Unsurprisingly, numerous species of animal (including a flightless weevil and a parasitic flatworm) are named after David Attenborough – but were you aware of the existence of a Shakira wasp (aleoides Shakira) and the Taylor Swift millipede (nannaria swiftae)?
It’s not just fauna. Spring on middle-aged-lady Instagram is a riot of people posting pics of their Gertrude Jekyll (a formidable horticulturist) roses and there are hundreds of others named for everyone from Judi Dench to Jimmy Greaves. We name the natural world for people we admire and want to honour, and always have; even asteroids, which makes me wonder if anything out there has named us. (The dismissive alien equivalent of “flightless weevils” perhaps?)
