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What's in a name?
People make sense of the world by giving names to the things that surround them. For example, most people recognise different fishes by common names such as Snapper, Bream and Leatherjacket. But what if a particular fish species has ended up with many different common names? The Snapper is also known as Red Bream, Cockney, Squire, The Light Horseman and Pinkie and that is just in NSW! Alternatively, what if many different species of fishes have been given the same name? Hundreds of different fish species around world are known as Cods even though some are not even closely related. This is a big problem for a fish researcher because it is crucial that they know exactly which fish species is which. To solve this problem, scientists use a rigorous scientific naming system called 'binomial nomenclature'. This system gives each fish species a single unique 'scientific name' made up of two words. Binomial nomenclature was first devised by 18th century Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus and has been used as the basis for scientifically naming every biological species on earth. Scientific names
The first part of a scientific name is called the generic or genus name and the second part is the specific or species name. Many very closely related species may share the same generic name but every species has its own specific name. For example, the Yellowfin Bream found in Sydney Harbour has the generic name of Acanthopagrus which it shares with other very closely related species and the specific name of australis which gives the Yellowfin Bream its unique two-part, scientific name. Common names The common names of many fishes often refer to the place they were found, the person (or an acquaintance of this person) who found them or a description of the fish. For example, The Port Jackson Shark (Heterodontus portjacksoni) was named after Port Jackson - the place where it was found, White's Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei) was named after John White (Surgeon General to the First Fleet) and the Pineapplefish (Cleidopus gloriamaris) was named after its resemblance to a pineapple.
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