Looking down this long list, I cannot find a single counterexample.
List of human anatomical parts named after people - Wikipedia
Unless it turns out that the organelle was named after Louisa Endoplasmicreticulum, the best I can do is to note that there were two women in Heart.
No one, and I mean no one called it Ptychocheilus oregonensis except for scientists. EVERYONE ELSE called it squawfish. It’s not “some” people. It is the huge majority.
Either way, does it matter? No, it doesn’t. It was an offensive name that should be eradicated.
Change all the “named after Nazis” and ethnic slurs you want, but leave Phallus impudicus. Its an honorable dick joke, made by Linneaus himself. See also Mutinus caninus.
How? Track down everyone who says that name and shoot them? That name is not official in any way shape or form. There is no way to change it.
It doesn’t mean renaming them tomorrow. They will be known by their former names until suitable replacements reach accepted status. What is ridiculous is maintaining a vanity naming system and considering it to be scientific.
Too many obscure species. And you can not name a species after yourself, so not vanity.
For one, stop using the former name. For example, take a look at this program:
See if you can find the word “squawfish”. Guess what the program used to be called? Take a look at this report if you can’t guess:
Take a look at footnote 1:
The common name of the northern squawfish was recently changed by the American Fisheries Society to northern pikeminnow at the request of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Reservation.
Gosh, almost like I knew that, since that’s covered by all 3 kinds of renaming I already mentioned…
(Ignoring the obvious well-poisoning of “more PC” for “less offensive”)
Doesn’t mean “they” can’t. “They” don’t, and “they” have written “their” rules so “they” don’t have to (specifically Article 51.1 / Article 18, depending on if you care about plants or animals)
But I’m not arguing for what “they” have done. I’m arguing for what “they” should do. People make rules, people can change them.
The Times Man of the year recognizes influence, not popularity or how good they were. Hitler was hugely controversial to say the very least from the beginning and most of the world most certainly did not admire him.
I stand corrected on the Brazilian and the Argentine.
As for Jewish, I’m talking about heritage, not religious beliefs. Don’t goysplain to me.
Okay, I wont and never have. They changed the common name already. Still, people will use the old name, and there is no way to stop them.
Apparently you didnt, since you said “Scientific names get changed all the time.” in support of renaming species with offensive names.
Indeed, you did.
Fine, that’s even worse- how can you tell what their heritage is? Since of course heritage is passed thru the matrilineal line, so a name wont tell you anything solid about their Jewish heritage.
I’m not Native American but I support changing the names of things that are offensive to them. I’m not an African American and my family didn’t arrive her until the 20th Century but I support removing the names of things honoring the Confederacy. I’m not a fucking asshole which is why I support these things. Keeping the names of things like this around is vile and shameful.
Which they do. Here, a nice summary of just the birds changed last year…
Yes. The argument is simple - they already change them for … reasons. (“Scientific” reasons are still human reasons). All they need do is add one more reason.
No, I did not. I mentioned what they’ve done, I didn’t argue for it.
So random tangential thought, what are some of the more obscure people who’ve been, rightly or wrongly, honored this way. However much public opinion may have changed on Hitler and Douglas Adams they are still remembered (I guess Douglas Adams a bit less so nowadays, he was a massive part of my cultral upbringing, growing up in late 80s, early 90s Britain, but I’m not sure that’s true for younger generations).
Who are people who were once thought (by one biologist at least) worth commemorating forever in latin species name, but who are now completely forgotten?
I think of German anatomist Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle every time I pee. There’s a bit of him in all our kidneys, namely the loop of Henle, which concentrates the urea in your urine. That’s mighty nice of him.
If the ones named after mythological characters count, like Achilles tendon, we have Iris. Regardless, that’s an astounding fact.
Just to note, as you probably know, Douglas Adams was a notable amateur naturalist. So he at least was not just a random celebrity.
I doubt that in the 19th century a naturalist would have named a species after their favorite pop singer, as happens today. But there are countless examples of names chosen (for example) to ingratiate themselves with the local monarch.
Er, you don’t count Dr Paulo Lucinda of Brazil and Dr Cristinia Luisa Scioscia of Argentina as likely candidates for having Latin ethnicity? [ETA: Never mind, ninja’d by DrDeth.]
I also don’t see how you can confidently rule out the possibility that some of those white male commissioners may be Jewish, especially given the disproportionately high percentage of Jews among US-born scientific researchers.
ISTM naming stuff was pretty much the province on white European males from say 1600 and the barest advent of the scientific method until maybe the 1950s when science became a bit more inclusive and except for ever more obscure slime molds there was damned near nothing in the biosphere left to name.
So all those name reflected the habits and prejudices of that then-dominant culture, despite wherever on earth the stuff they named is found, and despite whichever sorts of people lived nearby.
OK, that’s (a crude caricature of) how we got here. Where do we go from here? And why?
Spongy moth is the new name of the pest formerly known as the g***y moth. It’s catching on. It helps that one of the notable characteristics of the critter is that it lays large spongy egg masses that are quite prominent.
So it can happen. I believe the only reason that name was changed was because the old name was offensive.