We all know about baby cats (known as kittens, of course) and baby dogs (puppies) — and while many other species use the conventional “kit” or “pup,” some baby animals have names that are a little more creative, and even absolutely adorable. In fact, one of nature’s weirdest babies shares a name with a goofy dog breed. How many of these baby animal names do you know?
Hedgehogs and Porcupines
In case you thought hedgehogs couldn’t get any more adorable: A baby hedgehog is called a hoglet. Speaking of other cute animals with quills, a baby porcupine is called a porcupette. When porcupettes are born, their quills are soft and don’t harm the mother — but the quills harden within minutes of being exposed to the air. Porcupettes also have long, reddish-brown hair that helps camouflage them in the tree canopy.
Jellyfish and Eels
Scyphozoa, or “true jellyfish,” have a unique reproductive cycle: A fertilized egg becomes a polyp, which attaches to a coral reef. Eventually, the polyp forms buds that become juvenile jellyfish, called ephyra. In ancient Greece, Ephyra was both the name of a sea nymph and an old name for Corinth.
Newborn eels, meanwhile, are called elvers, a word that comes from “eel-fare,” or the journey that elvers make upriver.
Platypuses and Kangaroos
A puggle can be a dog that’s a mix of a pug and a beagle, but it can be a baby platypus, too. The word originally referred to baby echidnas, the only other extant monotreme, or egg-laying mammal, but it is now used for both platypuses and echidnas. Some prefer “platypup” as a platypus-specific alternative.
As for other animals in and around Australia: Baby kangaroos are called joeys, and the term is also used for other baby marsupials like koalas, wallabies, and opossums. While some sources list the origin of this word as unknown, it may be a borrowed word from Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Chickens, Pigs, Alpacas, and Llamas
Fully grown female chickens are called hens; males are roosters. In their first year of life, they’re called pullets and cockerels, respectively.
Speaking of barnyard animals: You, and most other people, probably call a baby pig a piglet, but it can be called a shoat, especially after it’s been weaned. A litter of piglets is called a farrow.
Meanwhile, alpacas, llamas, and some of their lesser-known relatives all give birth to crias — borrowed from the Spanish word cría, which can mean “baby animal.”
Puffins and Swans
When baby puffins, called pufflings, are ready to fly, the moon is supposed to guide them to the ocean. Now, city lights get in the way, so volunteers in Iceland's Westman Islands gather them up off the streets and throw them off cliffs or toward the beach to send them in the right direction.
Meanwhile, despite what you may have heard in a certain childhood fable, baby swans, called cygnets, are extremely cute.
Frogs and Snakes
Sure, you could call a baby frog a tadpole, or you could use the fanciful “pollywog” instead. It probably came from the Middle English words for “poll” and “wiggle.”
A baby snake, meanwhile, is called a snakelet, and it can either be born live or hatch from an egg, depending on the species. (Speaking of other wriggling, legless babies: A newborn worm is similarly called a wormlet.)
Hares and Hawks
During its first year of life, a hare is called a leveret. Middle English borrowed it from French; in modern French, a hare is called a lièvre.
The name “eyas” for a baby hawk had a funny journey that also involves Middle English. Centuries ago, Middle English speakers were confused about the term “neias,” which is from the Anglo-French word niais, or “fresh from the nest.” They heard “a neias” as “an eias,” and eventually the word just dropped the “n” at the start.
Peacocks and Primates
A peacock is just a male peafowl; the female peafowl is called, fittingly, a peahen. Their babies are called peachicks, which just continues the naming convention.
Monkeys, apes, and human beings are all primates — and all of their babies are called infants.