Scientific Names

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top 1000North Atlantic Seafood
North Atlantic Seafood

By Alan Davidson

Published 1980

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In the catalogues the name of each species is given in a Latinized form. This is the scientific name. It usually consists of two words, the first indicating the genus and the second the species within the genus. A few species are shown with more than one scientific name. The explanation is that different naturalists have given them different names and that more than one have recently been or still are in common use.

The first scientific name is the preferred name and is followed by the name of the naturalist* who bestowed it on the species in question. Sometimes the name of the naturalist appears in brackets, sometimes not. The brackets are used to show that the specific name bestowed by the naturalist has been retained, but that the generic name has been changed, since the species is now assigned to a different genus. If the name of the naturalist is not in brackets, this means that the whole of the name which he bestowed is still accepted. There are now relatively few instances of this, since the pace of change in taxonomy has quickened during the last few decades to a full gallop. Changes which bring greater clarity and precision must be welcomed, but it sometimes seems a pity that names which have stood for centuries, which may even have been given by the great Linnaeus himself, must be replaced by new and unfamiliar ones.