Vipera Berus - Common Names

Common Names

In keeping with its wide distribution and familiarity through the ages, Vipera berus has a large number of common names, which include:

Common European adder, common European viper, European viper, northern viper, adder, common adder, crossed viper, European adder, common viper, European common viper, cross adder, or common cross adder.

In Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, it is known as "huggorm" or "hoggorm". In Finland, it is known as "kyykäärme" or simply "kyy." The word "adder" was nædre in Old English; in the 14th century a nadder was, like a napron, rebracketed as an adder. It appears with the generic meaning of serpent in the older forms of many Germanic languages, and is thus used in the Old English version of the Christian Scriptures for the devil, the serpent of the Book of Genesis. In Latvia the snake is called the odze.