One of the perks of discovering a new plant or animal is getting to name it whatever you want (although there are some rules around making sure the name is unique and not a personal insult or cuss word). While each species needs to have a two-part Latin name, in which the first part is the organism’s genus and the second is its species name, scientists can get pretty creative with the latter. Many choose names that reflect the organism’s physical appearance — for example, the giant panda’s Latin name, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, means “black and white cat foot.” Other scientists commemorate a mentor or national leader. Yet some discoverers notice a quirk in a new species and immediately think of movie stars, musicians, or other celebrities. Here are just a handful of those examples.
Agromyza Princei
Freelance naturalist Charles Eiseman found an unusual track, made by the larvae of a fly called a leaf miner, on a black raspberry plant in Connecticut in 2016. When the adult fly emerged from the leaf, Eiseman realized it was a new species. His colleague Owen Lonsdale asked him to name it, and, as Eiseman wrote on his blog, “Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’ popped into my head, so I decided to call it Agromyza princei.”
Grouvellinus Leonardodicaprioi
Citizen scientists on a “bioblitz”-style expedition discovered this shiny black water beetle in Borneo’s Maliau Basin in 2018. They named it for Leonardo DiCaprio, but not because of his Oscar-winning performance in The Revenant or his timeless turn in Titanic — instead, the team wanted to honor the actor and his foundation for “promoting environmental awareness and bringing the problems of climate change and biodiversity loss into the spotlight.”
Carcinonemertes Conanobrieni
Researchers named this parasitic marine worm, a species that seems to feed on the eggs of the Caribbean spiny lobster, for Conan O’Brien, after noticing some traits in common with the ginger-haired comedian. “The physical similarities between the new species and Mr. O'Brien are remarkable,” they wrote in a 2017 paper. “Both exhibit a long and pale [body] with slight tints of orange.”
Conobregma Bradpitti
Actor Brad Pitt appears to have no physical similarities to C. bradpitti, a brownish wasp from South Africa that resembles a medjool date with legs. Its discoverer, Dr. Buntika A. Butcher, spent long hours studying the new species in the lab under the benevolent gaze of a poster of Pitt, and she decided in 2016 to name the insect for her favorite movie star.
Gaga
This new genus of lacy tropical ferns resembles outfits worn by Lady Gaga, according to the team that discovered it in 2012 — but there’s a genetic link to the pop star, too. As researcher Fay-Wei Li confirmed these plants’ unique genetic signature, he found the arrangement of DNA base pairs spelled GAGA. Two of the 19 species in the genus also hail Gaga: G. germanotta (echoing her last name) and G. monstraparva (a nod to her fans, known as “little monsters”).
Hypotrachyna Oprah
Oprah Winfrey may not be the first person you think of when you hear the phrase “new species of lichen,” but James C. Lendemer and Jessica L. Allen readily named the greenish-gray organism after the icon. They cited its bright glow under UV light and its habitat in the Deep South, two traits it shares with Oprah — who was born in Mississippi and has been in the spotlight for decades as a journalist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
Gormaniella Terricola
Gaga wasn’t Fay-Wei Li’s only discovery, nor his only ode to a celebrity. In 2020, he and his colleagues stumbled on a new species of green algae and debated what to name it. “It was a very dark time,” Li explained, referencing the coronavirus pandemic, and his team wanted to focus on hope. They chose to honor Amanda Gorman and her inspiring 2021 inauguration poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
“I have an algae named after me — I think your girl has officially made it,” Gorman tweeted.
Nannaria Swiftae
Derek A. Hennen and his colleagues at Virginia Tech launched an ambitious project to find new millipede species from specimens that had been languishing in museum collections without proper identification. After comparing the museums’ millipedes with live ones, they discovered 17 species that were new to science, including one they named for Taylor Swift in 2022. “Her music helped me get through the highs and lows of graduate school, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thanks,” Hennen said.
Aptostichus Barackobamai
In 2012, prolific species-discoverer Jason Bond at the University of California, Davis named a new type of trapdoor spider after Barack Obama, the “first African American President of the United States and reputed fan of spiders.” But that’s not the only organism named for our 44th POTUS. Obama is the eponym for a blood fluke, a lichen, a diving beetle, a bee, a fish commonly called the spangled darter, and even a species of puffbird, not to mention several extinct creatures. Former First Lady Michelle Obama also has her own eponymous organism, a “smiley-faced spider.”