Last month, I wrote about the common names of birds, and the planned changes to some of those names. In the past, I’ve written about the folk names of birds. But there are also the scientific names of ...

A black-capped chickadee by any other name is a Poecile atricapillus. That’s the bird’s scientific name, the reference used worldwide to avoid the confusion a list of local names could offer. For ...

Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).

Science is known for precision, but sometimes the names it produces sound almost unbelievable. From oddly named particles to strangely labeled species, some terms seem more humorous than scientific.

When did humans begin to assign names to each other? It’s a question that has occupied researchers for decades. What is clear, however, is how important consistent naming is in helping us to make ...