Talk:Scilla siberica

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was moved. --BDD (talk) 16:15, 3 April 2013 (UTC) (non-admin closure)[reply]

Siberian squill → Scilla siberica – Common names of plants are variable, and may refer to more than one species or a whole genus. Latin names are specific, usually unambiguous, accepted by the whole scientific community, and generally preferred by Wikipedia. Darorcilmir (talk) 07:40, 27 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Support Where there is a genuine English common name which is unambiguous there is a case for using it as the article title. This is not the case here. The plant is not native to an English-speaking area. The English name is just a translation of the Latin name. "Squill" is not a word used much now (in the UK anyway); members of the genus are usually called "scillas" in my experience, so the nearest to a "common" name would be "Siberian scilla", which is so similar to the Latin name as to be pointless. It's not a commonly grown bulb, so those gardeners who want to know about it are likely to be happy with scientific names. Peter coxhead (talk) 08:45, 27 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support In addition to what Peter said: this page, accessed by way of GRIN, shows that the plant is also commonly known in English (somewhere) as "spring squill". In many, if not most cases the term "common name" is improperly used as being definitive (i.e. "the common name"); any given common name is usually common only locally, not throughout the English-speaking world. By the way, to my ears "squill" is not much heard in the US either, at least not where I'm from in Chicago. Hamamelis (talk) 10:14, 27 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Support Multiple comon names, and the article title fails the WP:UCN element of article title policy; by Google results, the scientific name (97k results) is more commonly used than the "common name" Siberian squill (36k results).Plantdrew (talk) 22:04, 27 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Comment Also note that there is Portuguese squill with similar issues; common names for this plant include Portuguese squill, Corymbose squill, and Peruvian squill, all of which are less commonly used than Scilla peruviana. One common name, "Cuban lily" is slightly more popular than the scientific name. Is it possible to amend the move request to include Portuguese squill->Scilla peruviana (with a note on that talk page directing to this discussion)?Plantdrew (talk) 22:04, 27 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.