07 November 2007 - International
— Even among people who agree that whales
should not be killed needlessly in the name
of research, opinions diverge wildly when
it comes to naming them. So far we have
received over 8,000 entries to name some
of the whales that were tagged for the Great
Whale Trail. Here are just a few of the
suggested names ranging from heartfelt dedications,
celebrities to the just plain strange.
One of the amazing features of the name-a-whale
competition is the number of countries we
have received entries from, 142 so far.
With so many different people from all over
the world submitting names, we have some
great names.
UPDATE: The competition is now closed having
received over 10,000 entries. You will have
a chance to vote for the best whale names
starting 19th November.
To keep up to date with all the whale news,
sign up for your Free Whale Mail.
Whales of the world
From all over the world we have names like
Youko, which is Japanese for 'ocean child',
Rahu in Estonian means 'peace' whilst the
name 'Shanti' is another word meaning 'peace',
this time in Hindi.
Tauelsiz means 'independent' in Kazakh,
Befri means 'free' in Norwegian and Kekoa
is Hawaiian for 'the brave one'. Suyana
means 'hope' in the quechua language in
landlocked Bolivia whilst Rangwani in the
Shona language (used in parts of Southern
Africa) means 'a huge clumsy fellow' and
the Chinese have a great possible whale
name in Jing Ling meaning 'spirit of the
whale'.
A couple of possible names that are a bit
harder to pronounce are shomoodrer-rajputro
which means 'prince of the ocean' in Bangla
(from Bangladesh) and Fa'amoemoe meaning
'hope' in the language of Samoa where some
of the tagged whales are swimming past on
their annual migration.
Dedications
A lot of people would like to name a whale
as a dedication to someone special or just
after a celebrity.
A couple of great former Greenpeace activists,
founding member Bob Hunter and photographer
Fernando Pereira (who was killed when the
Rainbow Warrior was bombed by French agents)
were suggested as possible whale names.
John Lennon, Bob Dylan, John Butler, Elvis,
Mozart, Beethoven and Pavarotti were just
some of the names of musical celebrities
that have been entered.
Not to be outdone, film and television
characters generated many fine possible
whale names like Smithers from the Simpson's,
Kermit the frog from the Muppets, James
Bond, Yoda and Darth Vadar from Star Wars,
Frodo, Gandalf and Aragorn from Lord of
the Rings whilst Harry, Hermione, Hagrid
and Dumbledor from Harry Potter all seemed
to cast their spell on some of our entrants.
Other famous people to have their names
entered are Steve Irwin, Einstein, Marco
Polo, Leonardo da Vinci, Crazy Horse, Alexander
the Great, Jacque Cousteau and the ethicist/animal
liberation activist, Peter Singer.
Dedications to loved ones included people's
sons like Tiago, Hugo (aged 8), Alvar (who
we're told swims like a whale in the bathtub),
Engin, Kai and Marcos.
Daughters too featured in many entries
with Claudia, Natasha, Kokoro, Olivia, Estrella
(born the same day her father entered her
name in the competition!), Nea, Emilie and
Pauline who is due to be born on the 30th
November this year.
Gods
Religion featured prominently in the possible
names with some ancient gods being particularly
popular.
Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Poseidon , Achilles,
Artemis, Ajax and Aphrodite all appearing
for the Greek gods but not to be outdone,
the Nordic gods Thor and Freyja made an
appearance, as did Ra the Egyptian sun god,
Quetzalcoatl the Aztec god-king, Sedna the
Inuit goddess of marine mammals and the
Welsh gods Dagda and goddesses Morgana and
Riannon.
Politics
The political world also had their admirers
with the names like Al Gore and Kyoto being
suggested more than once as possible whale
names as were some famous historical figures
in Mahatma Ghandi, Evita and Che Guevara.
John Howard, the current Australian Prime
Minister, received a somewhat poisoned chalice
of a nomination with the nominee suggesting
that the Prime Ministers name would make
a great whale name as his career is endangered
just like humpback whales.
The weird and wonderful
Reading through the 8,000 plus entries
submitted so far, there are many great whale
names but every now and again, you find
an entry that makes you smile.
Food names seemed to be mentioned more
than most whales would be comfortable with.
Names like Peppernose, Porkball, Fudge,
Marshmallow, Chilli, Peanut, Noodle and
Sushi all came up and names of drinks also
appeared with Merlot, Champagne and Sherry.
But for the just plain strange, you can't
go past names like Bouncy, Moose, Buffy
Jo, Avenger, Trilby Foxglove, Fluffy (you'd
be amazed how often that came up), Swishy,
Delicate Bamboo, Pinky, Megatron, Big Bertha,
Big Kahuna, Big Ben, Big Roy (named after
a hamster!) and Little George.
But the one that had us laughing the most,
which is not to say it will get into the
list of top names, was definitely the name
Mister Splashy Pants.
Starting the 19th of november, you will
have the chance to vote on the best whale
names. If you sign up for your Free Whale
Mail you can stay up-to-date on all Greenpeace
whale news.
