What’s the dumbest fish name?

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exnisstech said:
Moby Dick. I'll admit I didn't read the book tho so maybe it had meaning :thinking-face:
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A reason for the name isn’t given in the story. Melville based his novel off of actual whale that did attack whaling ships in waters off Chile. Circulars with stories of the whale reported it as a white sperm whale. It was active around the mocha islands and was known as Mocha Dick.
Mocha is self explanatory due to location. It would make little sense that he was named by Chilean sailors as the word Dick as a name or in any other form is not present natively in the Spanish language. (Idk if it does in Catalan but it would be weird for it to). So it’s a true mystery and an admittedly stupid name.
 
Mschmidt said:
Ay I present to you Dumb Dumb, the aiptasia "eating" filefish.
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Mine is named 'Filet.' It was meant as a not so subtle warning that if she moved on from eating Duncanopsammia to Goniopora or Euphyllia, she would end up battered and fried. So far she seems to understand, although I think she is starting to nip zoas a little now.
 
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NanoNana said:
A reason for the name isn’t given in the story. Melville based his novel off of actual whale that did attack whaling ships in waters off Chile. Circulars with stories of the whale reported it as a white sperm whale. It was active around the mocha islands and was known as Mocha Dick.
Mocha is self explanatory due to location. It would make little sense that he was named by Chilean sailors as the word Dick as a name or in any other form is not present natively in the Spanish language. (Idk if it does in Catalan but it would be weird for it to). So it’s a true mystery and an admittedly stupid name.
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Nah.. it’s because the story is about a white sperm whale :face-with-hand-over-mouth:
 
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DanyL said:
Nah.. it’s because the story is about a white sperm whale :face-with-hand-over-mouth:
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If we were talking about mammals and not fish, sperm whale is right up there with slippery dick wrasse.

But then there is this explanation:

From Herman Dorner, "Guide to the New York Aquarium" (1877):

THE SLIPPERY DICK. (Choerojulis bivittatus.)
This fish has its curious name from its ability to escape from the nets and pounds, or from the hand, by aid of its quickness in moving and its slippery surface. ... The inhabitants of the Bermuda Islands do not eat this fish because they have a superstitious belief that they will lose all their hair after doing so.
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And from Russell Coles, "Observations on the Habits and Distribution of Certain Fishes Taken on the Coast of North Carolina" (1910):

Iridio bivitatus(Bloch). (SLIPPERY DICK.)
The name "Slippery Dick" by which this fish is commonly called but faintly describes its slipperiness. Small eels would be easy to hold in the hand in comparison, as it can come just out between the fingers of a tightly closed hand.
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Neither the Methodist Church editor nor the two scholarly fish experts show any particular interest in the "dick" part of the name, focusing instead on the "slippery" component. Presumably that lack of interest reflects the fact that most early-twentieth-century Americans understood dick as simply an informal version of the common name Richard.
 
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NanoNana said:
Neither the Methodist Church editor nor the two scholarly fish experts show any particular interest in the "dick" part of the name, focusing instead on the "slippery" component. Presumably that lack of interest reflects the fact that most early-twentieth-century Americans understood dick as simply an informal version of the common name Richard
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I think we all to this day understand it as a short of Richard, but I’m sure that even back then the name had a double meaning.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if the secondary meaning originally came to be in a similar fashion to todays use of the name “Karen”.
 
DanyL said:
I think we all to this day understand it as a short of Richard, but I’m sure that even back then the name had a double meaning.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if the secondary meaning originally came to be in a similar fashion to todays use of the name “Karen”.
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Possibly. I was just quoting the article lol
 
Of course birds get the worst names:

**** and ******* of course but then there is my favorite, the European Shag. Or there is the Satanic Nightjar.

Edit: R2R they are birds. You can’t sensor birds!
 
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Since day 1, I always thought the name "mystery wrasse" was the stupidest, laziest name... I still don't like it.

@Slocke @i cant think
 
Slocke said:
Of course birds get the worst names:

**** and ******* of course but then their is my favorite, the European Shag. Or there is the Satanic Nightjar.
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Betty Boop Shut Up GIF by Fleischer Studios
 
Slocke said:
Of course birds get the worst names:

**** and ******* of course but then their is my favorite, the European Shag. Or there is the Satanic Nightjar.

Edit: R2R they are birds. You can’t sensor birds!
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Oh right..

The infamous Hebrew name for Pycnonotus is “Bulbul”, which also happens to have the very same meaning as “Dick” in English :face-with-hand-over-mouth:
 
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