Common Names Suck!! Why I hate the term "Cushion Star(fish)"

So, the other day, I'm having a conversation with a science-but non-biology colleague that goes like this:

Colleague: ....we were diving and saw a cushion star! It was great. Do you know more about it?
Me: I dunno. What's the scientific name?
Colleague: I don't know. The locals called it a cushion star and it was swollen.
Me: *sigh*....so let's start from the beginning, where was it from?......

A lot of the public likes using common names and understandably so. Latin names can be intimidating to a public which no longer speaks Latin. But many people get REALLY worked up about common names. I've seen governments develop OFFICIAL common names in their national species lists!! I am NOT a big fan of common names. Why?

Why do scientists use scientific names INSTEAD of common names?

• Scientific names are unique to a single species (dependent on animals vs. plants,etc.)
• Scientific names are FIXED. Once assigned, they will stay with the species until the end of Linnean taxonomy (or human society ends-whichever comes first)

Plus, they preclude the problems that 'common name' issues like this create.

For example, "Cushion Star" is one of the MOST commonly used common names for starfish in the WORLD. A search for "cushion star" using Google Image recovered several THOUSAND images.

Here's a few of them...

Cushion Star 1
Pteraster tesselatus (Family Pterasteridae) from the west coast of North America/Alaska. These also go by "Slime Stars"

(From the British Columbia Marine Lab)

Cushion Star 2

Porania pulvillus (Family Poraniidae) from the North Atlantic (Europe & North America)

(From the Scottish Marine Biodiversity website)

Cushion Star 3
Patiriella regularis (Family Asterinidae) from New Zealand & Tasmania

(from Invasive Species Council's website)

Cushion Star 4

Asterina gibbosa (Family Asterinidae) from North Atlantic (Europe)

Cushion Star 5

Oreaster reticulatus (Family Oreasteridae) from the tropical Atlantic

Cushion Star 6

Culcita novaeguineae (Family Oreasteridae)

Cushion Star 7
Ceramaster granularis (Family Goniasteridae) from the North Atlantic

(from the Marine Fauna of Norway)

I actually found MORE then these 7. ..So go to Google Image and search here!

Good Grife! And don't get me started on the whole starfish-sea star-asteroid controversy! (although one day-I WILL get to it)