r/ProperAnimalNames • u/Timely-Tie7472 • Aug 26 '26

Chinese animal names were built for this sub - bag rat is my personal favorite

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753 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

96

u/DraftZebra Aug 26 '26

Stink Weasel comes in a close second behind Bag Rat. lol

15

u/jennytopssky Aug 26 '26

Stink weasel is also the way Portuguese names the animal

5

u/ratpride Aug 26 '26

Finnish too

2

u/US3_ME_ Aug 27 '26

Where might one find spice weasels?_

2

u/1nGirum1musNocte Aug 27 '26

That's also what i call my dog who loves to roll in the worst smelling thing she can find

-3

u/adamdoesmusic Aug 26 '26

What’s a bag rat? A chihuahua?

1

u/Electrical-Act-7170 18d ago

We sometimes call them polecats in the South. They make weird pets.

48

u/Ixelle Aug 26 '26

Turkey is "Fire Chicken", Gecko is "Wall Tiger"

2

u/Mother-Attention2600 Aug 27 '26

I wonder how they break down the animal kingdom? The bags. The cats. The dragons? Interesting.

46

u/clr715 Aug 26 '26

Owl is "cat head eagle".

Some animals are named after the sounds they make, like cat is "mao", crow is basically "black ahhh".

7

u/afterandalasia Aug 27 '26

Cat was also "mau" in ancient Egypt - it's where rhe Egyptian Mau breeds name comes from. A little bit of "same hat" across the world.

57

u/TheHoneyMonster1995 Aug 26 '26

My fave is Penguin, which is Business Goose!

22

u/Franksterge0815 Aug 26 '26

My favorite is penguin 企鹅, aka “business goose”

1

u/Individual_Sir7827 Aug 28 '26

More like standing goose, tbh.

13

u/Heroic-Forger Aug 26 '26

Funnily enough "porpoise" has a similar origin, from "porcus piscis" or pig fish.

Also the walrus? A sea elephant? Elephant seals may want to have a word. 😂

13

u/boundbythecurve Aug 27 '26

Kangaroo is closer to "pocket rat" than "bag rat" fyi. I've also seen "pocket mouse". Not a native speaker, but this was a trivia question I had to research.

2

u/xersylla Aug 27 '26

+1 for pocket mouse

1

u/PGSylphir Aug 29 '26

tbf bags prolly predates pockets by a fair amount. Pockets are a rather recent invention iirc

9

u/vaughnegut Aug 26 '26

I've always enjoyed that turkey is fire chicken (火雞)

4

u/Drakanies Aug 26 '26

Jellyfish seems like it should be "Water Mother-In-Law".

6

u/Painbow_High_And_Bi Aug 27 '26

This brainless floating blob that stings like a bitch sure reminds me of dear ol' mom! " - the guy who named it.

4

u/neondragoneyes Aug 27 '26

I'm a huge fan of "leopard moose camel" for the leopard moose camel. I would have saved "sea pig" for manatees. And I would have chosen "bag rabbit" for kangaroos. But "stink weasel" is chef's kiss (even though they're not mustelids).

3

u/redditmarks_markII Aug 28 '26

What, no "wash bear"?  That one is almost universal.  

2

u/Tar_Palantir Aug 26 '26

In southern Brazil 'mãe d'água' or 'sea mother' is what we call some jellyfish. And is the name of our legend for a river mermaid up north.

2

u/MidnightBlueSilk Aug 27 '26

Seems like that last one should be “Water Motherfucker”

2

u/N7LP400 Aug 28 '26

Vietnamese is about the same, except for the Panda, we call them Bamboo Bear, Lobster: Tiger Shrimp, I don't know what word to describe the Jelly Fish in Vietnamese though, it is written as Sứa

1

u/EnIrregularVerbs Sep 17 '26

There is a more interesting one; whales seem to be elephant fish in Vietnamese. Naming the biggest type of marine mammal after the biggest type of land mammal makes a lot of sense.

1

u/foxy704 Aug 27 '26

Bag rat

1

u/dinosuitgirl Aug 27 '26

Possum is "carry mouse"

1

u/Mother-Attention2600 Aug 27 '26

The bag rat is carry a stink weasel in its bag. Bag rats are part of the bag species. 

1

u/ExcitingAds Aug 28 '26

Water mother.

0

u/e_eastisup 22d ago

I’m a fan of penguin being business goose