Baby Animals: Language and Identification

The English language is peculiar when it comes to identifying baby animals. I have found this both fascinating and confusing. Take for example the word ‘pup’. ‘Pup’ is a shortened version for puppy. The history of the word ‘puppy’ put forward by Merriam-Webster is that it is derived from the Middle French ‘poupée’ meaning doll or toy. Middle English changed it to ‘popi’ meaning small dog particularly a woman’s pet as evidenced from this excerpt in John Caius’ book 'Of Englishe Dogges', 1576:

"Notwithstanding many make much of those pretty puppies called Spaniels gentle..."

Sunny (image credit: Kerry Duffin)

When I think of ‘pup’ my immediate thought is of a dog, however there are many different kinds of pups on this planet. Blind, furless, wrinkly newborn gerbils called pinkies transform and are called pups within seven days of birth, furry small versions of their parents.

Izzy (image credit: Kate Eggleston-Wirtz)

A pup can also be a baby agouti, anteater, armadillo, bat, bearcat, coyote, dolphin, guinea pig, hedgehog, mouse, otter and believe it or not – a shark, to name a few. There are also alternative baby identifying words for some of these animals:

Bearcat: kitten

Coyote: whelp

Dolphin: calf

Guinea pig: pig,

Hedgehog: piglet

Mouse: pinkie and kitten

Otter: whelp

Then consider a baby pangolin, a type of a pup called a pangopup. ‘Pangopup’ is a cute word and rolls off the tongue nicely like ‘porcupette’, a baby porcupine. This latter word has another French connection with the ending ‘ette’ meaning small. Then there is ‘puggle’, a baby echidna, but puggles can also be a type of dog (a pug and beagle cross first bred in the 1980s) that have babies called… well you know the palindrome.

Initially, ‘puggle’ started out as a fictitious book character named in 1979 by Tony Barber, former drummer for Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. The character was then turned into a stuffed toy. In the 1990s, an echidna specialist saw the toy and made the connection of how it uncannily resembled an echidna baby. This specialist began using the word in her work and it caught on although according to Merrill Perlman, the word ‘puggle’ for a baby echidna is not scientifically endorsed. Echidnas are monotremes, mammals that lay eggs. Whilst in the nest they are called ‘nestlings’ and when in the pouch, ‘pouch young’. The only other monotreme is the platypus, that actually has no official baby name although ‘platypup’ has been suggested.

Moving on to feathered babies, young birds are generally called chicks but there are often more precise words i.e.

Dove or Pigeon: squab or squeaker

Duck: duckling

Falcon or Hawk: eyas

Guineafowl: keet

Owl: owlet

Puffin: puffling

Swan: cygnet or flapper

Reptiles and Amphibians have much fewer specific names for babies with the default being ‘hatchling’. There are a few that include:

Frog or Toad: tadpole or polliwog

Newt: eft

Snake: snakelet

Fish and invertebrate babies to note:

Cod: codling

Ant: antling

Mosquito: wriggler

Sea urchin: pluteus

Spider: spiderling

There are all sorts of babies, called all different things. Many have the cute factor, some not so much. I find it amazing how a lifeform starts from nothing, develops into something, knows when to stop growing then has the ability to reproduce. The wonders of nature, how extraordinary!

Jenny Clothier Eggleston c1902 (image credit: Kate Eggleston-Wirtz)

Babies

a baby hedgehog is a piglet or a pup or a hoglet
yet hogs have baby shoats and stoats have kits
kids are goats dogs have pups ponies have foals
goannas anoles and turtles dig holes lay eggs
hatching hatchlings a baby pig is also a piglet
fox babies are not called foxlets foxes have kits
like stoats ferrets badgers and rabbits rabbit
babies can be called kittens like cats and rats
rat young are also called pups pangopups
are baby pangolins amused or confused
you couldn’t make this up chicks are the
babies of parrots and a baby partridge is
a cheeper cheeping baby chickens are not
chicklings like parrots and penguins chickens
have chicks yet ducks have ducklings crocodiles
do not have crocklings they have hatchlings like
turtles when gnus have calves and cows have
calves so do whales reindeer hippopotamuses
and rhinoceroses an oyster baby is called a spat
llamas spit and have babies called cria apes have
babies chimpanzees gorillas monkeys and baboons
have infants aye-ayes have babies and infants
like us all small versions of something bigger

Thank you for reading.
Kate J

Sources
Brookfield Zoo Chicago, 2024. Facebook Blog Post, 29 July 8:30. https://www.facebook.com/BrookfieldZoo Accessed 17 August.

Columbia Journalism Review, 2024. Language Corner All the baby animal names fit to print.
https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/baby-animal-names-puppies-kittens-hedgehogs.php Accessed 19 August.

Discover, 2024. Why Babies Are So Cute – And Why We React The Way We Do.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/why-babies-are-so-cute-and-why-we-react-the-way-we-do Accessed 17 August.

Macquarie Dictionary, 2024. Is ‘puggle’ the cutest baby animal name?. https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/is-puggle-the-cutest-baby-animal-name/ Accessed 19 August.

Merriam-Webster, 2024. Puppies, Puppets, and Pupils: A Little History. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-word-history-of-puppy-puppet-and-pupil Accessed 20 August.

Oxford University Press, 2024. Oxford Word of the Month – November: platypup. https://www.oup.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/108477/WotM_November_2017.pdf Accessed 20 August.

Zooborns, 2024. Baby Animal Names. https://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/baby-animal-names.html Accessed 10 August.