Names don't have to mean a thing!

Michael Gochfeld gochfeld at eohsi.rutgers.edu
Wed Jun 16 07:08:43 EDT 1999


If names don't have to mean anything (and I agree that the ICZN) doesn't 
impose restrictions on meaning), why should reviewers have anything to 
say about the name proposed by the describer. 

I'm not sure that the code allows random letters (I thought it had to be 
Latinizable).  But it does allow anagrams. Again drawing on birds: the 
Eurasian or Common Kingfisher (known in England as The Kingfisher) has 
the generic name Alcedo.  Some tropical genera were subsequently given 
anagram names: Dacelo and Lacedo.  

If the code did allow random letters would it preclude random numbers or 
what we lovingly refer to as alphanumeric designations. 

M. Gochfeld


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