# Carolina parakeets: did they have a common name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077 "2005-04-25T22:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/1 "2005-04-25T22:11:50Z")
Here’s an obscure question. (I may not get an answer here but it’s worth a shot.) Did American settlers have a common or slang name for the (now-extinct) [Carolina parakeet](http://www.georgehoward.net/parakeet.htm)? Knowing country folk as I do, I doubt they would have bothered to call it by its proper name. I’m confident they would have had some colorful slang term for the critters. (People on the Southern frontier called mountain lions “catamounts” back in the day, to give but one example of what I mean.) So are there any bird lovers who know the answer for this? I need it for a work of fiction I’m outlining. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/2 "2005-04-25T23:00:59Z")
Back in the day? I still think of any big cat screaming in the woods as a catamount. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/3 "2005-04-25T23:51:53Z")
I’m fairly sure that a library book I read a couple of years ago on birds extinct in modern times said that there was a popular colloquial term for the Carolina paroquet, but a fairly thorough Google search doesn’t turn up any. They were called “Conures” from the genus name _Conuropsis_, but that wasn’t a particularly popular term, being more an alternate “scholarly” popular name in the same sense that a gnu is also called a wildebeest. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/4 "2005-04-26T00:09:06Z")
The term “Carolina parakeet” or “Carolina Parrot” shows up as just that in the early to mid-1850’s. The spelling of “parakeet” is all over the place, and I can’t find anything readily as to a more colorful name. Now that I look, there is a possiblity that they may have called it _Poll_ as in _Poll Parrot_. I’ve found this in some stories, but hesitate to say this was a common name for it. ---
**Author:** ![BookReader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@BookReader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookReader)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/5 "2005-04-26T07:38:27Z")
The only thing I’ve discovered is that the Chickasaw Indians called it “Kelinky.” As for “Poll”, that was a nickname for any sort of pet parrot in those days, but I don’t find any references that indicate it was used as a colloquial term for the Carolina Parakeet. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carolina-parakeets-did-they-have-a-common-name/301077/6 "2005-04-26T14:05:27Z")
Just looking at the painting of the birds, something like “yellowhead” or “greenback” would suggest itself. I have no doubt that there was some colloquial name for them; I just wish I knew what it was. **Polycarp** , is there any chance you could recall some more detail about that library book? Maybe I could try to track that down.