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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5101355" data-attributes="member: 54846">In the real world, things are named one of three ways:1) Named after someone. 2) Named for a descriptive characteristic.3) A word chosen from a native language to describe it.Using place names as a running example, Jamestown after King Games. Virginia was named after the "Virgin Queen". Georgia after King George. Washington after... guess. As for descriptors... I live near a place called "Middletown". I can think of others: Grey Rapids, the Rocky Mountains, Capetown (town on the cape), White Plains, Strawberry Fields. The list goes on.As to native langauges: Chicago is just Native American for "onion field". Chattanooga is Muskogean for "rock dwelling". This happens all the time with animals too. "Kangaroo" is just Aboriginal for "big animal". Pretty sure the Prevost squirrel was named after some guy named Prevost.But you see this the most with descriptive names: Big mouth bass, red snapper, snapping turtle, prairie dog, ground squirrel, red-tailed howk, ringtailed lemur, ringtail (a different animal), red wolf, grey wolf/timber wolf, maned wolf, red fox (and silver fox and so on), mountain lion (or Florida panther), FLYING squirrel, mountain goat, barn owl, musk deer, mule deer, white tailed deer, black backed jackal, big horned sheep, brown bear, black bear, grizzly (that's an adjective) bear, polar bear, honey badger, snow leopard (real inventive there), laughing/spotted hyena, striped hyena, ghost bat, flying fox (another bat), kangaroo rat, dung beetle, stag beetle, praying mantis, black widow spider, wolf spider, brown recluse, camel spider, water beetle, water spider, diving beetle, trap door spider, jumping spider...Or we could just pick animal names that are smooshed together: hedgehog, bobcat, polecat, rattlesnake (there's even a DIAMONDBACK rattlesnake), reindeer, funnelweb spider, whiptail scorpion, grasshopper, dragonfly, anteater, ladybug, bumblebee, mockingbird, yellowjacket...And of course folklore did the same thing: werewolf, bugbear, hobgoblin.</blockquote>

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