Bird names

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Table 1 (from Winker 2024a). Over two centuries of work on our bird naming systems have produced widespread, if not universal, agreement on these fundamental attributes.

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  • Standardization and stability are enormously effective in fostering inclusion.
  • Types, binomial nomenclature, the rule of priority, Linne (1758) as a core temporal base, and the capitalization of genus with lower-case species, represent the global scientific zoological nomenclatural standards for species.
  • Names are often simply labels, and this is a central linguistic principle. While names can have descriptive properties, they need not do so—they serve as an index, and the description is separate. Eponymous names are common.
  • Vernacular bird names are a standard component of English bird naming systems, coupled with scientific names. Since this began, they have proven to be an invaluable component of these systems.
  • For clarity, English names for birds are proper names or nouns and thus capitalized. (Scientific names from kingdom to subgenus are also capitalized proper names.)
  • These naming systems are necessarily pared-down lexicons, and thus cannot effectively contain all the diverse verbiage their users might wish.
  • Overall, English bird names have proven more stable than scientific names.
  • Trinomials, denoting subspecies, are now a standard component of ornithological literature. These often have their own vernacular names, though mainly for major subspecies or subspecific groups.
  • Dissatisfaction with aspects of names and our naming systems have always been present. This is inevitable in creations that work well enough for the majority but which, because of compromises, are almost guaranteed to make no individual completely happy.
  • In conjunction with these formal naming systems, other names exist and are extensively used. This is especially useful for improving local and regional communication.

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