# Animal surnames **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 16, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902 "2020-04-16T06:13:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/21 "2020-04-16T16:11:40Z")
Two of my favorites are Robin Fox and Lionel Tiger, anthropologists who wrote _The Imperial Animal_, and who have four animal names between them. Bird names that haven’t been mentioned yet are Wren, Stork, Sparrow, Raven, Kite, Heron, Bunting, Parrot(t), and Gannet(t). It should be mentioned that some of the names offered are not actually animal names, but are only coincidentally the same. For example, “Shepherd” is certainly derived from the human profession, and not from the name of the dog. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/22 "2020-04-16T17:15:44Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > (snipped) > > I’ve never seen just “Duck” as a last name, but “Duckworth” is very common in Indiana. And, of course, Hoosiers gave the country J. Danforth Quayle. I once worked with a woman who married a man named Donald Duck. I have no idea what his parents were thinking when they named him. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/23 "2020-04-16T17:43:40Z")
Grouse is a homograph. The name means “large”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/24 "2020-04-16T17:54:41Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > I had Italian coworkers named Gatti (Cats) and Topi (Mice). You could see how hard people were working at NOT making the obvious jokes. > > In Spanish I don’t know either but I know Ratón (Mouse) and there’s a model and TV host called Mazagatos (whether it means “bunch of cats” or “clubs cats”, or is a merger of two names, I don’t know). > > The “Spanish” lastname Lobo is a favorite of non-Spanish speaking writers for their Hispanic baddies. 'cept it’s not Spanish: it’s from Portugal. The Spanish version is Lope or Lopez, which don’t happen to match the name of the animal but are derived from its Latin name. Of course there’s León, but [it seems the derivation is not from the animal, but from the city](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_(surname)). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/25 "2020-04-16T18:21:50Z")
More bird names: Brent (a kind of goose), Mallard, Teal, Harrier, Hobby (a kind of falcon), Crake, Snipe, Woodcock, Gull, Rook, Lark, Starling, Bullfinch, and Nightingale. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/26 "2020-04-16T18:44:43Z")
My own family name is an animal, but in a foreign language. There’s even a family Coat of Arms that depicts the animal When I looked into the explanations for such animal surnames, the basic message I get it _Nobody really knows_. But there are plenty of surmises - The family lived where that animal was common - The family lived in or near a place named after that animal - The family was known as traders/breeders/keepers of that animal (especially domestic animal names, like Hogg) - Someone in the family _looked_ like that animal - Someone in the family acted like that animal, or had some trait associated with the animal - They’re not really named after an animal, but what they were named after sounds the same, or the language has changed … and so on. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/27 "2020-04-16T18:50:55Z")
One of our sons had a teacher named Mr. Moose. If he’d had me for a student he would have gotten sick of being asked when ping pong balls were going to drop. ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/28 "2020-04-16T18:58:39Z")
My aunt’s surname was Drake. And keeping in the domestic fowl group, has anyone mentioned Ryan Gosling? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/29 "2020-04-16T19:05:35Z")
Cobb Corpus Lamb Ham (not an animal…) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/30 "2020-04-16T19:06:58Z")
When we registered our dog, we gave him the same surname of our family. Oh, you mean…people with animal names…never mind. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/31 "2020-04-16T19:18:11Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > There’s also the famous John Doe, who seems to pop up just about everywhere. 😃 Including the guy from [the band X.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(American_band)) I think that may not be his birth name, though. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/32 "2020-04-16T19:50:07Z")
[Trevor Peacock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Peacock) and his sons Harry & Daniel are all actors. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/33 "2020-04-16T20:17:26Z")
Terminology changes over time. Horse, Ox, and Deer are rare surnames, but long ago when family names were being handed out, Steed, Bullock, Hart, and Roe were probably more common terms, and they’re all pretty common names. And there may have been many more animal surnames in the past. The [Galton-Watson process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galton%E2%80%93Watson_process) was discovered in the 1870s. It has more applications than the extinction of surnames and families, but that was the original line of inquiry. Until the explanation of the process, it was sometimes assumed that rich, famous, titled, powerful, and respected people somehow had lower fertility than ordinary folk, because so many of the rich and famous families eventually died off without male heirs. In fact it’s a random process that affects all families; nobody seems to take much notice when it happens to poor families. By chance, as long as no new surnames are coined, a proportion of existing surnames will disappear every generation. In theory, if the process is allowed to continue for enough generations, all surnames except one will eventually go extinct. This process has been used to explain why the countries that have used surnames the longest, like Korea and China, have relatively few surnames. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/34 "2020-04-16T20:29:00Z")
Two related to goats… Kidd Chevrolet - chèvre is goat in French ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/35 "2020-04-16T22:53:15Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > One of our sons had a teacher named Mr. Moose. If he’d had me for a student he would have gotten sick of being asked when ping pong balls were going to drop. Also Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher [Bob Moose](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Moose), who no-hit the Mets in 1969. Other deer names: Stag(g), Hind, Roebuck, Brocket(t) ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/36 "2020-04-16T23:20:44Z")
In my youth, Australian politics had a twofer - Prime Minister Bob Hawke and his opposite number, opposition leader Andrew Peacock. Australia also has a small handful of families surnamed Bilby, which I find rather interesting, as I’m not sure by what means New World animals would get on to the surname roster. No kangaroos, koalas or platypuses though, as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/37 "2020-04-16T23:23:16Z")
And of course there’s the famous [Blackadder](https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/elizabeth-blackadder) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/38 "2020-04-16T23:41:00Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Australia also has a small handful of families surnamed Bilby, which I find rather interesting, as I’m not sure by what means New World animals would get on to the surname roster. No kangaroos, koalas or platypuses though, as far as I can tell. It’s coincidental. [The name is from a village in Nottinghamshire.](https://www.houseofnames.com/bilby-family-crest) I wondered the same thing about Moose, but it’s also coincidental, [being derived from the German word for moss.](https://www.houseofnames.com/moose-family-crest) It also has nothing to do with the animal. Actor Peter Coyote’s original name was Cohon; [he changed his name after a peyote induced vision of coyote tracks.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/39 "2020-04-16T23:45:16Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > And of course there’s the famous [Blackadder](https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/elizabeth-blackadder) Again coincidental, [the name coming from the Adder river,](https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Blackadder) not the adder snake. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2020, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902/40 "2020-04-17T00:03:45Z")
Well, there you go! I was wondering if I’d fake someone out, and get a complaint that it wasn’t a real person… 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-surnames/851902.md?page=3)