Here’s how Milwaukee County Zoo animals get their names
Trish Khan, the Milwaukee County Zoo’s curator of primates and small mammals, has worked at the zoo for more than 30 years, and in that time, methods for naming animals have changed.
“It used to be a hard, fast rule that whoever found the baby in the morning got naming rights,” Khan said, laughing. “That’s why a lot of older animals have names like Tommy (an orangutan at the zoo) because the person who found them named them after themselves and got bragging rights.”
Khan said it’s also been popular over the years to name animals according to a theme. There are Baja Blast and Baja Splash, two Baja blue rock lizards named after popular sodas. And Khan recalls mongooses named after the Golden Girls.
Respectful names that represent the story behind the animals
But these naming conventions are becoming less common as zoos “move more toward names of significance around either a conservation message or that represent the animal in a dignified way,” Khan said.
For the primates she works with, that has translated into giving animals names in the languages that are common in the regions their species are from.
For example, the zoo’s spider monkeys — Hue Hue, Chimal and Momos — were all named after cities in Guatemala, and the zoo’s first bonobos were named after two major rivers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Maringa and Lomako. And when new bonobos are born at the zoo nowadays, their names are in one of three languages spoken in the Congo: Swahili, Lingala or French.
Milwaukee’s zookeepers also add some meaningful quirks to the animals’ names. Since 2000, bonobo babies have been given names that start with subsequent letters of the alphabet — “A” for a baby born in 2000, “B” for 2001 and so on.
“That’s helpful for me because when people ask me how old a particular bonobo is, I can count on my fingers,” Khan said, laughing.
And the names often have further significance to the zookeepers’ relationships to the animals. For example, bonobo Kitoko — which means “beauty” in Lingala — is quite beautiful according to Khan, and another bonobo, Zomi, was named after the Lingala word for 10 because, according to Khan, “she’s definitely a 10.”
Even when the zoo opens up naming rights to the public in social media contests — that’s how gentoo penguin Pepper and Bactrian camel Leilani got their names — the animal care staff choose the options for visitors to vote from.
These intentional naming methods reflect a desire to respect the animals in their care and to help zoo visitors relate to and empathize with the animals as they learn more about where they come from and the importance of conserving their habitats.
“We want people to see the animals’ intelligence, their beauty, to relate to them and want to make a deeper connection,” Khan said. “And names are significant; they help define what we think about these animals, and they follow them through their entire lives.
More than 2,000 animals live at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Here are the names of some of them.
Animals in Adventure Africa
● Hippos: Happy and Patti
● Giraffes: Marlee, Ziggy, Maya and Kendi
● Elephants: Belle, Brittany and
Ruth
● Greater kudu: Chula, Imani and Hasani
Animals in the Aquatic and Reptile Center
● Grand Cayman blue iguana:
Digger
● Baja blue rock lizards: Baja Blast and Baja Splash
● Green anaconda: Olive
● Ornate box turtle: Norm
Animals in the Camel Yard
● Bactrian camels: Leilani, AJ (Addie Jean) and Stan
Animals in Florence Mila Borchert Big Cat Country
● Snow leopards: Choto and Orya
● Amur tigers: Natasha, Kash and Tula
Animals in the Herb and Nada Mahler Family Aviary
Gentoo penguins: and Fiona
Pepper, Oscar
Animals in the North America Exhibit
Grizzly bears: Ronnie, Bozeman, Chinook and Brian
Harbor seals: Mira, Leia, Cossette and Ringo
Badger: Oscar
Brown bear: Boris
Animals in the Northwestern Mutual Family Farm
Various species of cattle: Trinity, Martini, Sadie, Brandy, Miley, Bailey, Harper and Carnation
Miniature Mediterranean donkey: Giuseppi
Norwegian fjord horse: Nelson
Animals in the Primates of the World exhibit
Orangutans: Tommy and Alex (Alexandra)
De Brazza’s monkeys: Heri, Holly and Hugo
Japanese macaques: Emi, Sora and Tomaru
Black-handed spider monkeys: Topaz, Hue Hue, Chimal and Momos
Animals in the Small Mammals building
● Pygmy slow lorises: Henderson and Chantu
Animals in the Otter Passage exhibit
● North American river otters: Clover, Shamrock and Larkey
Animals in the Stearns Family Apes of Africa exhibit
Western lowland gorillas: Nadami, Azizi, Dotty, Hodari and Maji Maji
Bonobos: Zomi, Kitoko and Noki Noki