We understand very little about dolphin communication, but it’s pretty clear that dolphins create, use, and remember for at decades the names of other dolphins they socially interact with in the wild and in captivity:
Kind of a digression, but names aren’t the basis of language (arguably, grammar is. You can’t really have a language without a grammar). Names are individual labels, and while they’re certainly useful for a language, you could have a perfectly reasonable language that used only pronouns or descriptions to refer to individuals.
“I am hungry”
“My eldest brother’s first wife’s third son came to visit”
“Pass this to the red-haired old man on your left”
PPp
Mmm. With my cats, if I called for Toby with no reply, and then called for Gizmo, Gizzy would refuse to come. “I am NOT going to be your second choice, you asshole.”
Many of our cats respond to their own names, but one of them (now departed) would look at another cat when we called that cat’s name. He seemed unusually clever in other ways as well.
Our Boxer knows its name, the names of each of the five cats around the house, and the names of several toys. I am not sure whether there is a difference between knowing the name of a cat and the name of a toy.
In turn, the four house cats each know their own names and the names of their housemates. They probably recognize the dog’s name, at least as far as recognizing that the name, when called, brings the dog. If they are sitting in a clutter on the bed, any of them will look up when their name is used, even if they are not being called. (Two of them are named for identifying marks and a reference to a tip in a restaurant will get Tip’s attention while a reference to a smudged window will get a response from Smudge.) Further, we can call one cat and have the others ignore us, so it is not a matter of every cat simply responding to any “call” on the basis that there is food available.
We had a dog I know understood his name. One day it was napping, and nearby I started saying different names, not putting any emphasis on any of them, and the moment I threw in his name, he perked up.
Yes, but only a very well trained or unusually ‘verbal’ dog responds differently to the name. Most will just sit or come here.
The dumbest dog I’ve ever known could distinguish between the name and a specific command.
Skidboot. Nuff said about smart dogs.
I think a lot of animals are a lot smarter that we give them credit for.
I have seen horses do amazing thing without ever being taught to do them.
I wonder about smart birds, parrots, ravens & crows, etc. The brain is very small & a lot is needed for eye muscle work. Talking uses different parts of the brain in many ways does it not?
If a dog could make human sounds like some birds can, I wonder if they could talk as well or more intelligently than parrots?
Some animals certainly seem to respond to their own name. Some may even understand who it is that certain other animals’ or people’s names refer to. Perhaps some even even assign names to others. I am pretty confident, however, that no animal (except, just possibly, certain humans) understands the concept of names.
We have three dogs, Gunner the Great Dane, Carson the Chow Chow/Sheppard and Alvin the Bernese Mountain Dog. Of course each one will respond when called, but what I find interesting is if I have a treat or if I’m setting down their food dishes I can say "This one is for Gunner"and the other dogs will back down and let Gunner come and get his treat. Same if I go to put a food bowl down and say “This is Carson’s”. The other two won’t touch that bowl. So apparently they can assign ownership of things by name. I would assume that they certainly ingesting the concept of a name.
Avian brains are structured differently than mammal brains, and in addition just about everything about a bird is geared toward weight reduction and efficiency. Apparently, the need a small amount of brains to do the same job that mammal brains do. Like I said, their brains also have a very different structure, which bits do what and where those bits are located/wired together is different.
Which makes interacting with them even more fascinating. They’re like little aliens. Or maybe they think we’re the aliens, they were here before us after all.
Every bird I’ve had knew its own name. My current conure has given me a name - he has a distinctive whistle he uses to refer to me and probably thinks I’m a pretty smart ape for knowing my own name!
Reading that link, I think people are too quick to take their analysis as definitive. It’s a tentative finding that even the authors call a “first step” in understanding what is going on.
Maybe. But maybe not.
The Tarzan movies were not documentaries. 
The cat of my childhood would respond to the question “Where’s name?” by looking in the direction that person was to be found. he was a notably intelligent animal.
I call my dog by a lot of names and mostly, I think she responds to the tone of my voice. However, if she’s sniffing around in the yard and I say her name, her ears perk up and she runs to me as if she hasn’t seen me in months, like the dogs of deployed soldiers. She also knows her boyfriend dog’s name. If you say, “Is that Skipper?” she goes nuts looking for Skipper. (Skipper lives just a few houses away and we can hear him barking from my yard. Both of us recognize that specific dog’s bark–she doesn’t react to other neighborhood dogs barking, just Skipper. 'Cause she* loves* Skipper.) She knew my cat’s name as well. He did too, but he answered to “kitty,” not his name. So the dog thought the cat’s name was “kitty”. And she knows that all cats are kitty. If I spot one on our walk before she does, I greet it, so she knows I saw it (and won’t allow her to bolt after it, thus dragging me through some neighbor’s yard). When I say “Hi Kitty!” she’ll look at the cat in question.
We’ve certainly had some interesting interactions with some of the pigeons out on our balcony, as many on the Board know.
I think that’s an important point. It’s hard to tell the difference between an animal responding to its name because it is trained to (or even just learned by itself) and an animal that actually knows what its name is. But both those two conditions are quite different from an animal understanding what a name is, in general.
There might be some evidence in chimps, who have been taught to sign and who have created new signs by themselves or who have taught their young to sign. But even then, it’s not definitive.
I’m convinced that, much more than words, this is it.
Anecdote time : my Dad used to be very proud to have taught our dog to chase the neighbourhood’s cats, ducks and rabbits (my Dad is kind of an asshole that way). He’d demonstrate by calling : “Moka ? CAT !” or “Moka ? DUCK !” and she’d go fucking apewire. Completely Librarian poo, looking for the cat everywhere at full speed and bumping into things. Much mirth was had, because when it comes down to it we can be a family of assholes.
Then, because I’m a party pooper, I tried to call “Cola ? MAC !” in the same tone of voice, intonations and so forth. Sure enough, the dog went right back into circular flight. And so my Dad’s heart was crushed. Much mirth was had, etc…
Well, on an anecdote-to-anecdote basis, you might have something. (Then again, maybe not - we had a dog that responded to her name on tv. Also, humans often respond when you get the inflection right but their name slightly wrong).
But there are lots of experiments that show that’s not the case - seals can be taught to respond to cards.
Dogs can understand syntax (take frisbee ball is different than take ball frisbee).
Parrots and porpoises give each other unique calls.
I love that cartoon! The guys is a genius.