Have a question? Ask an IPL Librarian!

(Use our Contact Us form for questions/suggestions about our site.)

Animal Names & Words

Sample Questions That Can Be Answered Using This FAQ

• What do you call a group of crows?
• Is there a name for a baby aardvark?
• Does a female badger have a special name?
• Is there any animal whose name begins with the letter "x"?*

The IPL frequently receives questions about names for groups or gender of animals, and we’ve found some good sites in the course of answering them:

• "R Zu 2 U" (Our Zoo to You; cute, no?) -- this site has a four-page table of names for young animals, male and female animals, and animal group names. The creators of this site also invite you to submit any names that they may have left out.
• Frequently Asked Homework Questions: Animals -- from the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Library: a list of animal names taken from the World Almanac for Kids, which also includes other interesting animal facts.
• Animal Congregations - from the Frequently Asked Questions of the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center; this list is broken down into mammals; birds; reptiles and amphibians; fish; and invertebrates. It also lists the titles of books which explain the derivation of some of these names.

*According to The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 2nd ed., a xerus is an African ground squirrel.