Bambiraptor Feinbergi

Naming Wrights

Want to name a species after someone without mucking about some jungle? The German group BIOPAT will sell you the rights to name a species of orchid or frog for about $3,500. The funds go to taxonomy and conservation causes and they've raised something over $450,000 so far. For inspiration, try the Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature or the World's Strangest Dinosaur Names. If that's too rich for your blood, $54 gets you a star named after someone from the International Star Registry; but basically, it's just an e-mailed certificate and your name in a "copyrighted" book somewhere in Ingleside, Illinois (paper certificates and charts cost more). For cheap or free you can always suggest a name for a future hurricane by sending your suggestion to the Tropical Cyclone Programme at the World Meteorological Organization.

BIOPAT

Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature

World's Strangest Dinosaur Names

International Star Registry

World Meteorological Organization