Mutt-Names: What's the Point?

One mistake I commonly see being made by some speculative evolutionists is giving their creations "mutt-names", that is combining the names of modern animals to make one name for their future creation. My motto is these animals have almost no connection to modern animals, except for parallel lifestyles created by open niches. So what sense does it make to give these animals the combined names of modern animals? Every time I see someone use these kind of names for their futuristic animal creations, it always reminds me of the dumb names given to mongrel dogs today, like "labradoodle", "goldendoodle" and "pomapoo", etc. I always ask people if they want to start considering these breeds as "pure", why not give them a unique name? For example, why not re-name "labradoodles" and instead call them "Australian water retrievers"? Or "Australian guiding dogs"? Otherwise, the name "Labradoodle" will make me think of nothing except that it is nothing but a cross between a labrador and a poodle. And the people who breed, sell and even own them are too lazy to just say "the dog is a cross between a labrador and a poodle". I understand that ALL dog breeds today are originally a result of cross-breeding, but it's the names that make the difference. That and 100 or so years of careful breeding.

I think exactly the same thing when I see someone calling their futuristic animal ideas some kind of mutt-name. It makes me think they are just too lazy to come up with a name of their own. I say, look at other languages. Especially the Greek and Latin languages. They are the best words in the World to draw your new names from. For example, just this past week, I changed the name of a whole family of animals. Their common names are now collectively "zofons" (pronounced ZUF-ohn), after the family name Zouphionidae. This family will later be presented on my site. They are the hyenas of the New World and evolved from mustelids. One dark and rainy day in 1995, Anna and I spent the day thinking up unusual and unique names for all the animals I thought up so far at that time. That was the day we thought up such names as "tamanoa", "rog", "jurrifar" and "sinecru". None of those names are combined names of any modern animals, they may sound like some modern animal names, but modern animals were the furthest things from our minds when we came up with those names. Some worked out perfectly, I just Latinized some of those names and turned them into the creature's genus names. Tamanoa for example, derived from Ictocamelus. Rogs are small, parasitic shrews. Jurrifars are otter-like creatures. Sinecrus are large, earless, hairless herbivores derived from elephant shrews, but went a different direction from the trelatebrates. On a funny note, I recently found out the word "Jafar" is African for "river". So, the name "jurrifar" was well-placed!

But the motto of my method of creation, DON'T get your names from combining modern animal names. Derive them from their latin or greek versions. I just don't like mutt-names. Makes the creator look lazy, or not creative enough to think of their own names. It may take longer to think of these names, but IMO the payoff is knowing you made a creature that is all new and ALL your own!