Common Name - Constraints and Problems

Constraints and Problems

Common names are used in the writings of both professionals and laymen. Lay people sometimes object to the use of scientific names over common names, but the use of scientific names can be defended, as it is in these remarks from a book on marine fish::

• Because, as already remarked, common names often have a very local distribution, we find that the same fish in a single area may have several common names.
• Because of ignorance of relevant biological facts among the lay public, a single species of fish might have several extra common names, say because individuals differ according to maturity, gender, or their natural surroundings.
• Formal taxonomic names imply biological relationships between similarly named creatures.
• Because of incidental events, contact with other languages, or simple confusion, common names in a given region change with time.
• In a book that lists over 1200 species of fishes more than half have no widely recognised common name; they either are too nondescript or too rarely seen to have earned any widely accepted common name.
• Conversely, a single common name often applies to multiple species of fishes. The lay public might simply not recognise or care about subtle differences in appearance between effectively unrelated species with very different biologies.