What are the advantages of using scientific names rather than common names?

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What are the advantages of using scientific names rather than common names?
There is only one creature for any scientific name. There are probably dozens of birds called "sparrows" and dozens of fish called "minnows."





Scientific name also helps to describe relationships between creatures. If you have Felis domesticus (housecat) and "Felis leo" (lion), you can instantly look at the scientific names, without ever having seen a picture or description of either, and know that they are related to one another.
Reply:Being specific
Reply:I don't know really. I mean if you are walking down the street with some one who knows everything in the world about spiders, say, and you see one and go 'EEk a spider, that guy will probably say something like, 'Don't worry, it is just an arachnoboguso or something. Beats the hell out of me why they don't just call it a spider.
Reply:Scientific names may be fairly descriptive but in Latin. Scientists around the world are familiar with Latin, the Universal language. A common name in English likely would mean little to a scientist who speaks only German or French (but is familiar with Latin).
Reply:Scientific names are very useful as they allow scientists (and everyone else) to group animals together that possess similar features. The reason we cannot simply rely on common names is that the same name may be different depending on where you live, and will definitely be different with different languages. By using the same binomial name in latin we can ensure that all scientists no matter where they come from will be talking about the same organism.
Reply:just mention one scientific name , all people at any places know what it refer to. common name does not mention the name of species and it might be confusing. the domestic dog for instance belong belongs to which species in US and Russia.?
Reply:Lots of good answers above.





I would just add that Latin is considered a "dead" language. That is, it is not being currently used in any society as the main language. Thus, the meanings of the words, prefixes, suffixes aren't changing. Thus, the scientific names will always have the same meaning and won't be blurred by modern interpretation.





Can you imagine using an US English word like "hot" or "cool" or "chill" to name an animal? It would have different meanings for different people.

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