson s fishes of the world 2016 the browse the classification page at eschmeyer s catalog of fishes betancur r et al 2017 for bony fishes and recent revisions of individual orders and families e g tan armbruster 2018 for cypriniformes mirande 2018 for characidae girard et al 2020 for carangiformes and near thacker 2024 for acanthuriformes centrarchiformes and labriformes please note that higher level classification is a dynamic field with many hypotheses varied nomenclatural conventions and no as of yet universal acceptance with that said the etyfish project does not aim to present or follow any definitive assessment of fish classification as for lower level taxa i provide name etymologies for all genus and species level taxa labeled as valid in eschmeyer s catalog of fishes occasionally i add or subtract taxa when i feel that current research or research not cited in the catalog justifies otherwise i include subgenera and subspecies when my review of the literature indicates that these taxa remain in use by some ichthyologists i recognize that many subgeneric taxa are holdovers from older morphological studies and do not necessarily represent monophyletic groupings their inclusion here is provisional in short i d rather include doubtful taxa e g species inquirendae than leave a potentially valid taxon out methods most modern day descriptions of new fish taxa include a section on etymology in which the meaning of the name is unambiguously explained most descriptions from the 18th 19th and early 20th centuries do not when the derivation and or meaning of a name is not explained by the author s such as in the trinectes example cited above i attempt to match my translation of the name aided by brown s composition of scientific words rev ed 1956 and jaeger s source book of biological names and terms 1959 with an attribute mentioned in the original description if that approach does not yield an obvious interpretation of the name then i attempt to match the name with characters about the taxon as reported in subsequent publications if i am not 100 certain about my interpretation i include the adverb probably presumably or possibly in the explanation all quotations within explanations are quoted directly from the original descriptions see eschmeyer s catalog of fishes for citations non english quotes are translated into english and indicated as such despite best efforts many names have meanings that remain enigmatic e g the kitefin shark genus dalatias while others have names that reflect the whims of the auth or and apparently have no meaning at all for example girard 1856 named several minnow genera after native american words e g agosia dionda nocomis simply because he liked the sou nd of them i do not mention the gender of generic names in the explanations unless it is helpful in understanding the meaning and or proper spelling of a name please consult eschmeyer s catalog of fishes for information on whether a name is masculine feminine or neuter however following eschmeyer s catalog i insist that adjectival trivial names agree in gender with their genus names per rules of latin grammar speaking of eponyms fishes named after people organizations and institutions i seek to provide not just the name of the person or entity being honored but also why they were honored for many eponyms however the why is unexplained i also include life dates years of birth and death when available and any other biographical or historical tidbits i find interesting for example the sharpnose lizardfish synodus bondi of the western atlantic was named for ornithologist james bond 1900 1989 who collected the holotype the tidbit is that bond s name was used by writer ian fleming a keen birdwatcher for his fictional secret agent creation 007 james bond a dynamic reference i will add new taxa as quickly as i can upon receipt of their publications likewise i will also remove taxa if they are subsumed into synonymy and adjust familial and generic classifications and specific placements within them as revisionary studies are published i will also revise etymologies should new information become available if i overlooked a valid taxon or included one i shouldn t have or if you see anything you believe is incorrect or could be improved upon please let me know you are my peer review acknowledgments my progress has been greatly facilitated by the time and labor of dozens of individuals who granted us library access provided publications translated non english literature and helped us in various ways to better understand etymologies for generously sharing his time nomenclatural expertise and pdf library i thank r fricke for his enormous and anonymous contributions to the greek and latin translations presented herein proofreading and authorship or co authorship of special essays i thank h funk for interlibrary loans i thank p j unmack j j hoover r fricke j hatch and the library staff at the american museum of natural history for keeping me up to date on recently described taxa and providing numerous bibliographical and etymological detective services we thank e schraml for proofreading many entries and name of the week essays i thank i j h isbrücker any errors that remain of course are mine for finding numerous taxa and taxonomic changes that i overlooked i thank t lachenal for sharing his personal ichthyological library i thank t o litz for sharing dozens of cichlid papers from the library of deutsche cichliden gesellschaft i thank m e lippitsch for access to the fish reprint room at the california academy of sciences and fulfilling my occasional scan requests i thank d catania for access to the main and division of fishes libraries at the smithsonian institution national museum of natural history i thank j m clayton for patiently answering our questions and reviewing entries on macrouroid fishes i thank t iwamoto for helping me better understand enigmatic names coined by gilbert percy whitley i thank d hoese for sharing data from their eponym dictionary research i thank b beolens and the late m watkins for locating and or scanning copying especially hard to find publications i thank m endruweit l finley r fricke m geerts j hatch p kukulski c t ly d y mai h k mok j müller t a munroe t j near a prokofiev e schraml j p sullivan p tongboonkua l wilson and h woo for general advice help and encouragement i thank w n eschmeyer deceased n evenhuis g s helfman r l mayden j e mccosker and l m page and finally for translations i thank a long list of friends colleagues and volunteers c bedford japanese j birindelli portuguese spanish s binkley french h w choy chinese a n economou greek m endruweit chinese r fricke dutch latin j a giuttari latin italian m hoang vietnamese w hyeong chinese t james spanish t johnson thai c t ly vietnamese d y mai vietnamese t maie japanese m t martin japanese p r møller danish j nelson spanish h h ng chinese s v ngo vietnamese f o carroll japanese a porcella spanish a prokofiev russian bulgarian m ravinet japanese e schraml german dutch l shulov russian p simonović serbo croation h song japanese y vavulitsky russian e wieser japanese n wu chinese k yoshida japanese m a a zarazaga greek and latin and y zhao chinese search part two names here for part one names use the search limited database see table of contents for included families in each part search proudly powered by wordpress