Taxonomy
The Nutcracker was one of the many species originally described by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Nucifraga caryocatactes. The scientific name is a reduplication, with Nucifraga based on Latin: nucis nut + frangere to shatter, and caryocatactes based on Greek: karuon nut + kataseio to shatter. The common English name nutcracker first appears in 1738 in a translation of a German travel guide, where it is a calque on the German name Nußknacker, as the bird was not recorded in England until 1753. Other Germanic languages have etymologically related names: Danish: Nøddekrige; Dutch: Notenkraker; Norwegian: Nøttekråke; Swedish: Nötkråka.
Read more about this topic: Spotted Nutcracker