Common Name - Common Names and The Binomial System

Common Names and The Binomial System

The form of scientific names for organisms that we know as binomial nomenclature is derived from the noun-adjective form of vernacular names used by prehistoric cultures. A collective name such as owl, was made more specific by the addition of an adjective such as screech. Linnaeus himself published a Flora of his homeland Sweden, Flora Svecica (1745), and in this he recorded the Swedish common names, region by region, as well as the scientific names—and the Swedish common names were all binomials (e.g. plant no. 84 Råg-losta and plant no. 85 Ren-losta)—the vernacular binomial system thus preceded his scientific binomial system.

Linnaean authority William T. Stearn said:

By the introduction of his binomial system of nomenclature Linnaeus gave plants and animals an essentially Latin nomenclature like vernacular nomenclature in style but linked to published, and hence relatively stable and verifiable, scientific concepts and thus suitable for international use.

There is a correspondence between many common names and systematic taxonomic names. Many laymen who have the experience and interest to name the creatures that they deal with, also have the powers of observation that equip them to recognise relevant differences and group organisms accordingly. Studies that compared the names applied to various plants by traditional Oriental herbalists with the classification of the same plants by modern botanists, also showed surprisingly close correspondence.

One example can be found in the book Moby-Dick or, The Whale, by Herman Melville. In Chapter 32, "Cetology", concerning the question of whether the whale is a fish or mammal, Melville wrote in about 1851:

The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish... The grounds upon which Linnaeus would fain have banished the whales from the waters, he states as follows: "On account of their warm bilocular heart, their lungs, their movable eyelids, their hollow ears..." I submitted all this to my friends Simeon Macey and Charley Coffin, of Nantucket, both messmates of mine in a certain voyage, and they united in the opinion that the reasons set forth were altogether insufficient. Charley profanely hinted they were humbug... Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.