How Organisms are Named

Every organism has a scientific name beside the name by which it is known in a particular language. For example, mango is its name in English, Aam in Hindi and Mangifera indica, its scientific name. In scientific naming, genus and species of the organism are mentioned. For example, Homo sapiens.

The Scientific Name

A Scientific name has several advantages and constitutes the specific identity of the specific organism.

• It is understood all over the world.

• It consists of two words, name of the Genus to which it belongs begins with a capital letter and name of the species to which it belongs, begins with a small letter. For example, cat is Felis domestica where Felisis the genus name and domestica the name of the species.

• A scientific name is always written either in italics or underlined.

• Having two names is the Binomial system of nomenclature (naming) introduced by the Swedish naturalist of 18th century, Carolus Linnaeus.

The term binomial nomenclature pertains to the two word naming system (binomial = two names; nomenclature = naming).