Can every living thing be given a name?

That time, that place

As voyages continued, unfamiliar plants and animals poured into Europe — and every place called them something different. The scholarly names were Latin descriptions that could run longer than a line.

Why this question

Shortening the name is not enough on its own. Better if the name also tells you where the creature belongs.

What was found

Linnaeus cut the name to two words: one for the group, one for the species within it. Then he nested those groups inside larger groups, tier upon tier.

Now the name tells you the position as well. The name became a map.

His own criteria did not last. He sorted plants by counting stamens and pistils, a convenience rather than a reflection of real relationship. The naming system stayed all the same.

He placed humans inside the scheme too. But his division into races, each assigned a temperament, was used to underwrite racism for a very long time.