Species names for animals are governed by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), all 90 articles and 18 chapters of which are available online for your reading pleasure.

Species names come in two parts, Genusname speciesname. The genusname is capitalized, whereas the speciesname is not. When written, both are italicized. The genus of the BBBJ is Tamoya, a genus that already exists. We have determined that by its morphology. The public is choosing what is known as the species epithet.

• Names have to be in Latin letters (not Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, etc.).
• No accents, apostrophes, or hyphens, etc. are allowed (no diacriticals).
• As mentioned, the species name begins with a lowercase letter.
• The name has to be more than one letter long.
• The name can be a word, name, in any language, and even just mixed up letters (but what would be the point of that?).
• The name (Genusname speciesname) has to be unique. So, in our case, species names that have been used for Tamoya, such as haplonema or prismatica would not be allowed, having already been used.

Sometimes scientists choose a name that describes a unique feature or behavior of the organism, or where the organism is found. Sometimes the name honors a person, or sometimes they are just plain silly. Check out the box above for some examples and be sure to say them outloud!

There are some rules about when the gender of the speciesname has to match that of the genusname. But, no entry will be disqualified for that reason. We may have to adjust the ending of submitted names to fit with these rules (feel free to peruse the rules, especially if your Latin is strong).

There appears to be no rule about naming a species after oneself or one of the authors of the species name. But, it is unlikely that we let such a name make it into the finalists!

An etymology, giving the meaning and origin of the name, should be provided. In this case, a brief description of the process involving the public in naming the BBBJ will be part of the etymology. But, submissions should include an explanation of where the proposed name comes from or means!

Check out the top 10 new species 2009 (and 2008) from the
International Institute for Species Exploration.