bastard in animal names

[Ned]

I was thinking about the term bastard in animal names such as the Bastard Dory, Bastard Grunt Fish and Bastard Hartebeest. Why bastard? And what other "bastard" animals are there?

 

[vogelcommando]

Bastard is coming from the Dutch language "bastaard" and means hybrid - not pure. The first researchers who gave animals a name thought in some cases that the animals they gave a name where mixes of different other species and that why they called them bastard.

 

[Ned]

Thanks for that VC, very interesting and something I've wondered about for a long time.

 

[FBBird]

Thanks for that VC, very interesting and something I've wondered about for a long time.

Two other 'bastard' animals come to mind:
1/ Cetti's Warbler in Spanish is Ruisenor Bastardo, 'Bastard Nightingale', reflecting the idea that some of its notes are reminiscent of Nightingale ('Ruisenor') but that it's nothing like such a good singer.
2/ My dog, on a bad day

 

[Shorts]

My personal favourite "bastard animal" is the bastard big-footed mouse.

 

[Ned]

Thanks for that one, I'd never heard of it.

 

[MikeG]

The mouse is eponymous: it should really be called Bastard's Big-footed Mouse (Macrotarsomys bastardi). It's named after a French naturalist, Eugène Joseph Bastard.

 

[Ned]

I wondered about that with it having an "i" at the end of bastard but then thought surely no one has bastard as surname?

 

[Chlidonias]

I wondered about that with it having an "i" at the end of bastard but then thought surely no one has bastard as surname?

he also has a species of Madagascan gecko named after him: Paroedura bastardi

 

[FBBird]

I wondered about that with it having an "i" at the end of bastard but then thought surely no one has bastard as surname?

If there was an ancestor of unknown paternity, it's easy to see how the surname came about.

 

[Ned]

I guess so but if my surname was Bastard I think I'd change it. Imagine situations where you're asked to give a surname only to reply Bastard, in a best case scenario you'd be met with a shocked expression and then sympathy after explaining I that it really is your name, in the worst case you'd just be laughed at.