Dictionary of Turtle Names
The truth behind pet-shop names, the double life of 'zenigame,' and how to read a scientific name. Follow the names, and the turtles come into focus.
Pet-shop Names & Nicknames
- ミドリガメ→ Pond Slider
- The classic pet-shop name for hatchling red-eared sliders, whose shells are bright green only in childhood. The green fades with age — the name never did.
- ゼニガメ→ Chinese Pond Turtle
- "Coin turtle." In the Edo period it meant Japanese pond turtle hatchlings; in modern pet shops it almost always means baby Reeves's turtles. Same name, different turtle, depending on the century.
- ゾウリガメ→ Chinese Pond Turtle
- "Sandal turtle" — a folk name you will not find in any field guide, likening a flat oblong shell to a zōri sandal. It usually referred to grown Reeves's or Japanese pond turtles. Not an official name, which is why dictionaries stay silent about it.
- イシガメ→ Japanese pond turtle
- Short for Japanese pond turtle (Nihon ishigame) — the 'stone turtle,' named for its stony shell tones.
Japanese Turtle Names
- クサガメ→ Chinese Pond Turtle
- The 'stinky turtle,' named for the musky odor it can release when threatened. Surprisingly, the name was only formalized in a 1934 paper.
- スッポン→ Chinese Softshell Turtle
- The Japanese softshell. One beloved etymology says the name imitates the 'zubon!' splash it makes diving into water.
- ウミガメ→ Green Sea Turtle
- Umi-game simply means 'sea turtle' — but each species' full name hides its own story: the green turtle is named for its fat, the loggerhead (aka-umigame, 'red sea turtle') for its reddish shell.
- ワニガメ→ Alligator Snapping Turtle
- 'Crocodile turtle' in Japanese; English goes further with 'alligator snapping turtle.' Both languages saw the same beast.
- カミツキガメ→ Common Snapping Turtle
- 'Biting turtle' in Japanese. The Latin serpentina ('snake-like') describes its long striking neck instead — two languages, two features.
- リクガメ→ Hermann's Tortoise
- Riku-game means 'land turtle.' The 'Hermann' honors the 18th-century French naturalist Johann Hermann — species names are full of quietly immortalized people.
Turtle Names of the World
- マタマタ→ Matamata
- Thought to come from an Indigenous South American word often glossed as 'skin' — fitting for a turtle draped in flaps and fringes.
- ガラパゴスゾウガメ→ Galápagos Giant Tortoise
- The islands are named after the tortoise, not the other way around: galápago is Spanish for turtle. The Galápagos giant tortoise is, literally, the tortoise of the Turtle Islands.
- アルダブラゾウガメ→ Aldabra Giant Tortoise
- Carries the name of the Aldabra Atoll; the Latin gigantea means exactly what you hope it means.
- オサガメ→ Leatherback Sea Turtle
- The Japanese name likens the shell's ridges to an osa, a weaver's reed. The Latin means 'leathery skin-turtle.' Craft tool or texture — pick your metaphor.
- スッポンモドキ→ Pig-nosed Turtle
- Modoki means 'imitation' — a softshell look-alike in a family of its own. English named it for its snout instead: the pig-nosed turtle.
Reading Scientific Names
- Testudines(カメ目)
- From the Latin testudo (tortoise). Roman legionaries called their shield-roofed formation the testudo — even Rome saw the turtle as the perfect defense.
- Chelonia / chelys
- The Greek khelōnē (turtle) hides inside countless scientific names — Chelonia, Dermochelys, Macrochelys. Spot 'chel' in a Latin name, and there is a turtle nearby.
- mydas / imbricata / elegans
- Species epithets are one-word field notes: mydas ('wet'), imbricata ('shingled', for overlapping scutes), elegans ('elegant'). Learn to read them and every checklist becomes literature.
