# Want an animal species named after you? Get out your checkbook! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 11, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531 "2005-11-11T04:21:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/1 "2005-11-11T04:21:24Z")
[Ants: What’s in a Name?](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9935134/site/newsweek/) > [@](#): > > Nov. 14, 2005 issue - Genesis 2:19 says that “whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” But Adam probably wouldn’t have named a spider Calponia harrisonfordi, a sea snail Bufonaria borisbeckeri or an ant Proceratium google. Those are the work of environmentalists who’ve stumbled on an unlikely source of publicity and revenue: scientific species names. Lately, the monikers have become celebrity gifts so common you’d think they were showing up in swag bags. Sting has a tree frog, Harrison Ford has an ant as well as that spider and Mick Jagger has a snail, albeit one that hasn’t aged as well as he has. (It’s extinct.) In April, a dot-com paid $650,000 for the right to call the newly discovered Callicebus aureipalatii the [GoldenPalace.com](http://GoldenPalace.com) monkey. > > Now Brian Fisher, a leading entomologist, is opening up the privilege to regular folks. In exchange for a $10,000 donation, he’ll let you christen one of the 600-odd new species of ants he’s found in Madagascar. (For just $15,000 more, you can buy an entire genus, but act now—there are only four available.) ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/2 "2005-11-12T02:29:37Z")
Add [John Cleese](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10002999/) to the list of people immortalized by having species named after them. _Avahi cleesei_ is a lemur of western Madagascar. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/3 "2005-11-12T02:59:41Z")
I knew I should have gone into entomology. There just ain’t enough birds left to name. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/4 "2005-11-12T03:28:48Z")
I wonder if any neural parasite names are up for grabs. “Ranchoth’s Brainworm” or “Gaston’s Mind-Scourge” has a nice ring to it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/5 "2005-11-12T03:38:44Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I knew I should have gone into entomology. There just ain’t enough birds left to name. Swifts. There are so many variant “expert opinions” that you could define new species and genera almost at random and end up agreeing in part with _somebody_. (Besides, I want someone to write up _Apos jonathani var. laputensis_. :)) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/6 "2005-11-12T04:33:05Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Swifts. There are so many variant “expert opinions” that you could define new species and genera almost at random and end up agreeing in part with _somebody_. (Besides, I want someone to write up _Apos jonathani var. laputensis_. :)) Sooo… what are you offering to be immortalized forever? A cladist has gotta eat you know. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/7 "2005-11-12T05:05:29Z")
Gary Larson has a flea named after him. ---
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/8 "2005-11-12T18:10:21Z")
I was going to pay, then I decided to just change my name to **Gigantopithecus Blackii**. It was much cheaper and it confuses the telemarketers. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/9 "2005-11-12T20:09:29Z")
Can I get a swan species named after me? Considering the moniker I used on the boards, that’d be super-cool. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/10 "2005-11-12T20:46:56Z")
What about virologists, can they start naming variants of the Rhinovirus after people? ---
**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:** [November 13, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/11 "2005-11-13T00:12:31Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Gary Larson has a flea named after him. It was actually a kind of louse found only on owls: _Strigiphilus garylarsoni_, “Gary Larson’s Owl-lover.” ---
**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:** [November 13, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/want-an-animal-species-named-after-you-get-out-your-checkbook/330531/12 "2005-11-13T00:17:26Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Swifts. There are so many variant “expert opinions” that you could define new species and genera almost at random and end up agreeing in part with _somebody_. I actually found what I think is a new bird subspecies in Africa (a kind of thrush), which someone else thinks is probably a new species. I haven’t described it yet because it will involve me in a cladistics war.