Etymology: where do the names of cetaceans come from?

Why do we say “porpoise”, “cachalot” or “orca”? Behind each name lies a story: the porpoise is a “sea pig“, the narwhal a “corpse whale” with the skin of a drowned man, the orca “the whale of the kingdom of the dead”. Even the word “dolphin” means “the fish with a womb”, the trace of an ancient intuition.

The widget above brings together thirteen etymologies, from common names to Latin and Greek scientific names. Filter by linguistic origin to travel from Ancient Greek to the Nordic languages.

Scientific names: the binomial nomenclature of Linnaeus

Since the Systema Naturae of Carl Linnaeus (1758), every species carries a binomial name in Latin: a genus name followed by a species name, such as Orcinus orca or Physeter macrocephalus. Latin and Greek were retained as universal scholarly languages, neutral and stable over time.

These names are often descriptive (size, shape, behaviour, place of discovery) or honour a person. Decoding their etymology is like reading an identity card: Megaptera says great wing, macrocephalus big head, novaeangliae New England.

Going further: consult our illustrated glossary, the evolution of cetaceans and the encyclopaedia of researchers.