i.e. index, middle, ring, etc
assuming the finger makes up part of the fist.
The vogue in medicine used to be to number the digits 1 to 5, but this gets confusing depending whether the thumb counts as 1 and whether the hand is supinated or pronated. Now its back to being thumb, index, middle, ring, little, with supernumary digits being described in full.
e.g.
The patient has a supernumary digit on the ulnar border of the left hand, adjacent to the little finger.
The patient has a supernumary digit betweeen the index finger and middle finger on the right hand.
I can see that having a second thumb might be distinguishable (if it’s opposable like the normal thumb), but you do you distinguish between central and postaxial polydactyly, i.e. how do you tell which finger is “extra”?
I used to work for a guy who had an extra finger, sort of. The ring finger on his right hand split into two fingertips at the last knuckle. What’s that called?
what is the sixth finger on a hand called?
I vote for “loppy.”
I vote that we call it the “McCallum”, after David McCallum. He was Ilya Kuryakin on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, but what’s relevant is that he starred in the Outer Limits episode “The Sixth Finger”, in which he ges one (amonmg other things):
But if you’ve got six fingers, doesn’t the “middle” finger lose its status of being the true middle? And you know in 50 years, when all our children will be genetically modified to have 6 fingers (for faster typing), no one will know why we call this 3rd digit the ‘middle’.