6 famous people with animals named in their honor
Sometimes it feels like new species names can come from just about anything: from regions to a grandmother’s backbone to a creature’s short butt. Some individuals, however, have received more attention from the taxonomic community, inspiring the names of more than one previously unknown creature, much to one man’s chagrin.
1.Stephen Colbert
Famous comedian and television host Stephen Colbert has a number of creepy crawlies named after him, including the wasp. Aleodes Colbertithe trap door spider Aptostichus stephencolbertiand the diving beetle Agaporomorphus colberti.
“Last year, Stephen unapologetically asked the scientific community to name something cooler than a spider to honor him,” Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist at Arizona State University who helped name the beetle, explained in a statement in 2009. “His first choices were a giant ant or a laser lion. Although these are interesting species to discover, our research involves beetles, and they’re “much cooler” than an everyday spider.”
2. Queen Victoria
The famous British monarch is not only named after animal species. She has a whole genus of giant water lilies. Of course, the queen is also referenced in specific animal names, such as the great pigeon. Goura Victoria (Victoria crowned pigeon), and the Ornithoptera victoriae (Queen Victoria’s bird wing).
3. Leonard DiCaprio
While some argue that there could have been room for Jack next to Rose at the end of the TitanicLeonardo DiCaprio would certainly have drowned them all if he had come on board with all the species that bear his name. The American actor inspired the names of the Cameroonian tree Uvariopsis dicapriothe water beetle Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioiand the frog Phyllonastes dicaprioi.
4. Harrison Ford
Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes, so he probably wouldn’t be too happy to discover that in 2023, the slithering species Tachymenoids Harrisonfordi was named in honor of actor Harrison Ford and his environmental advocacy, among others.
“These scientists keep naming creatures after me, but they’re always the ones that terrify the kids. I don’t understand. I spend my free time cross-stitching. I sing lullabies to my basil plants so they won’t be afraid of the night,” Ford said in a statement. “Very seriously, this discovery [of Tachymenoides harrisonfordi] is humiliating. It reminds us that there is still much to learn about our wild world and that humans are only a small part of an incredibly large biosphere.
The aforementioned creatures include the spider Calponia Harrisonfordi and the ant Pheidole Harrisonfordi.
5. Barack Obama
The former president has an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to things named after him, including an impressive number of organizations. There is the bee Lasioglossum obamaithe spider Spintharus barackobamai (which is of the same type as Spintharus berniesandersi), and the water beetle Desmopachria barackobamaiamong others. Like Queen Victoria, even Obama has a gender named after him, as shown by the (extinct) lizard. Slender Obamadon.
6. David Attenborough
Last but not least, more than 50 species are named after broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough (although we’d argue there should also be a few species named specifically after his voice). These include the bird Polioptila attenboroughithe carnivorous plant Nepenthes attenboroughiiand Bolivian lichen Malmidea attenboroughii.
In Ask us anythingPopular Science answers your wildest and most burning questions, from everyday things you’ve always wondered to bizarre things you never thought to ask. Do you have something you always wanted to know? Ask us.
The best new PopSci 2025 releases
