Conventions for common names?

[Sean Edwards]

Byron Adams wrote:
> Are there any guidelines or "rules of thumb" for establishing
> common names for organisms that heretofore are known only by their
> scientific names?
> I'm guessing that this process usually occurs the other way around
> and I would be interested in hearing any suggestions, especially
> those based on hindsight.
I have 7,991 bits of of hindsight*!

And Thomas Lammers wrote:
> At least in this way there will be a strong parallel between
> scientific and vernacular nomenclature.

I did respond to a similar thread on 17 July, but since similar
issues are coming up again, I'll risk pasting from my reply then:
> In "English names for British bryophytes (2nd edn.) British
> Bryological Society special volume No 5. Cardiff (80 pages, 41,179
> words, 1 figure, plus cover figure), 1999"* (which has accumulated
> 7,991 referrences to English Names for British Bryophytes) I
> covered most of the points (which aply to nematodes as to mosses)
> that have been mentioned in the present TAXACOM discussion, in the
> introductory 17 pages.
I'll add here that the name of the volume was changed in production
from "Common Names" to "English Names" for the reason Jim Croft
mentioned:
> if you have to invent it, it is not a common name, it is a
> fabrication...

> * P.S: Please forgive a bit of self publicity, but:
> I do not have any stocks of the work, but I think that it is still
> available from the:
>      BBS Librarian Dr Ken Adams, Department of Life Sciences,
> University of East London, Romford Road, London E15 4LZ
>
> his email:
>      k.j.adams at uel.ac.uk.
> and the BBS website page for ordering:
>      http://rbge-sun1.rbge.org.uk/bbs/pubs.htm#spub5

Sean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sean R. Edwards BSc PhD,
Keeper of Botany,
The Manchester Museum, Manchester University, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
'Phone: +44 (0)161-275-2671/2; fax: +44 (0)161-275-2676
Email: sean.edwards at man.ac.uk
Website: http://www.museum.man.ac.uk/