Most of the millions of species of living organisms lack vernacular names, but birds are named both in local languages and in “official” lists of English names of the world’s birds. These names are used by ornithologists and birdwatchers who wonder about the histories of often strange names. What might “gerygone” mean? How did a German word for “hunter” become an English word for a group of sea birds? What is the origin of “Gadwall”? Susan Myers’s effort is a welcome addition to the books addressing such questions.
Myers provides one to several paragraphs for most group names (per a “Clements”/eBird nomenclature) for the birds of the world, whether applied to large groups, e.g., manakin, or to single species, e.g., Mallard. Specific modifiers (e.g., “black-faced,” “snowy,” or “Wilson’s”), folk names, and Latin names are mostly not addressed, but are occasionally mentioned in the accounts. Some obvious compound group names (e.g.,...