SOME QUESTIONS OF NOMENCLATURE. 471 



MAKING OF NAMES. 



It was long ago recognized, even by Linnaeus, that the rigor of the 

 rules originally formulated by him would have to be relaxed. Natural- 

 ists early began to complain that the Greek and Latin languages were 

 almost or quite exhausted as sources for new names, and many resorted 

 to other languages, framed anagrams of existent ones, or even played 

 for a jingle of letters. 



Forty years ago one of the most liberal of the American contributors 

 to such names 1 defiantly avowed that "most of the genera [proposed 

 by him] have been designated by words taken from the North Ameri- 

 can Indians, as being more euphonic than any one [he] might have 

 framed from the Greek. The classic literature has already furnished 

 so many names that there are but few instances in which a name might 

 yet be coined and express what it is intended to represent. [He 

 offered] this remark as a mere statement, not as an apology." He gave 

 such names as Minomus, Acomus, Bionda, Algoma, Algansea, Agosia, 

 Nocomis, Meda, Cliola, Codoma, Moniana, Tiaroga, Tigoma, Cheonda, 

 and Siboma. 



The names have caused some trouble, and have been supposed to be 

 original offspring of the ichthyologist; but those familiar with Long- 

 fellow's Hiawatha will recognize in Nocomis the name of the daughter 

 of the Moon 2 and mother of Wenonah' (Nokomis), conected by clas- 

 sical standard! and in Meda the title of a "medicine man" (not "a 

 classical feminine name"). Other names are geographical or individual. 



In the excellent report to the International Zoological Congress, by 

 Dr. Eaphael Blanchard (1889), it was remarked that it would be gen- 

 erally conceded that naturalists have almost completely exhausted the 

 Greek and Latin words, simple and compound, possible to attribute to 

 animals. 4 



But the classic languages are even yet, although about one hun- 

 dred thousand names 5 grace or cumber the nomenclators, far from 

 being completely exploited. To some of us, indeed, the difficulty in 

 determining upon a new name is that of selection of several that are 

 conjured up by the imagination rather than the coining of a single one. 



Besides the methods of name-making generally resorted to, there are 

 others that have been little employed. Among the few who have 

 resorted to other than the regular conventional ways is the illustrious 



1 Girard hi Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila., viii., 209, 1856. 



2 " From the full moon fell Nokomis, 

 Fell the beautiful Nokomis." 



The song of Hiawatha, III., lines 4, 5. 

 :! Ophiologists will recognize in Wenouah the source of a synonym ( Wenona) given 

 to the genus Charina by Baird and Girard. Oct., 1896. 



4 " On conviendra que les naturalistes out du epuiser a peu pres completement la 

 liste des mots grecs ou latins, simple on composes, qu'il e"tait possible d'attribueraux 

 aniuiaux." Bnl. Soc. Zool. France, XIV., 223. 



6 The number one hundred thousand includes duplicates and variants. 



